Considering the title, the intelligent reader may wonder the reason why florence is defined the "cradle of capitalism".

The articloe is set into 10 paragraphs: in the first one there's a description of the journalist who wrote this article, and the reason why he made it-

The second and the third paragraph have the function to tell the reader why Florence became one of medieval and Renaissance Europe's great industriual cities.

Then there is another paragraph about mr Goldthwaite and his experience with Florence.

The following paragraphs deal with the reason why banking develops in Florence and describes the process that changed merchants into bankers and so capitalists.

After that the journalist describes bankers role and in particular bankers of Florence, concentrating the attention on their actions, behaviours and their job in Florence.

In the ninth paragraph he comunicates to the reader that the banking industry had a decline.

In the very last paragraph there is the conclusion, indeed Goldthwaite tells the reader that the banking made Florence "envied and admired throughout Renaissance Europe".

The article ended with a happy quotation by mr Goldthwaite. 

In my opinion this is a very attractive and interesting article, indeed it is very complete and detailled in each field of description it deals with.

The well read reader can understand that Florence, became a banking city, because its economy was strong enough to survive to " its leading bankers bankruptcy and Black Death", and so the merchants started to become owners of many richness and they changed into businessman and sequently in capitalists.

After all that, the journalist informs the reader that these businessmen acquired a great ability in their affairs and greed grew up.

As already said, banking made Florence admired in the whole Europe, also after its decline.

In my opinion, the ideal reader of this article may be an economist or anyway somebody who is interested in economy, because this article is about the economy of Florence. It could also be a Florentine, who can be curious to know Florence history.