论佛罗伦萨毛纺织业的发展对银行业的影响——以银行对英借款为中心(1300-1500)

The Development of Wool Industry in Florence and It's Influence on Banking ——Centered on the Loans of Banks to England(1300-1500)

14世纪初期,佛罗伦萨毛纺织工业发展迅速。但由于佛罗伦萨所在的托斯卡纳地区羊毛产量少、质量差,无法满足本国毛纺织工业发展的需要,因而佛罗伦萨逐渐确立从外地、特别是英国进口羊毛来生产高档呢绒的生产模式。佛罗伦萨商人前往英国购买羊毛,意味着他们需要把现金从佛罗伦萨转运到英国,这自然为银行家在英国开展汇票等银行业务提供众多商机。银行家甚至直接投资羊毛贸易以牟利。与此同时,他们在英国的经营活动也遇到许多挑战,如英国国王对羊毛贸易的集中管控,英国商人对外商的敌视与竞争等。为应对这些挑战,佛罗伦萨银行家逐渐发展出一套以贷款换特权的贸易模式。他们向经济拮据的英国国王提供大量借款,以此来换取英国国王的特许状,授权他们在英国从事羊毛贸易。贷款方能确保特权,同时,佛罗伦萨毛纺织业又严重依赖英国羊毛来维持生产的顺利进行,因而佛罗伦萨银行家虽然深知借款给英国国王存在很大风险,但也不得不持续对英借款。

At the beginning of the 14th century, the textile industry in Florence experienced a rapid development. But because the land of Tuscany ,where Florence was situated and not suited to sheep keeping. Both the output of wools and its quality were not high. It cannot satisfy the needs of its wool industry. Therefore,a kind of production pattern in its textile industry was gradually established. Under this production pattern, it depended the wools imported from the outside, especially from England to produce high-quality clothes. The merchants in Florence need to go to England to buy wools, which means they need to tranfer cash from Florence to England. It naturally provided for the Florentine bankers many business opportunies, such as bill-exchange. In order to gain profit, bankers even invested directly in wool trade. In the meantime, their activity in England also faced many challenges, such as the absolute control of English Kings on the wool trade, the hate and competition from native merchants in England against the foreign merchants and so on. In face of these challenges, Florentine bankers gradually developed a kind of trading mode. It relied on the loans to the kings in exchange for trade concessions. Its dependence on the loans to kings to get the privileges of participating in the wool trade and the dependence of its wool industry on the import of wools from England, caused Florentine bankers have to insist on lending to the kings, although they knew the high risks of doing so.