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1881- President James Garfield, Staunch Proponent of “Honest Money” Backed by Gold and Silver, was Assassinated

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1881- President James Garfield, Staunch Proponent of “Honest Money” Backed by Gold and Silver, was Assassinated

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Garfield opposed fiat currency (money that was not backed by any physical object) and was a strong advocate of a bi-metal monetary system. He had the second shortest Presidency in history.

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1862-1863 Lincoln Over Rules Debt-Based Money and Issues Greenbacks to Fund the War

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1862-1863 Lincoln Over Rules Debt-Based Money and Issues Greenbacks to Fund the War

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Bankers would only lend the government money under certain conditions and at high interest rates, so Lincoln issued his own currency – “greenbacks” – through the US Treasury, and made them legal tender. His soldiers went on to win the war, followed by great economic expansion.

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343 of the 850 banks in the US closed entirely as largest banks consolidated wealth and power.[2]

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1833-1837 – Manufactured “boom” created by central bankers – money supply Increases 84%, Spurred by the 2nd Bank of the US

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1833-1837 – Manufactured “boom” created by central bankers – money supply Increases 84%, Spurred by the 2nd Bank of the US

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The total money supply rose from $150 million to $267 million.[1]

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1833 – President Jackson Issues Executive Order to Stop Depositing Government Funds Into Bank of US

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1833 – President Jackson Issues Executive Order to Stop Depositing Government Funds Into Bank of US

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By September 1833, government funds were being deposited into state chartered banks.

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1832 – Andrew Jackson Campaigns Against the 2nd Bank of the US and Vetoes Bank Charter Renewal

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1832 – Andrew Jackson Campaigns Against the 2nd Bank of the US and Vetoes Bank Charter Renewal

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Andrew Jackson was  skeptical of the central banking system and believed it gave too few men too much power and caused inflation. He was also a proponent of gold and silver and an outspoken opponent of the 2nd National Bank. The Charter expired in 1836.

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1791 – Congress Creates the First US Bank – A Private Company, Partly Owned by Foreigners – to Handle the Financial Needs of the New Central Government

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1791 – Congress Creates the First US Bank – A Private Company, Partly Owned by Foreigners – to Handle the Financial Needs of the New Central Government

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Previously, the 13 states had their own banks, currencies and financial institutions.

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Debt free, fiat currency was printed in the public interest. As Benjamin Franklin said,

“In the colonies we issue our own money. It is called colonial scrip. We issue it in proper proportion to the demands of trade and industry to make the products pass easily from the producers to the consumers. In this manner, creating for ourselves our own paper money, we control its purchasing power and we have no interest to pay no one.”

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1744- Mayer Amschel Rothschild, Founder of the Rothschild Banking Empire, is Born in Frankfurt, Germany

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1744- Mayer Amschel Rothschild, Founder of the Rothschild Banking Empire, is Born in Frankfurt, Germany

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Mayer Amschel Rothschild extended his banking empire across Europe by carefully placing his five sons in key positions. They set up banks in Frankfurt, Vienna, London, Naples, and Paris.  By the mid 1800’s they dominated the banking industry, lending to governments around the world and people such as the Vanderbilts, Carnegies, and Cecil Rhodes.

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First Central Bank established in the UK. Served as model for most modern central banks.

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Marco Polo describes the way in which bank notes are produced in the 13th century for the Chinese emperor in what is now Beijing:

'They are made with as much authority and formality as if they were of pure gold or silver, for many officials who are deputed for this write their names on every note, placing there each one his mark, and and when it is all done as it ought to be, the head of them deputed by the lord stains the seal entrusted to him with cinnabar and impresses it upon the note so that the pattern of the seal dipped in the cinnabar remains printed there, and then that money is authorized. And if anyone were to counterfeit it he would be punished with the last penalty to the third generation. And different marks are printed on them according to their future value. And this money is made in the city of Beijing by those who are deputed for this by the king, and not by others. And each year he has so great quantity and supply of them made in the city of Beijing that he would pay with it for all the treasure of the world, though it costs him nothing.'

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The Danish loan is the first of many such transactions on behalf of governments which rapidly establish the Rothschild family as Europe's most powerful bankers, rising to a pre-eminence comparable to that of the Medici and the Fuggerin earlier centuries.

The family is soon represented in all the important centres of the continent. Mayer Amschel has five sons. He keeps the eldest, Anselm Mayer, at his side to inherit the Frankfurt bank. The four younger sons establish branches elsewhere: Solomon in Vienna, Nathan Mayer in London, Karl in Naples and Jacob in Paris.

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In 1617 the Banco Giro is established to solve problems encountered by the earlier Banco della Piazza di Rialto, which has got into trouble through the making of unsecured loans.

Its debtors include the Venetian government. The Banco Giro is founded on the principle that the government's creditors accept payment in the form of credit with the new bank. In solving an existing problem, this also provides new opportunities. Venice now has a mechanism for raising public finance on the basis of guaranteed credit.

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Banks and cheques: from the 16th century

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Banks and cheques: from the 16th century

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The Venetian initiative, with the expenses born by the state, is an attempt to provide a measure of security in this central aspect of the risky business of trade.

Other Mediterranean trading centres (in particular Barcelona and Genoa) have possibly taken this step before Venice, and it is soon followed in northern cities - Amsterdam in 1609, Hamburg in 1619, Nuremberg in 1621.

A related development is that of the cheque, a device which depends on the existence of banks as recognized institutions. A bill of exchange, the original method of transferring money without the use of coins, is a complex contract between private parties and one or more moneylenders. A cheque is a bill of exchange between banks, payable by one of the banks to whoever holds and presents the cheque.

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First time paper currency appears in europe in Sweden .

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The Christian prohibition on usury eventually provides an opportunity for bankers of another religion. European prosperityneeds finance. The Jews, barred from most other forms of employment, supply this need. But their success, and their extreme visibility as a religious sect, brings dangers.

The same is true of another group, the knights Templar, who for a few years become bankers to the mighty. They too, an exclusive sect with private rituals, easily fall prey to rumour, suspicion and persecution (see Templarsin Europe). The profitable business of banking transfers into the hands of more ordinary Christian folk - first among them the Lombards.

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They arrange for the collection and transfer of money due to great feudal powers, in particular the papacy. They facilitate trade by providing merchants with bills of exchange, by means of which money paid in by a debtor in one town can be paid out to a creditor presenting the bill somewhere else (a principle familiar now in the form of a cheque).

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Greek and Roman financiers: from the 4th century BC

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Greek and Roman financiers: from the 4th century BC

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Private entrepreneurs, as well as temples and public bodies, now undertake financial transactions. They take deposits, make loans, change money from one currency to another and test coins for weight and purity.

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In 1491 a loan is made to Maximilian; a subsequent loan to him in 1505 (by which time Maximilian is the Holy Roman emperor) is secured by the feudal rights to two Austrian counties.

But by far the largest Fugger project is undertaken in 1519 on behalf of Maximilian's grandson, Charles.

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In Egypt and Mesopotamia gold is deposited in temples for safe-keeping. But it lies idle there, while others in the trading community or in government have desperate need of it. In Babylonat the time of Hammurabi, in the 18th century BC