In 1343 the Peruzzi went bust, amid a series of rapid changes of chairmen, allegations of political corruption leveled against board members, and repeated defaults on debts by the English.41 Then, in 1346 the Bardi were also forced to declare themselves bankrupt. Although they were not totally ruined—and were indeed still loaning large sums of money to the English crown thirty years later in the 1370s—they were nevertheless badly shaken and very nearly put out of business altogether.
