At their greatest extent, they had branches in Rome, Bordeaux, Paris, Flanders, London, York and Dublin.
Prior to 1272, the English kings had occasional dealings with Italian merchants, mainly in purchasing luxury goods for the household and arranging for balance transfers to Rome.
[2] The outbreak of war between England and France in 1294 led to a credit crunch in international money markets.
Forward contract prices were calculated manually using techniques similar to those used in modern-day quantitative finance.
[4] When the relationship between the English Crown and Riccardi broke, England was unable to raise finance in international money markets and had to impose heavy levels of domestic taxation.