Page:The history of medieval Europe.djvu/405

 THE ITALIAN CITIES 355 We have seen that the taking of interest on loans was forbidden to Christians by medieval canon law, and in - many places the practice was prohibited by civil law Rise of as well. As a result money-lending and even Italian most banking was for a time in the hands of the Jews, who, besides lending money, gave letters of credit and bills of exchange. As the Italians, however, came to have a large supply of capital as a result of their commercial and industrial prosperity, they began to found banking houses, and to exchange foreign money or transmit sums from one part of Europe to another. The varieties of coinages were almost infinite in the Middle Ages when so many feudal lords and independent towns had the right to mint money, and it was easy for a money-changer to make a little profit on each transaction. The transportation of money was often difhcult and dangerous, so that bankers were justified in charging a fee for rendering this service. The Papacy, which drew its revenues from all parts of western and cen- tral Europe, was the leading employer of the Italian bank- ers in collecting and transmitting sums of money. Before long the Italians began to advance large sums to kings and states as well as smaller sums to lesser individuals and to receive interest until the money advanced was repaid. They evaded the law against usury by making the loan free from j interest for a brief specified period, during which they knew ' that the borrower could not or would not repay. When that ! time expired, they charged damages if the entire principal i were not forthcoming and after another interval did the same again. North of the Alps almost any Italians engaged in banking were indiscriminately called "Lombards," and i London. But the largest banking firms were rather in Tuscany and especially at Florence, perhaps because of their nearness to Rome and employment by the Papacy.
 * Lombard Street was the center of the financial district of