Everyone has seen at least once in their lives a movie showing nineteenth-century America, where there is a small dusty town, in the center of which stands a frail wooden building with the word Bank written on it. Judging by the narrative, each of these faded five-street towns regularly attracted the attention of robbers, and the banks were emptied daily. Thanks to this stereotype, many people think that banking and https://telegram-store.com/catalog/product-category/channels/economics originated in the United States, but that is far from the case.
The history of banking began long before the events described. As early as the seventh century B.C. the prosperous Babylon had its first lender bankers, lending at interest. At the same time the first bank notes having the same value as gold appeared.
There were also usurers in ancient Egypt. Armies and wars ate up huge amounts of money, which were always in short supply. The pharaohs turned to moneylenders for help, and they issued a kind of credit.
The word “bank” has Italian roots and comes from banco, which means “table. Originally banks mainly carried out change of large money on small, exchange of coins and other operations with cash, but with development of economies of different countries initial offices have greatly expanded the list of services provided.
In ancient times, developed nations already had banking systems. For example, the Chaldeans (Semitic tribes) created partnerships of merchants, granting loans at interest and carrying out money transfers. In China, even before our era, some semblance of checkbooks was introduced; in the East, impregnable temples served as depositories, and priests acted as bankers.
With the development of commodity-money relations and credit-financial system, the need arose to regulate and develop this kind of cooperation, i.e. it was a prerequisite for the emergence of banking. Traders from different countries could turn to banks of that time to exchange currency of their country for local, to ask for a loan or to deposit money.