I have just returned from a trip to Florence where, like thousands of other visitors every year, I gazed on the artistic and architectural marvels created in the late Middle Ages. While I was away the news was full of the continued collapse of Greece, the financial impropriety of the German President and the pay deals awarded at RBS.
I think we can all agree that bankers are not popular at the moment. Seen as causing and then profiting from the current global economic crisis they are not held up as paragons of virtue. Films like 2010's Inside Job have documented the revolving doors between government, banking and academia which made a few men multimillionaires while decimating hundreds of lives. Compared to Florence's fabled Medici family though, our modern bankers look like choir boys.
Over the course of a couple of centuries the Medici went from wealthy merchants to become the most influential bankers in Europe. They schemed, bullied and bribed their way into the heart of power. They did this not only in their home town of Florence but with the papacy and trading cities across the continent. As one contemporary is reported to have said of Cosimo de Medici, a banker with no official government title, "Political questions are settled in [Cosimo's] house. The man he chooses holds office...He it is who decides peace and war". That an unelected financier could become the head of an important nation state is of course something which the people of Italy and Greece have recently become familiar.
While at times claiming to be the guardians of democratic values the Medici rigged elections and used their financial muscle to become the self proclaimed Dukes of Florence. Along the way they not only cooked their own books to avoid paying their taxes, but embezzled huge sums from their city's treasury for their own aggrandisement.
Whilst we pour scorn on modern bankers for their excessive profits and self serving political influence the Medici are now celebrated for their activities. The reason for this is largely down to how they spent their money. When they were not using it to rig elections and bribe officials they used it to fund artists, philosophers and architects who we now consider to be the leading lights of the Renaissance. The historian Edward Gibbon summed up Cosimo de Medici by saying that "his riches were used for the benefit of mankind".
Cosimo de Medici's motives for funding artists such as Donatello, architects like Brunelleschi and scholars like Marsilio Finco are disputed. Some claim he did it to absolve the sin of usury which was still officially a capital offence at the time. Some think he did it to demonstrate his wealth and power whilst others believe it was done through genuine artistic and intellectual passion. Whatever the reason his funding gave the world the first free standing bronze statue for hundreds of years, the largest dome to have been built for 1300 years and the first Latin translation of the works of Plato. In short Cosimo de Medici funded the beginnings of the renaissance movement. This was a tradition continued by his sons and grandsons who would go on to become the patrons of artists such as Leonardo de Vinci, Michelangelo and Bottocelli. Their use of the Medici Bank's riches, however they were gained, have indeed benefitted mankind.
Of course like all bankers their empire eventually collapsed through a combination of neglect, financial imprudence and the rising powers of their many enemies. Yet six hundred years since the height of the Medici power, their badge is still quite literally stamped all over Florence. Churches, houses, art galleries, museums and squares all bear their family shield.
In recent years we have seen the collapse, or near collapse, of financial houses like RBS, Lehman Brothers, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs. We don't look kindly on their misdemeanours or excuse their crimes. Like the Medici these bankers made fortunes and exerted their influence over politicians and our everyday lives.
Undoubtedly the collapse of the Medici dynasty was not mourned by many of their contemporaries it is historical perspective, much of it gained from the people they sponsored, that has elevated them. What I wondered as I stared at yet another Medici sponsored masterpiece was will historians be celebrating Fred Goodwin's intellect and vision six hundred years in the future? Only time will tell but I think we can make an educated guess.