Medicis part2

So the company is thriving, and making super profits. The local market is sown up and the opposition disposed of. The only way to expand is to go national, then international. In the time of the Renaissance, in the fourteen hundreds, economic and political power was good, but just as important was religious power. So it was just as important for aspiring entrepreneurs to have someone inside the religion power structure. 

In renaissance times it was the Catholic religion. So it was good to have someone in Rome, better someone in the Papal palace. If that someone was the Pope it was the ultimate, for in those days, the Pope virtually ruled the world.

The Medicis had many Cardinals. One of them being Giovanni, shown below

The Medicis had TWO Popes. One of them, Leo X shown below was a real party boy. 

He was so busy spending the Vatican's money that he had to work out a way of getting some money back. So as any good innovative business man would do, he introduced a low quality high turn over line that would appeal to the mass market. Leo introduced the product of mass produced Papal dispensation. For a small fee (probably a large one) Leo would write you a document that would forgive you all your sins. No need for all that effort of prayer, confession, all that stuff. With one of Leo's products, you would get an instant, to quote Led Zeppelin, "Stairway To Heaven"

While all this was going on, marriages were arranged that would be advantageous to the family's fortunes. As that other pop singer used to sing "What's Love Got To Do With It? One of them was Princess Anna from Austria. The last photo is of Catherine Medici, who married a French prince. Catherine later became queen. 

Photos Anna and Catherine. 

So that's it. All the markets have been conquered. The power plays had played off, all that was left to do now, was to keep the company going to keep the cash rolling in. The last part of the story will tell you how the Medicis have done just that, for hundreds of years.