Our financial connections to Europe

[Borchester]

Actually, the first banking institutions were the order of warrior monks that became the knights templar, through making arrangemements for the crusaders to have funds at the destination. They of course got to keep any not claimed through death of said crusader, Not a bad deal if you can swing it ...

True.



In 1187 Gerard of Ridefort, the Grand Master of the Templars was so keen to engage Saladin's army that he persuaded the numerically inferior crusaders  to march across a waterless desert in the summer heat to do their bit for God and crappy generalship. Within a century they had become the supreme financiers of the early middle ages and with interest rates that were to quote J K Galbraith, the admiration of the medieval world.



The result of this was that when Philip IV of France began his persecution of the Templars in 1307, it was not so much warrior monks who ended up in his torture chambers but a bunch of poor bloody bank clerks.

[Baron von Lotsov]

But the money as you think are mainly financial investments on the global stage, the transactions are in the UK but can be ever so easily moved, and if the UK don't get a financial services deal it won't be just the Europeans but also the Americans/Chinese etc...



Can you explain how that would be a worry for the EU, I think your making stuff up.

Not quite. In London you have these offices and they themselves are banks, but very small ones. They are owned by private individuals for the purpose of investing the family's wealth. I mean they are like a merchant bank, but smaller, although the size of the capital holdings could be huge.



Doing this in London does not give one the highest returns and it is considered that investing on Wall Street could make more, but the attraction of London is its stability. It's the long-term track record over hundreds of years of not losing the client's money which is the attraction. They don't care too much about rates of return because the time this money is invested at compound interest makes them so much that their only concern is losing the lot. For example if we were invaded and taken over by a foreign power who seized all assets. I think a lot of it is invested in property.

[GerryT]

The story goes that a long time ago .....

And this is why they are non-to-happy about Brexit.

But the money as you think are mainly financial investments on the global stage, the transactions are in the UK but can be ever so easily moved, and if the UK don't get a financial services deal it won't be just the Europeans but also the Americans/Chinese etc...



Can you explain how that would be a worry for the EU, I think your making stuff up.

[johnofgwent]

Actually, the first banking institutions were the order of warrior monks that became the knights templar, through making arrangemements for the crusaders to have funds at the destination. They of course got to keep any not claimed through death of said crusader, Not a bad deal if you can swing it ...

[Baron von Lotsov]

The story goes that a long time ago Europe was a whole load of different areas, like for example Italy was not Italy as such but areas ruled by a local and very rich dynasties, like local kings. We had the same in our country, and as you research others, the picture is pretty consistent.



This wealth was traditionally expressed in the amount of land one owned, and in the past the amount of land was huge. The dynasties had two jobs. The first was collecting the rent and the second was keeping the money secure. You could be taken over and robbed at any time, so successful dynasties were strongly associated with the military. Typically if you read some biographies of the times we speak of, the boys in the family would become educated and move into a career in the military. You see the military and banking go hand in hand. The more wealth you have, the more cannons you need. You have to build the family castle high up in the mountains with sheer vertical sides. Here is an example of what these places look like today. This one is in Italy:



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As time went on the banks were developed and the first banks were in London I believe. I'm sure you could probably find an earlier example, but you see Britain invented the central bank, so in terms of banks we had the first of what you see today. It's all to do with the promise to pay the bearer the sum of one pound upon redemption, and the trust held in that promise. Now of course this makes top financial sense, and the Brits were ahead of the game. Banking went back to the Knights Templar, so even in that time we were well ahead. The Knights Templar were bankers to many European dynasties. we had Lloyds as well which insured against the treacherous perils of the sea, so that facilitated international trade.



The other speciality Blighty practised was of course the military, so considering our military track record, it is believed that at least the bank is not going to turn around and say, well no sorry we can't give you that pound of silver because someone nicked it. It is a perfect symbiosis, and it is much cheaper than keeping your gold in your castle, especially as we now have nukes.



OK so the upshot of all of this is that the EU is ruled by the ruling families in much the same way as it always has been, but their money is with us!



And this is why they are non-to-happy about Brexit.