apparently, Giuliano was rather skilled as an ambassador, although
@Nuraghe may no more
I believe that Giuliano's survival cannot do much to avoid the drastic decline of the family bank, it is true that the Medici bank became the most important bank in Europe in the 15th century, but this was due to only two factors, the first is that the Medici entered a power vacuum, caused by the tremendous conflict between the Banche dei Bardi, the Alberti, the Acciaioli and the Peruzzi families ( which in that period were much larger in size and importance, but which due to the competition between the families , ended up falling into ruin ) so Cosimo was able to insert himself into this power vacuum and quickly occupy the places left vacant ( although it must be said that the small size of the Medici Bank was one of the causes of its decline, given that except for Cosimo the old, none of the family had shown the ambition to expand the business of the 10 existing branches (1), and they did not even dare to try to challenge the monopoly of the Hanseatic League in the Baltic Sea ( which Venice wanted to try to do by supporting the Medici bank ) , just as they never created a branch in the Middle East ( even if Cosimo had obtained the promise from the Serenissima that if he wanted to try, he had the unofficial consent of the Venetian government ) but the real coup de grace to the bank's fortunes was a series of crises at the same time in the 1470s, which forced Lorenzo to personally take charge of the company's budget gaps, the last branch to survive the death of Lorenzo the Magnificent was the Roman one, which failed when the new Pope Leo X used the 12 thousand ducats that were paid as a quick means to pay for his princely lifestyle (since the Vatican was short of liquid at the moment )
@Kellan Sullivan did you by any chance call me ?, eh 😇😜
1) the branches were the following : Rome ( the richest one, which alone brought in 65 % of the bank's revenue ) Venice, Bruges, London ( which failed due to Edward IV's inability to pay off his debts, same fate which also almost suffered Bruges ( failed due to the debts of Charles the Bold which amounted to the sum of 16,150 groat, as London was liquidated in 1478 with staggering losses, losses are said to be around 70,000 gold florins ) , where Edward himself had requested enormous loans, in 1478, the branch was liquidated with a total loss of 51,533 gold florins ), Pisa, Avignon , Milan ( where the Sforzas accumulated a debt of over 179 thousand ducats ) and Lyon ( which had replaced Geneva, and which went bankrupt due to a series of incompetent and fraudulent administrators ) with Basel failing quite quickly
