I'm trying to learn more about banking and money-lending during the Middle Ages. The majority of the information seems to be about the great banking families of Renaissance Italy. My question is why and when exactly did the Italian bankers disappear? I can see some were bankrupted by royal families defaulting on their loans, but surely this can't be the cause for all of them?
The Portuguese and English finding how to sail around Africa helped break the Italian monopolies on trade with the orient, for one, which meant that the amount of dosh flowing into Venice and such was diminished.