"The expulsion of the Jews created great inconvenience, as there were none either to lend money or manage foreign business. ...[T]he family of Causini... bankers in the principal cities of Italy [were] invited to England... In... time other settled in London, in the street known by their name, and famous... as the very centre and focus of monetary transactions extending... to all parts of the globe. The occupations of the Lombards, like those of the Jews, were those of the goldsmith, the pawnbroker, and the merchant; and finally that of the banker. They, too, amassed immense wealth, and had at one time in their hands an enormous amount of church revenues. [The Lombards] also accommodated the kings of England with loans of money... Each succeeding year wore away the distinctions between the Lombard goldsmith and the native Englishman; and centuries have passed since the acute Italians of the middle ages were absorbed..."