Gerle János: Palaces of Money - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1994)
a high level of organisation by the time of the Roman Empire. Rome had become the centre of international credit business, and its bankers, due to the essential role they played in the economic policies of the state, had acquired profitable positions of power, as was the case with the revenue collectors of the various provinces. The Middle Ages gave birth to an independent and public institution of dealing with money. The scene remained Italy. The first bank opened in 1157 in Venice, while Frankfurt, for example, only followed suit 250 years later, by which time members of the Florentine money-changing guild had occupied important positions in every significant market of Europe. The following is what the architect Vilmos Magyar has to say about this age. (Magyar’s 1935 biography of Ignác Alpár is an important source on international and Hungarian banking, often and profitably consulted by the present author.) The privilege of coining money was exercised by municipalities, landlords, churches and princes. Therefore, there were many types of currency in circulation, which made the presence of moneychangers essential at fairs and parish feasts. These money-changers would do business at their desks or banks (a word which once meant “bench”) set up in the market-place. Public safety was less than sufficient, which is why merchants would carry assignments and bills of exchange rather than cash. Credit operations were also transacted by money-changers, who cared little about appearances. On the contrary, prevailing conditions made them withdraw into small and dark closets to appear poor men. They would carefully hide their fortunes, acting as if they practised the banking business, which was then associated with individual persons rather than fortunes, on the side. It was during mediaeval times that an attempt-the last of its kind to date, despite its timeless significance-was made at conducting international financial transactions with the exclusion of any private interest and on the basis of Christian principles. Through its enormous wealth the order of the Knights Templars (whose members made a pledge of poverty!) controlled virtually the entire economy of Western Europe in the 13th and 14th centuries. The experiment, motivated by the principle of brotherhood, proved to be feasible-the activities of the order were largely responsible for the construction 8
