What purpose did a bank serve in medieval and renaissance periods?

what purpose did a bank serve in medieval and renaissance periods?

why not just put your gold in a safe box or chest?

Credit.

bank already has a shitload of guards
maybe you cant afford to hire guards

interest makes your cash grow, while giving it to bank to lend out was better for the economy than letting it stagnate in a box
it was likely safer in a bank, as well

and banks dont just hold, they also lend, that is what gives people capital to start up
if you want a bank to lend, first you gotta give them money for them to hold

the knights templar also ran a bank, where they would issue bank notes, so you could deposit silver with your local templar, take your bank note to the next town, and withdraw silver there, no need to carry all your coin with you

Have you tried taking a chest of gold two hundred miles?

Paper money.

A bank can issue you with a letter of credit that is more secure and lighter and will be accepted by anyone who knows the bank is good for it, whereas hauling a shitload of gold around is just asking for bandits to knock your carriage over and steal everything

you could use the same argument in modern day
if your an anticapitalist you probably already do

International money transfer and currency exchange by means of letters of credit.

Currency exchange probably was the largest part of their business.

What purpose did a bank serve in the 21st century?

Why not just put your money in a safe?

What purpose did a bank serve in the 31st century?

Why not just put your credits in an alternate dimension locker?

What purpose did a bank serve in the stone age?

Why not just put your grave goods in a hole?

What purpose did a bank serve in the 17th century?

Why not just bury your dubloons on a beach?

First, banks were a renassaince thing, or at least later medieval period. Second, people didn't really use them, even what we'd call the middle class: you had the moneylenders. Banks were heavily specialized shit for the richest merchants and ships owners, and didn't have that much power either (sorry GRRM, but you do realize the Fuggers were fucke off with Charles V, right?). Actually the money-lending services were a interesting things to our eyes, cause even city-states had to deal with them 'cause people needed them... and you know who mostly had them? Yep, the Jews. But I digress.

To the point: basically this . In a sense, banks were more akin to... I dunno, an ATM today than what we use them for now (savings and interests), but for HEAVY sums of money. Even a noble didn't have that much need for it, considering his wealth was in agricoltural goods and anyway he was more secure when he traveled. Interests were low, and the price of gold fluctuated wildly.

A thing that is also to consider is that great actors (states, for example) dind't really have something like a national treasury like we do now. Or at least it wasn't that settled, economical balance was mor hapzard. So, you need an army of mercenaries? Go to the banks. And yes, at that time it was more efficient, before national states could have something akin to a standing army.

>First, banks were a renassaince thing, or at least later medieval period
Knights Templar say g'day

>plebs think banks are for storing wealth

>what purpose did a bank serve in medieval and renaissance periods?
Giving the state a place to borrow cash... then if the bank gets too cunty the words 'hostile takeover' and 'pogrom' come to mind

>why not just put your gold in a safe box or chest?
Locks are expensive things

To further elaborate on what you mean by the ATM thing banks would just have their own paper currency (I think Hong Kong actually still works like that, but I'm not aware of anywhere else)

>(sorry GRRM, but you do realize the Fuggers were fucke off with Charles V, right?)
the Iron Bank of Braavos has so much hold over it's lendees specifically because they're too distant for anyone in Westeros to exert effective temporal power over. You either play their game, or they drag your name through the mud until no one in Essos will ever take you seriously

>What purpose did a bank serve in the 21st century?

Being pillars of the system of transfering taxpayer's money into the hands of the moneyed without any service being rendered.

Eh, that's later middle ages. Also they just did letters of credit. They did invest, but didn't lend you money for YOUR shit. At least I think so.

The Jews and Moors held all the gold in medieval times because of the Christian ideas about wealth, greed, and sin. Having money was literally a bad thing in their eyes, either being sinful or having a temptation to sin. That's why they let Jews and Muslims run their banks; they were damned anyway, so might as well let them do it.

>Eh, that's later middle ages
High Middle Ages, actually.

Depends on the places. In Renassiance Venice the fucking aristocracy had most of the money or at least were actually le happy merchants, but the moneylenders were the jews (because muh usury).

Which put in motion an interesting dynamic, 'cause while they were reviled by most people (probably way less than anywhere in the christian world, but still) the people NEEDED them as fuck. And the Republic had to deal with them as some kind of basic service.
Things were really problematic when the guys in the palace had a new war to wage... Could be interesting in a fantasy setting to have something like that.

After the 1000 it's all new and shiny pal

One of the big thing was securing money for travellers. Pilgrims to the Holy Land during the crusades made some people really rich. Basically, pilgrim would deposit money at the bank and get a note, travel without a risk of being robbed of it, then exchange the note for money at the arrival.

It was also useful if you got too in debt and were a king, because there's a million and one excuses you could use to expel the jews and conveniently cancel your debts.

Which also happened to the Templars (who provided banking services to the crusaders, because fuck carrying gold all across Europe) when the king of France got in debt/greedy

Yeah, but at the same time you needed them (in some places, at least). An interesting dynamic.

I guess we might even have a new use for kobolds, gentlmen, if I may dare to suggest it.

Actually, the Church got in on banking after the Medici had so much success with it.
They didn't CALL it banking or giving loans or charging interest anything of the sort because obviously that went against church doctrine, but they did it, often calling it "gifts" in various fashions.
Apparently their train of logic was that if you did the exact same thing but changed the name then God doesn't notice.

>wanting to move across countries carrying chests of gold with you all the time

nigga not everyone's Hercules

>manlets can't even carry their own hordes of gold from city to city
How do commoners even survive?

say, perhaps, that you are a noble crusader, going on a quest to the holy land to rid it of the vile occupation of the Mahamodeans. But you are, again, a noble.
You could carry hundreds of pounds of gold with you to pay for the food, silks, spices and slaves you might incidentally want along the way. But that's a lot of work.
Or you can deposit your gold with the respectable Knights Templar, they will issue you notice and you can withdraw any amount of gold then from their depositories throughout the route, from Italy to Tyre. Then you need only carry your good name and the gold you want on hand at any time, and you'll still have all the fine food and wine, expensive clothing and fuck-slaves you might want while you nobly free the righteous from the oppressive heel of those oppressive and decadent Mosselmen.