History of banking Quotes

“Wikipedia: History of banking”

“The History of Banking (1850) by William John Lawson”

“History of Banking and Banks: From the Bank of Venice to the Year 1883 (1884)”

“After this event, no trace of the existence of the Jews in England can be found till long after the Reformation... [T]his oppressed people paid nearly one third of the whole revenue of the kingdom.”

“Previous to, and immediately after the Norman Conquest, there was very little money in use in England: all obligations were discharged by personal service and by payments such as cattle, horses, dogs, hawks, &c. &c.”

“In... An Universal History from the Earliest Account of Time (London: T. Osborn, in Gray's Inn, I747, vol. xii., p. 48), it is recorded that in ancient Rome, B.C. 340, the republic appointed public bankers and placed the treasury of the nation at their disposal for the adjustment of debtors accounts.”

“[T]he Bank of England is to the Agriculture, Commerce, and Finance of Great Britain a Sun; and the Circulation of so many Millions of its paper is the basis on which its convenience, property, and safety, have hitherto rested.”

“[M]oneylenders among the ancients were distinguished by a similar name, derived too from a similar circumstance; viz. from the tables on which they were wont to expose their bullion, and which, like their successors... they took care to set forth in the most public places, even in the porches and the aisles of their sacred temples.”

“In the simple state of money-dealing which prevailed in Italy during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the treasure to be lent out at interest was commonly displayed on a table or board, called Banco, and hence the origin of the term [for] those immense establishments which circulate the wealth and promote the trade of modern Europe.”

“For these later loans, in 1173, the public revenues were mortgaged for the payment of the interest at four per cent, and a board of commissioners was instituted... called "the Chamber of Loans,"... to arrange for and pay the interest to the fund holders... and to supervise the transferring of the stock.”

“Hence also the term bankrupt... for when the dealer in money in former times failed to meet the claims made upon him by his professional brethren, his table or board was publicly broken in pieces, and himself declared unworthy of credit. The stigma of bancorotto henceforth adhered to him, and he was accordingly driven out from the society of the still solvent usurers.”

“Many documents dealing with property and credit have come down to us from the Sumerian period. ...Many of the financial customs of the early Sumerian period were codified and perpetuated in the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi...”

“As early as the fifth and sixth centuries of the Christian era the term bank is found in Italian history... But anterior to that by at least eight centuries, the term banker is used in connection with those functions of banking which relate to the adjustment of accounts between debtor and creditor, by public process and with the treasury of a nation as the source of financial supply.”

“The private bankers of England of whom we have the earliest cognizance, were in a very different position from their successors of the present day. The first were Jews, aliens in blood and religion; contemned, hated, feared, and despised. In the land of their adoption they were very soon made the victims of more barbarous cruelties and oppressions than were ever inflicted upon any people whatever.”

“Loans to states were... exceptional until the third or second century B.C. ...The famous loans to the city of Athens during the fifth century B.C. were a religious fiction: the money was the war reserve of the people of Athens. Interest on these loans was nominal and was rarely paid. but an effort was made to return the principal to the Temple, that is to say, to restore the war reserve.”

“The credit of most Greek states was in fact very poor. ...Often Greek states wishing to borrow had to offer the guarantee of individual citizens in good standing, who were called "foreloaners" or "underwriters." In 377-373 B.C., thirteen states borrowed from the Temple of Delos, and only two proved completely faithful; in all, four fifths of the money was never repaid. Thereafter the temple preferred loans to individuals, secured by land.”

“Down to the period of Henry the First, the rents, taxes, and fines due to the King, were paid in provisions and necessaries for his household. Afterwards, in succeeding reigns, the revenues of the Crown were chiefly paid in gold and silver, but sometimes made up with horses, dogs, and birds for game: on some occasions an entire payment was made in horses and dogs singly, of which there are numerous instances to be met with in the ancient rolls of the Exchequer.”

“In ancient Sumer in the earliest times barley was the medium of exchange for most transactions. ...grain continued throughout these centuries to be the standard of payment and repayment. However, even before 3000 B.C., ingots of copper and silver were also exchanged. There were two standards of value: grain and silver. Silver was used mainly in the town economies... while grain was used in the country. There was no coined money until the first millenium B.C.; payments in metal were by weight.”

“The origin of public banking as the term is at present understood is unknown.
The dates generally admitted for the founding of the leading European banks are as follows: Bank of Venice, 1157, 1171, 1173; of Florence, 1260; of Barcelona, 1349; of St. George, Genoa, 1407; of Amsterdam, 1609; of Hamburg, 1619; of England, 1694; of France, 1800. ...[T]he Italians being credited with elaborating and completing the self-checking system of double-entry now in common use.”

“The holder of an Exchequer bill does in fact hold a mortgage on all the property, both movable and immovable, in the United Kingdom; a mortgage binding in law, but more binding still in the unbroken faith of the inhabitants of the United Kingdom. Exchequer bills are a species of Government paper money... simply orders upon the Exchequer, entitling the bearer to the sum specified therein, together with interest at a fixed rate per cent, per day, until a period is named for their payment, that period being at the option of the Government, but seldom exceeding twelve months...”