00:00 The Medici Bank was the wealthiest financial institution in Europe, with branches all over Europe and a constant flow of wealth that allowed them to guide the politics of Florence and fund art and architecture.

05:14 Between 1400 and 1460, the Medici Bank grew to become the most powerful financial institution in Europe, with branches all over Europe and a constant flow of wealth that allowed them to guide the politics of Florence and fund art and architecture.

10:15 By 1400, banking was well established across the Christian West, with different classes of bankers emerging, including pawnbrokers, money changers, and merchant bankers, who navigated the ban on explicit interest for loans through speculative transactions and investments in merchant ventures.

15:03 Florence was the epicenter of the financial trade by 1400, with large-scale business firms known as "super companies" that combined trade, production, and banking and had extensive networks across Europe, setting the stage for the rise of the Medici Bank.

20:06 Giovanni di Bici de Medici founded the forerunner of the famous Medici bank by taking over the Rome branch of his cousin's bank and running it as a separate partnership.

25:12 The Medici Bank began in 1397 when Giovanni DeBici moved his headquarters from Rome to Florence and partnered with Benedetto di Lipaccio di Bardi, expanding to Venice and other locations over time.

29:55 The Medici Bank made a ton of money through various means, including profits from internal financial records, investments in luxury trade goods, and taking deposits and paying out interest to depositors.

34:51 The Medici Bank was involved in state finance, providing luxury goods to the court, making loans to the Sforza dukes, and dealing in commercial paper through the use of Bills of Exchange.

39:38 The success of the Medici Bank relied on information and strong management, with accurate bookkeeping and extensive use of bills of exchange, allowing them to handle vast amounts of business and maintain profitability.

44:49 The success of the Medici Bank relied on information and strong management, with accurate bookkeeping and extensive use of bills of exchange, allowing them to handle vast amounts of business and maintain profitability, and Cosimo's ability to judge character and choose competent and hardworking branch and general managers was crucial to the bank's efficiency, but after Cosimo's death, signs of trouble began to emerge, such as the London branch struggling and loans to Edward IV not being paid back promptly.

49:29 The Medici Bank faced numerous challenges including short-term thinking, poor quality managers, mismanagement, and a failed assassination attempt on Lorenzo the Magnificent, leading to the bank's decline and eventual demise.

54:25 The Medici bank declined and eventually disappeared, but the Medici family continued to hold power and influence in various ways, including ruling Florence, becoming Popes, and being patrons of important figures such as Galileo.