Before Yi Hyang’s involvement, the one who played the greatest role in the fall of the Medici family was Edward IV.
No, to be more precise, it was Edward IV who severed the fragile lifeline of the Medici family, which was struggling to breathe in its final days.
Lorenzo de Medici was somewhat capable in diplomacy and politics, but utterly incompetent when it came to running the family’s core business—the bank.
Because of this, the sixteen branches that his great-grandfather had left behind collapsed one after another, leading to the downfall of the Medici family.
Among these bank failures, the incident connected to Edward IV was the collapse of the London branch in 1472.
The biggest source of income for Italian city-states like Florence was the wool textile industry.
To produce the renowned Italian wool fabrics, high-quality wool was needed, and the largest supplier of this wool was England.
Since the time of Edward III, England had put in great effort to nurture its wool textile industry.
They scouted wool craftsmen from Italy and the Benelux region and settled them in England.
They also restricted the import of woolen goods, blocking cheap products and prioritizing expensive ones, while limiting the quantities allowed.