Decline and Failure
The bank declined after the death of Bonsignori in 1273, and went bankrupt in 1298. The formality of bankruptcy may not have occurred until several years after 1298. The coup de grâce for the Gran Tavola was the crunch caused by the confiscation of Sienese assets by Philip IV of France (as a result of debts he claimed to have been owed by the Bonsignori) and the loss of papal business under Pope Boniface VIII (a trend under way since the early 1290s).
The failure of the Gran Tavola was followed by a period of acute and sustained economic ruin in Siena, systemically spreading to several other Sienese banks. By 1320, Siena's international position had contracted almost entirely, following the additional failure of the Tolomei bank in 1313 and the decline of the Champagne fairs, whose commercial activities were "umbilically linked" to Siena; for example, Sienese institutions were not present in the Avignon Exchange created during the Avignon Papacy.
Pope Nicholas IV lost 80,000 florins as a result of the collapse of the Gran Tavola but the loss was mitigated by the overall weakening of Siena, at the time known for its anti-papal, though nominally Ghibelline, allegiances. Many years later, this loss served as one of the pretexts for the papal interdict of Siena. Furthermore, the failure of the Gran Tavola lead to the rapid rise of Florentine banking institutions. Under the leadership of Pope Boniface VIII, the papal finances were transferred to Florentine banking institutions as well.
Read more about this topic: Gran Tavola
Famous quotes containing the words decline and, decline and/or failure:
“We have our little theory on all human and divine things. Poetry, the workings of genius itself, which, in all times, with one or another meaning, has been called Inspiration, and held to be mysterious and inscrutable, is no longer without its scientific exposition. The building of the lofty rhyme is like any other masonry or bricklaying: we have theories of its rise, height, decline and fall—which latter, it would seem, is now near, among all people.”
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881)
“Our achievements speak for themselves. What we have to keep track of are our failures, discouragements, and doubts. We tend to forget the past difficulties, the many false starts, and the painful groping. We see our past achievements as the end result of a clean forward thrust, and our present difficulties as signs of decline and decay.”
—Eric Hoffer (1902–1983)
“Any effort in philosophy to make the obscure obvious is likely to be unappealing, for the penalty of failure is confusion while the reward of success is banality. An answer, once found, is dull; and the only remaining interest lies in a further effort to render equally dull what is still obscure enough to be intriguing.”
—Nelson Goodman (b. 1906)