Few European banking crises can beat the overall severity of the current one. To find one significantly worse, you need to go right back to the 14th century. In those days, the banking world was dominated by a few Florentine families, who financed trade and agricultural booms, as well as a series of wars.

Defaults by the King of Naples and England's Edward III, plus a slump in land prices, led to the collapse of their banks. The situation was made worse by the devastating Black Death, brought to Europe through the trade they financed. But as soon as the plague abated, the Medici family changed its focus to the savings and loans business - a far more lucrative trade when the going is good.