ABSTRACT
Robert had also, like Edward of England, though for other reasons, forborne to pay his debts, and was under obligation to the extent of 100,000 florins to each of the societies of the Bardi and Peruzzi. The foregoing considerations may serve to establish the opinion that the failure of the Italian financiers is not solely to be attributed to the perfidy of Edward of England. Most of the societies of Italian merchants that had been prominent under his father and grandfather had disappeared from the field of operations at the beginning of the reign of Edward the Third. Evidence of the Crown's heavy indebtedness to the Bardi is afforded quite early in Edward's reign before the debts could have been of his own contracting. The Calendars of Patent and Close Rolls contain very little of importance relative to the dealings of the merchants of the Society of the Peruzzi of Florence with Edward III prior to the year 1336.
