A wool-trading family invented the modern bank branch network

Founded in Florence in 1397 by Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici, the Medici Bank ran semi-independent branches across Europe and used bills of exchange to move money across borders without shipping gold. Banking profits, not wool, funded the Medici family's rise to rule Florence and produce four popes.

— Raymond de Roover, The Rise and Decline of the Medici Bank, 1397-1494 — Harvard University Press, 1963
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