[696] 29 Hen. III. c. 6.
[697] The chief cities were in Lombardy, as Milan, Piacenza, Siena, Lucca. Stow states that Lombard Street in London had acquired its name, as the chief residence of these foreign merchants, so early as A.D. 1318.—Survey, p. 376.
[698] Matthew Paris, pp. 419-823, &c. It appears further that, in A.D. 1329, the whole of the customs of England were farmed to the great commercial house of the Bardi at Florence, at a rate of twenty pounds per diem (Rot. Pat. 4 Edw. III.); while the frequent notice of the importation of horses into England from Lombardy (as well as Spain), shows that there was a brisk trade between the two countries.—Rymer, Fœd. V. iii. p. 124, &c.
[699] Napier’s “Florentine History,” vol. iii. p. 53.
[700] See full details of these exultations in Napier, vol. iii.
[701] A similar practice has been noticed in the case of Venice.
[702] The “Fiorino largo di Galea,” or “Broad Galley-piece,” was struck of the exact size and weight of the Venetian ducat, A.D. 1422. See Napier, “Flor. Hist.” iii. p. 56, and further details of the “Metallic Currency of Florence,” vol. iv. p. 9. It may be added that the gold coin—at first so unpopular in England—struck by Edward III. in A.D. 1344, is generally believed to have been made to facilitate trade with Florence.—Cf. Rymer, Fœd. V. v. p. 403, &c.
[703] Roscoe’s “Life of Lorenzo,” vol. ii. p. 60.
[704] Fœd. V. xii. p. 389.
[705] Napier’s “Florentine History,” vol. iv. p. 16.