Francesco di Marco Datini

Francesco di Marco Datini was an Italian international merchant and banker whose preserved business papers constitute one of the most important archives of the economic history of the Middle Ages.

Born in a modest family of an innkeeper, Francesco became an orphan in 1348 after his entire family died during the Black Death epidemic. Already an apprentice trader, after family tragedy, Francesco decided to move to Avignon in France where the seat of exiled popes during the so-called Avignon Papacy (1305- 1378) was situated. There he would remain for more than three decades. The papal court was a great claimant of luxury goods which brought huge profits. Investing his inheritance, Francesco started to trade in various commodities, including armor, religious items, and especially cloth, eventually earning a fortune.

By 1360’s he was an owner of a shop in Avignon, supplier of armor for mercenary armies, as well as money changer and provider of maritime insurance. In 1376, when he was 40 years old, he married 16-year old Margherita Bandini, a Florentine noblewoman, but they didn’t have any children. However, it is known that Francesco had at least two illegitimate children.

In 1378, after more than 30 years spent in Avignon, Datini made a decision to return to Italy and opened a cloth manufacturing and importing business in Prato. In 1386 he transferred the headquarters to Florence. Besides in Avignon, he had offices in Italy and Spain, in Brugge (Bruges) and London. In Florence he became a member of the cloth and silk merchants’ guild, as well as of guild of bankers and moneychangers that gave the framework to his business affairs. By diversification of his business interests, he wanted to avoid risks that accompanied trading in that time.

Except business genius, his advanced methods of conducting business were largely responsible for his success. From preserved documents it is obvious that he formed frequent partnerships, and maintained a network of agents and partners with whom he conducted correspondence on a weekly basis. He also relied on letters of exchange and letters of credit, and a complex double-entry bookkeeping system.

When the Black Death struck Florence again at the end of the 14th century, Datini fled to Bologna, then returned to Prato, where he spent the rest of his life. As he had no legitimate or male heirs, he left the bulk of his fortune to a charitable foundation established in his name that exists to this day.