Skip to Content
The Big Four
book

The Big Four

by Ian D. Gow, Stuart Kells
August 2018
Intermediate to advanced
272 pages
6h 32m
English
Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Content preview from The Big Four

2

GLORY, NOT INFAMY

The Medici Bank as a precursor to the Big Four

The merchant state

Piero de Medici – known as ‘Piero the Gouty’ (‘Piero il Gottoso’) – was born in 1416. In 1464 his father died and Piero inherited, at the age of forty-eight, a famous institution that was exceptionally profitable and well-run. Piero’s father – the illustrious Cosimo de Medici – and his grandfather – Giovanni de Medici – had built the family business into Europe’s most important private enterprise: the greatest bank in the world.

The Medici Bank was based in Florence, the capital of Tuscany. In the late middle ages, Florence was a substantial and prosperous city and the centre of global finance. A large gold coin, the florin, was first issued and named there; ...

Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.

Read now

Unlock full access

More than 5,000 organizations count on O’Reilly

AirBnbBlueOriginElectronic ArtsHomeDepotNasdaqRakutenTata Consultancy Services

QuotationMarkO’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.
Julian F.
Head of Cybersecurity
QuotationMarkI wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.
Addison B.
Field Engineer
QuotationMarkI’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.
Amir M.
Data Platform Tech Lead
QuotationMarkI'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.
Mark W.
Embedded Software Engineer

You might also like

Better Business, 5/e

Better Business, 5/e

Michael R. Solomon, Mary Anne Poatsy, Kendall Martin
Think for Yourself

Think for Yourself

Vikram Mansharamani

Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9781523098033