Not so much the first bank, but the first PayPal.
The Knights Templar started London's first bank (2017)
41–50 of 124 posts
Re: The Knights Templar started London's first bank (2017)
#42So I read the text until "Checks and balances" and found a mistake in the text which makes me believe now this was written by AI and maybe audited by a human.
Re: The Knights Templar started London's first bank (2017)
#43I'm pretty sure they got this 'original' idea from the practice of their Muslim contemporaries. This is a very similar concept to the origin of cheque where it's too dangerous to carry gold and cash along the silk road from Middle East countries to China and beyond.
> This is a very similar concept to the origin of cheque where it's too dangerous to carry gold and cash along the silk road from Middle East countries to China and beyond.
Spot on.
It's actually mentioned in the article:
"The Templars were not the first organisation in the world to provide such a service. Several centuries earlier, Tang dynasty China used "feiquan" - flying money - a two-part document allowing merchants to deposit profits in a regional office, and reclaim their cash back in the capital."
Re: The Knights Templar started London's first bank (2017)
#44Not so much the first bank, but the first PayPal.
The term "bank" comes from literal banks that served as a bank to sit on and a box to keep money in. PayPal is just a glorified cheque processor.
Re: The Knights Templar started London's first bank (2017)
#45> We don't actually know how the Templars made this system work and protected themselves against fraud. Was there a secret code verifying the document and the traveller's identity?
Really? We don't know? If that's true, that surprises me.
Re: The Knights Templar started London's first bank (2017)
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
> what was the real story? Some of the grittier truth may be about political expediency of taming "knights". Monty Python caricatures aside, until (and beyond) the Templars, many were marauding bands of privateers looting their way around Europe. Sending them off to do God's work while letting them play at "banking" the spoils was probably a neat solution to not having a standing army, but still keeping a cadre of lo…
The Templars were not set up to send off bandits and do God's work. They started as protection for pilgrimage, set up an system to move funds from Europe into the Holy Land to support their work (which included hiring quite a few mercenaries), which turned into banking, and were half-coerced into some of the Crusades (notably not the first), because they were indeed the experienced, hardened and loyal soldiers that w…
Fun fact, everytime to see a stone sculpture of a knight on a tomb with his feet crossed, it means he was involved in pillaging and whatnot in the holly lands. So yes, they deffinietly were pillaging thieves. Just look up hoe the Doge of Venice got them to divert to nowaday Istanbul and pillaged it to repay their debt to Venice.
Re: The Knights Templar started London's first bank (2017)
#47> We don't actually know how the Templars made this system work and protected themselves against fraud. Was there a secret code verifying the document and the traveller's identity? Really? We don't know? If that's true, that surprises me.
It does sound odd. Having some understanding how it worked would validate the theory. Else it only sounds like a theory, albeit with perhaps a couple limited documented instances.
Re: The Knights Templar started London's first bank (2017)
#48I'm pretty sure they got this 'original' idea from the practice of their Muslim contemporaries. This is a very similar concept to the origin of cheque where it's too dangerous to carry gold and cash along the silk road from Middle East countries to China and beyond.
Would you know if the Templars charged interest? On the other hand, I believe I've read somewhere The Koran forbids charging interest. But perhaps I am mistaken?
Re: The Knights Templar started London's first bank (2017)
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
> what was the real story? Some of the grittier truth may be about political expediency of taming "knights". Monty Python caricatures aside, until (and beyond) the Templars, many were marauding bands of privateers looting their way around Europe. Sending them off to do God's work while letting them play at "banking" the spoils was probably a neat solution to not having a standing army, but still keeping a cadre of lo…
The Templars were not set up to send off bandits and do God's work. They started as protection for pilgrimage, set up an system to move funds from Europe into the Holy Land to support their work (which included hiring quite a few mercenaries), which turned into banking, and were half-coerced into some of the Crusades (notably not the first), because they were indeed the experienced, hardened and loyal soldiers that w…
> regular Crusaders weren't roaming thieves either
They certainly plundered and murdered. But I guess it could be questioned if they “roamed”?
Re: The Knights Templar started London's first bank (2017)
#50No post body was provided.