Loan contracts date as far back as the 3rd millennium BC and the oldest we know of today come from the same part of the world that gave us the first systems of writing. Examining these records reveals that lending was common even in ancient civilizations, and more surprisingly still, that even in a mostly…
How do you verify a debt or payment in a mostly illiterate society? What records can you rely on? Trade and credit in the medieval world required some way of tracking amounts due and paid without the aid of written records. In medieval England, wood sticks were used to represent debts and by a simple…
Bank failures were commonplace in 19th century America but it would be wrong to presume no concerted effort was made to cure this epidemic. State governments grappled with the challenge of creating an environment conducive to bank formation and yet protected customers and others from the effects of a bank’s collapse. New York’s solution was…
Around 1970, a Switzerland-based asset management firm, Investors Overseas Services, had grown into one of the largest in the world in the span of just a few years, this despite a small initial target market of American soldiers deployed in Europe. Of course, the company had grown far beyond this limited market in the years…
