Source for background

I want to tell you a story... A story about the biggest love in human history.

Through the centuries millions of people dedicated their lives to this love and she is a part of mankind from the rise of first civilizations. Bigger then religion and more powerful then all standing armies, humans are living and dying to own it, adore it and love it. The biggest love there is - The love of Money

Every weekend I will bring you some (Interesting) story about the history of money, financial systems, capital and debts through the human history. There is so much to be told about money, that magic thing ruling our lives.

Who created money, when and why?

How the banking system works and is it fair or corrupt?

Could we live without money or in some different financial system?

Our road will lead us from "false" barter legend to the creation of Bitcoin, just maybe not in that order...

At the end of this cycle, I hope that we can find some answers, have some fun along the way and learn some interesting facts about money and things around it.

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History of Money (Part I)

Knights Templar & Invention of banking system

Legends of the Knights Templar:

There are many legends being told about the Order of the Knights Templar and their place in history, so it would be a pity not mentioning them even if they don't have a direct connection with money. Some of them are proven facts while others are just an interesting stories that we cannot verify with certainty after more than 800 years. The most interesting ones are:

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• Templars, also known as Knights of the temple of Solomon came into the possession of some of the biggest Christian relics, The Ark of the Covenant, Holy Grail, and Shroud of Turin while fighting in Holly land during crusades. These artifacts gave them big power and insights in esoteric knowledge, making them the most powerful religious military order of their times.

• Maybe you didn't hear for paraskavedekatriaphobia, but that is just a fancy name for a fear from Friday 13 - The unlucky day. This day is often connected with October 13th, 1307 (Friday) when a big number of Templars was arrested, together with their leader, Grand Master Jacques de Molay, which was later executed.

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• There is a connection of Knights Templars with some secret societies from our times. They are most often compared with Masons through their rituals and symbolism. Also, the word Templar comes from the word for a Temple (Solomon Temple), and the Masons are also gathering in their Masonic Temple which in a lot of details imitate Templars architecture.

• One of the legends tells us that after the order was prohibited and Templars were persecuted through the whole Europe a certain number of leading Knights withdrew in the Alps mountains and established the country of Switzerland. There are numerous similarities between Templar Order and modern Switzerland. Templar flag is very similar to flags of some Switzerland cantons. Also, Templars were inventors of the modern banking system while the foundation of Switzerland's economy in these days is also banking sector. One more similarity that we could add is the old tradition of Swiss Guard serving and protecting the Pope of Rome from 1506, while Templars also gave their allegiance only to Pope.

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The rise and fall of Templars:

The order of Templar Knights (fratres militiae templi) was founded 1118 by French Knight Hugo de Payens as religious military order just after the end of the first crusade. The main purpose of this newly established order was the protection of Holly Land and Christian pilgrims from Muslim invaders. Templars have soon proven themselves as really successful and their Order was rapidly growing in manpower, wealth and fame. At its peak, during the 13th century, the order was counting from 15000 to 20000 members of which around 10% were Knights. On the battlefield, they were one of bravest warriors during crusades, famous for never retreating but rather leaving their lives in the combat. Other than being successful in battles the order was also becoming extremely wealthy and came into possession of many lands, castles, churches, and other properties, mostly from Christian pilgrim travelers and new members joining the order and leaving all their wealth to it. Their power was spreading from the Northern Europe through the whole Mediterian Sea and all the way to the Holy Land on the East.

Templars Banking System:

Templars just connected their powerful army and treasuries full of wealth with a big number of their castles on the pilgrim's route from Europe to Holy Land and this is how the modern banking system was born.

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Imagine that you are one of the 12th Century pilgrims from the Western Europe wanting to visit Sepulchre of Christ in the Holly land. This journey would be a really big adventure at that time and even if you collected enough money and courage for this several months long trip there would still be many dangers waiting for you along the way. Bandits or Muslim armies could attack you and take all of your wealth. It was just too dangerous to take all your money with you on such a long and dangerous journey, and that is why Templars invented their banking system. Let's say you are starting your pilgrims journey from London. You could visit Templars Church in London, which is also Londons first bank, and in there deposit all money and wealth for your journey. You would then receive a letter of credit, probably written in some form of encrypted message. With it, you could take parts of your money from every Templars castle along the way. This would make your adventure much safer and Templars would, of course, take some percent of your money as a payment for their service.

With all this wealth collected in their treasuries, the Knights Templars started landing the money to royal families and also kings and queens all over the Europe. There is always need for a money, especially when you have to finance the war, and in the Europe of that time, someone was always attacking someone else. For the Templars, the banking business was flourishing and they were becoming heavily rich and powerful. Same as the banks nowadays, money is creating more money, that is creating even more, money, that is creating... You know how that goes.

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But...

While becoming so rich and powerful Templars gain a big number of powerful enemies. Most of them where European Kings which owned huge amounts of money to Templars. The major one was King Phillip IV of France that started a plot to forbid and destroy the Order, first in the France and then in the rest of the Europe. This was not an easy task because of all the power Templars had at that time, so Phillip decided to be sneaky and accuse Templars of a number of crimes against Church and Christ so he could convince Pope to stop supporting Templars. After arresting a big number of Knights in France on October 13th, 1307 the Philip tortured them until some of them admitted heresy. That convinced Pope Clement V to issue an edict and officially abolish the Order of Templars. That was the beginning of the end for both, Templar Knights and their banking system.