Is it true that the person who established the first bank was a Jew and he was entitled to a percent of the money from every bank?

dj168

Well the first modern bank was the Bank of Saint George(Genoa). And its was run by a number of Genoan families. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_Saint_George_%28Genoa%29 Mar 25 08, 12:37 AM

Baloo55th

No one person or organisation is entitled to a percentage from every bank. You couldn't do it even if you started buying shares - some banks are still private non-share issuing concerns http://www.bbh.com/ which is an example of an unlimited partnership, and there are others like the Bank of England which is nationalised. Jewish involvement in banking had various causes. In many states of Europe, Jews were barred from many professions and thus had fewer outlets for their talents. Christians were (in theory at least) barred from lending money at interest, and who is going to lend money outside family and close friends without some recompense? Jews did not suffer this religious-based bar where non-Jews were concerned and could lend to Christians. Banking history goes back before the time of Hammurabi (before 1700 BCE Babylon) as part of his legal code dealt with such matters. Merchants didn't want to send quantities of gold to pay for goods, so a trust system built up whereby a merchant could send a note to his supplier which would be passed to a person who had gold to pay for the goods. This worked where trade was not just one way, so that the notes could travel in both (or multiple) directions while most of the gold stayed put in one land. The person with the gold took a percentage for his profit. We do it with electronic transfer now, but the principle's just the same. Look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_banking for a very good account of the development of banking. Mar 25 08, 7:33 AM