2 ms·
The history of payments and banking is amazing. It’s always been a hard problem to solve, and the bankers who solved it always got paid handsomely for enabling
by FredPret 3y ago
The history of payments and banking is amazing.
It’s always been a hard problem to solve, and the bankers who solved it always got paid handsomely for enabling commerce.
In the old days everyone bartered. Then came shells. Then precious metals. The gold had to be literally shipped around. Everyone from the Roman to the British empire had to physically ship chests of gold to it’s soldiers. Cross border commerce was absolutely fraught with risk. Piracy and shipwrecks galore.
Then the Rothschilds opened the first international bank, dramatically cutting the difficulty and expense of international trade.
We got cheques, paper money, and the credit card control room you worked in.
At every step, it got faster, cheaper, safer, more ephemeral. Trade increased dramatically. It’s amazing! The much-maligned banking sector is really a triumph of capitalism.
- bcrosby95 3y agoIn the old days, even with the existence of precious metals and coin-based currency, a more community driven "help your neighbor" system thrived, moreso than a tit-for-tat system of exchange prevalent today or even theorized in the barter system. > The much-maligned banking sector is really a triumph of capitalism. Yes, the triumph of "what's in it for me".
- FredPret 3y agoYou should indeed ask yourself that very question: what's in it for me? Do you want to send little bits of gold and silver all around the world, or would you prefer modern banking? The choice is yours, pick the one that's best for you!
- fragmede 3y agoAnother innovation is JPM coin, which is technically a cryptocurrency, and they're using that to power their internal international money movement systems.