Introduction: The Origins and Fundamentals of Banking

For a flourishing society, it is necessary to settle and pay transactions with money, created by banks doing their regular business of taking deposits and making loans. Roman banking already went beyond money exchange in the beginning of the first millennium and also Middle East early medieval trade banking could inspire later bankers, whereas rather the Knights Templar, a congregation of monks supporting the Crusades, developed much useful practices. The Templars stretched the view of the Church on taking interest by way of service fee, but went under in a dispute with the French King. Banking went on like this. We view it in terms of a power game between bankers and rulers, during which “banking secrets” by way of individual leading bank innovations helped to further practices.