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> The earliest bankers were the goldsmiths Not according to Charles Kindleberger’s A Financial History of Western Europe. His explanation for this persistent m
by barry-cotter 7y ago
> The earliest bankers were the goldsmiths
Not according to Charles Kindleberger’s A Financial History of Western Europe. His explanation for this persistent myth is that some British banks could trace some of their antecedents to goldsmiths and it made decent advertising copy. Thus it gets into books about banking written by non-historians and perpetuates itself.
A more common origin for banks was money changers, international traders in commodities and traders in bills of exchange.
- klenwell 7y agoMaybe Kindleberger needs to read more Spenser. :) More likely, Spenser himself accepted the common myth. Or perhaps his Mammon was loosely inspired by whoever headed the royal mint at the time. I'll have to pick up that book someday. Thanks.