XI. Extracts from the Liberate Rolls, relative to Loans supplied by Italian Merchants to the Kings of England, in the 13th and 14th Centuries; with an introductory Memoir: by Edward A. Bond, Esq. Communicated by Charles George Young, Esq. York Herald, F.S.A.

The object of the accompanying Paper is to draw attention to a series of financial transactions which, although intimately connected with our early history, and essential to its faithful development, have hitherto found no place in its pages. Political economy was the science most remote from the speculations of our chroniclers; nor had they, commonly, such an acquaintance with the affairs of the Exchequer as qualified them to transmit to us a correct exposition of the wealth and resources of the country. We are not surprised therefore to find their statements with regard to the revenue inaccurate and meagre; but we are at a loss to account for their silence respecting the Italian money-lenders who, as it will appear, were the main supporters of the King in periods of financial embarrassment, and who, everywhere dispersed throughout the kingdom, must have very beneficially influenced the commercial and even the political condition of the country, by an example of superior enterprise and intelligence, by their connexions with foreign governments, and by the immense capital which they introduced and circulated. This deficiency is supplied by the Public Records; and consequently the evidence which they yield becomes of interest and value. We find in them a vein of history, as it were, hitherto unexplored; and all that I have now attempted, is to present a sample of its produce.