Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online

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Bank
(1,394 words)

1. Early modern period

The term bank goes back to Middle Latin bancus, which is the term for a money-changer’s table (bancherii). Key features of bank activity are the granting of credit (with the help of property and investment capital), payment on behalf of creditors, and exchange. It was only in the course of the late Middle Ages that various categories of banking formed in Italy: international merchant-bankers, local exchangers and bankers as well as pawnlenders (Middle class). Out of these th…

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North, Michael, “Bank”, in: Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online, Editors of the English edition: Graeme Dunphy, Andrew Gow. Original German Edition: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. Im Auftrag des Kulturwissenschaftlichen Instituts (Essen) und in Verbindung mit den Fachherausgebern herausgegeben von Friedrich Jaeger. Copyright © J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung und Carl Ernst Poeschel Verlag GmbH 2005–2012. Consulted online on 19 March 2024 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2352-0272_emho_COM_017311>
First published online: 2015
First print edition: 20160321



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