Records: the English Credit Rating returns

## **Riding Low in the Water**

After news of the Papal Bulls reached English shores, the Palatine Regency accepted it without comment. Edward III certainly had his own misgivings with the papacy and his Crown Prince son was no fan simply given the curia's cozy relationship with House Valois and the Crown of France.

This led to the timely discovery of "additional recovered funds" – *enough to repay England's foreign war debts.*This was no less than loans taken out by Edward III from families in the Republic of Florence. It was no coincidence that Florence was currently at war with the papacy. The default and bankruptcy wasn’t entirely Edward’s fault, but the narrative was anything but simple: it was the default that people remembered. This would correct that.

London had a chance to see it: from the counting in the Wardrobe, to the guards on the docks, to the loading on an English ship that wound up riding very low in the water. Edward III was paying back 900,000 gold florins to the Bardi family, and another 600,000 florins borrowed from the Peruzzi family. While the families had essentially collapsed into bankruptcy in 1345, that England could pay them back now sent shockwaves through England itself and all of Europe.

### **The Measure of a Coin**

The Florentine florin was a coin struck from 1252 to 1533 with no significant change in its design or metal content standard during that time. It had 72 grains of nominally pure or 'fine' gold (3.5 grams, 0.1125 troy ounce) worth approximately 140 modern US dollars. The "fiorino d'oro" of the Republic of Florence was the first European gold coin struck in sufficient quantities to play a significant commercial role since the seventh century. As many Florentine banks were international supercompanies with branches across Europe, the florin quickly became the dominant trade coin of Western Europe for large-scale transactions, replacing silver bars in multiples of the mark (a weight unit equal to eight troy ounces).

With the difference in weight, it was three gold florins to two gold nobles. At roughly 66% raw coin count to match the loan (that was 100% of the measure of the grains of gold), the English Crown instead repaid the debt with interest. That send 675,000 nobles back to the Bardis (equivalent of 981,000 florins) and 450,000 nobles back to the Peruzzis (equivalent to 654,000 florins). This was like a volcano of gold erupting in Florence...

## **Timing is Everything**

Significantly, northern Italy was embroiled in the War of the Eight Saints (since 1375), between Pope Gregory XI and a coalition of Italian city-states led by Florence. When this windfall landed in Florence, it turned the tide against the Pope, whose champion at the time was Cardinal Robert of Geneva, now fighting ex-papal *condottiere*, Englishman John Hawkwood.

The pope saw this as a direct rebuke of his campaign against English Lollardy – and to a degree, so did Florence and their allied states (who now embraced Lollardy and anti-Catholic sentiment even more than Milan had).

The Crown of Edward III paid off several other minor debts as well, and otherwise now classed the English Crown as a AAA+ credit rating and itself now a potential lender.

It didn't a crystal ball to figure out where the gold came from, only that *gold was gold*, and *alchemy was paying off*. That became a strategic consideration for England – and everybody that had to finance a war or four...

### **Timeline Divergence**

When the gold hit Florence, it changed things. Some parts naturally took different turns, with the descendents of Bardi and Peruzzi families at first hostile toward the English – then suddenly enamored with them. There were a dozen other dynamics that Florentine politics was dealing with, from papal conflict to the complexities with Milan.

There was one thing in particular that *wouldn't*come to pass: the Ciompi Revolt. What would've started with minimal violence, then quickly degenerated, it was attempt at reforming the system. This local rebellion was the force of voice from unrepresented labourers.

Those who revolted consisted of artisans, labourers, and craftsmen who did not belong to any guilds and were therefore unable to participate in the Florentine government. These labourers were growing increasingly resentful over the established patrician oligarchy. In addition, they were expected to pay heavy taxes which they could not afford, forcing some to abandon their homes. The resulting insurrection over such tensions led to the creation of a government composed of wool workers and other disenfranchised workers which would've lasted from 1378 to 1382.

With the infusion of English cash – and SNS-capable Sergeants-at-Arms that were assigned to ease reforms into place – the nature of Florentine politics and leadership took an egalitarian step...