Ridolfo de’ Bardi

Successful merchant and banker, Bardi raised his family company to the position of the leading trading house in the 14th century. The Compagnia dei Bardi became one of three major Florentine banking companies that assembled large amounts of capital and established wide-ranging, diversified business networks.

Ridolfo was born into one of the largest Florentine families as one of the fourteen children of Bartolo di Iacopo Bardi, a prominent merchant and politician. From 1322 he became the head of the family business and expanded business interests in other activities besides banking. They were active in trade of oil and wine, but their main commercial product was the high-quality woolen cloth.The Bardi family had thirteen different branches located in Barcelona, Seville and Majorca, in Paris, Avignon, Nice and Marseilles, in London, Bruges, Constantinople, Rhodes, Cyprus and Jerusalem. Some of the most powerful European rulers were their clients.

The outbreak of the Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453) between England and France was fatal both for the Bardi, and the Peruzzi families. Edward III of England who needed the money for conduct of war had taken large loans giving royal and church revenues as a pledge.

Royal revenues, such as customs duties, were assigned to the Bardi which had the right to collect these funds, and along with the Peruzzi they were granted a monopoly in selling royal wool. However, as often happened, king was unable to repay his loans. Royal accounts in 1345 acknowledged that the king owed more than £50,000, but he made restitution of less than 1 percent. The Bardi and Peruzzi went bankrupt, causing economic chaos in Florence and Europe. It was the end of the medieval super-companies.

Although the Bardi survived as merchants, and invested in the discovery voyages to the America, the days of banking dominance were behind them.