Replies

[snip] Temple Church is not just an important architectural, historical and religious site. It is also London’s first bank... A pilgrim could leave his cash at Temple Church in London, and withdraw it in Jerusalem. Instead of carrying money, he would carry a letter of credit. The Knights Templar were the Western Union of the crusades. 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? [/snip]

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-38499883

That is what I referred to as Templar letters of credit, which is an important banking function but not a complete manifestation of what banks could and would do. The much greater accomplishment of Jakob Fuggar in finance was to contrive awidely available system of reliable and trustworthy merchant banking that provided credit, moneychanging, and much more throughout Europe’s major commercial centers. This led to an expansion of trade, transportation, and innovation that helped spur Europe’s age of discovery and expansion and rise to global power.

***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?***

Cell phones -- at least after Friday the 13, October, 1307. ;^D

This posting is a good example of why the world has always improved under capitalism. The mindless Marxists of today say that capitalism is a failure; it is Marxism that always fails.

I sometimes post a reminder of Nabta Playa, a wet region around 8,000 BC of the now Sahara Desert of southern Egypt. There is evidence that there was extensive livestock herding in the region and that some trading was done with Mesopotamia --- a perfect example of early capitalism.

Another example of early capitalism is the ancient Silk Route. The risks of these long distance trading enterprises indicate that civilization has grown and thrived on capitalism, even high risk capitalism.

IMO Marxism continues to intrude upon civilization - despite constant failures - due to Darwin's evolution claims. We moderns are conditioned to believe that society is evolving on to a higher plain - and Marxist egalitarianism is the logical outcome {but never achieved}. However, even under Soviet Marxism capitalism intruded, usually illegally or 'black market' style, sometimes with the elite ruling class wetting their beaks on the profits.

What's the mystery? The Moslem Hawala system was already in place in the Holy Land by the 8th, adopted from the Indians via Silk Road trade...

From wiki:

"In the most basic variant of the hawala system, money is transferred via a network of hawala brokers, or hawaladars. It is the transfer of money without actually moving it. In fact, a successful definition of the hawala system that is used is "money transfer without money movement". According to author Sam Vaknin, while there are large hawaladar operators with networks of middlemen in cities across many countries, most hawaladars are small businesses who work at hawala as a sideline or moonlighting operation.[3]

G Hawala example transaction; see text for an explanation

The figure shows how hawala works: (1) a customer (A, left-hand side) approaches a hawala broker (X) in one city and gives a sum of money (red arrow) that is to be transferred to a recipient (B, right-hand side) in another, usually foreign, city. Along with the money, he usually specifies something like a password that will lead to the money being paid out (blue arrows). (2b) The hawa calls another hawala broker M in the recipient's city, and informs M about the agreed password, or gives other disposition of the funds. Then, the intended recipient (B), who also has been informed by A about the password (2a), now approaches M and tells him the agreed password (3a). If the password is correct, then M releases the transferred sum to B (3b), usually minus a small commission. X now basically owes M the money that M had paid out to B; thus M has to trust X's promise to settle the debt at a later date.

The unique feature of the system is that no promissory instruments are exchanged between the hawala brokers; the transaction takes place entirely on the honour system. As the system does not depend on the legal enforceability of claims, it can operate even in the absence of a legal and juridical environment. Trust and extensive use of connections are the components that distinguish it from other remittance systems. Hawaladar networks are often based on membership in the same family, village, clan, or ethnic group, and cheating is punished by effective ex-communication and "loss of honour"—leading to severe economic hardship.[3]

We at FreeRepublic, after September 11, 2001, learned that this Islamic global system is still in place and a constant problem in tracking terrorist fundmovement.Given the documented interaction of the Knights Templat and their immense wealth it's reasonable that they used the proven, workable, and secure system already in place. A Christian religious order with a secure network just as their Islamic adversaries