Documents held in this subseries are loosely associated by theme. Many of the accounts, bonds, receipts, correspondence, and other documents of the reigns of Henry III, Edward I, Edward II, and some of those of the reign of Richard II, arise from the financial relations between the Crown and various Italian bankers, including the Riccardi, the Frescobaldi, the Bardi, and the Perucchi. They include accounts and correspondence, in Italian, of the bankers themselves, and details of the arrangements made under Edward III to repay loans by means of the wool tax, for which other related documents are in E 156 and E 101 under the heading Wool.
Also held here, covering dates from the late thirteenth century to the early sixteenth century, are documents concerning the seizure of goods of foreign merchants, including the taking and restitution of goods seized as prizes on the open seas, and the seizure of goods, for whatever cause, and often as reprisal for actions taken by the merchants compatriots overseas, on the mainland.
The nature of the records means that the documents are not only in Latin and English but also in a number of European languages, including French, Italian, Spanish and Dutch.