The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1902-02-01
HISTORICAL
DEPARTMENT.
10000 -0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-oI
EDWARDS HOPELESS DEBT.
There is Not Enough Money in the
World Now to Paw It.

There is owing to the Peruzzi family
of Italy just debt which there Is not
money enough in all the world to pay.
1t is claim for so, 100000, with inter-
est since 1910 in which year the money
was borrowed from their ancestor, than
a banker in Florence. The deJU is
owed by the British government, and
if the Peruzzis had their legal rights
they would be able to attach the Whole
British empire and sell it out at auc-
ton sale. Every British man-of-war
afioat, every ounce of gold in the king ;
crown and every coat on his back is
legally mortgaged TO the PeruZZis. The
Peruzzis compound the interest on the
original loan annually and forward "A
dunning letter to the reigning British
sovereign every ten years, calling his
or her attention to their little bill and
intimating that an early settlement
would be appreciated. The debt now
runs up into twenty-siX figures. The
bill has been sent in regularly for the
last five centuries, but so far no Eng
fish monarch has happened to have the
amount of money demanded about him
and has told the collector to call next
week, or words to that effect. The
PeruZzis hold the king responsible, as
he is in law, and so Edward VII truly
can be said to be the most heavily in
debt of any man in the world.
In the middle ages Florence was the
great banking center of the world, and
one of the PeruzZis was a great banker
there. King Edward III protested a
great friendship for the head of the
Peruzzi family, for Edward was hard
UP and had an affection for anyone
who could lend him money and would.
He had strained the resources of his
country in the with Scots
and when he went to war with France
he had to borrow the funds for his
campaign. The FIorentine bankers
lent him money literally, and he fought
Crecy and Poictiers, gaining much
glory, but little cash. After the war
the banker Peruzzi ventured to re-
mind the king that he had borrowed
So. 000,0 600 of him-an enormous sum in
those days and a pretty comfortable
one now. The king begged that the
banker would not mention the subject
again But the banker did, and pressed
for payment. II was worth while being
a king in those days, and when the
banker got importunate, Edward simp-
ly issued a proclamation saying that
he had little ready money, and so, for
the good of the kingdom and his own
convenience, he had decided to post
pone the payment of his debts indef-
nitely.
This proclamation was regarded as
very Statesmanlike document in Eng
land, and other crowned heads gave
the English king much praise for his
wisdom and grasp of public affairs.
The king of Sicily was SO charmed
with the financial ability Of his royal
brother of England that he copied after
him and reoudiated debt of a mill
lion or so which he owed to Florentine
bankers. Florence was almost ruined
and, to make matters
worse, the city was ravaged by the
plague the next year. The Peruzzi
family occupied a respectable position
in Italy, and never have despaired of
getting something out of the king of
England eventually though so far
they have never received a cent. 1t Is
hardly necessary to say that, while
making a claim for the full amount
due them, they would be willing to
for a smaller sum, or take
a payment ION account. New York
Press.