The Templars, the Medici and the Potosí silver

In the eleventh century the Christian kingdoms that had arisen in Western Europe after the dissolution of the Western Roman Empire and the Germanic Holy Roman Empire and other kingdoms, driven by the conquest of Palestine by the Muslims, took up the task, first of all to expel the Muslims from what they called the Holy Land and secondly to occupy those territories. It was a religious political movement that came to be called the Crusades.

The conquering enterprise was partially and temporarily successful, but it nonetheless allowed the Crusaders to occupy Jerusalem and establish themselves on a somewhat permanent basis there and in other strongholds in the eastern Mediterranean.

As the crusaders were established far from their lands of origin and therefore without access to their chests of immediate economic availability, an organization developed that, at the same time that it fulfilled political and religious ends, began to take care of transferring economic values ​​from Western Europe to the occupied lands of the Near East, This organization was the Templars.

The Templars were one of the most powerful Catholic military monastic orders of the Middle Ages. It was founded in 1118 by French knights led by Hugo de Payns after the first crusade

And it remained active for just under two centuries. Its original purpose was to protect the lives of Christians on pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the port city of Jaffa.

The Order was the largest organization in the West, in every way (from military to economic), with more than 9,000 commanders spread across Europe, some 30,000 knights and sergeants (plus serfs, squires, artisans, peasants, etc.). etc.), more than 50 castles and fortresses in Europe and the Middle East, its own fleet anchored in its own ports in the Mediterranean (Marseille) and in La Rochelle (on the Atlantic coast of France).

All this economic power was articulated around two characteristic institutions of the Templars: the parcel and the bank. to maintain a constant flow of money that would allow the defending army to survive in the Holy Land.

hen the order of the Templars was dismantled, other banking institutions appeared that continued to fulfill a similar commercial and financial role. One of them, perhaps the most important, was the Banca Medici (1397-1494), which was a financial institution created by the Medici family during the 15th century in Italy. In this century it was the largest and most reputable bank in Europe. It is estimated that in the middle of that century the Medici family became the richest on the continent.

Estimating his fortune is still very complicated, since much of it is found in works of art, land, and gold. The wealth of the Medici Bank served the Medici to expand their sphere of influence beyond the borders of Italy.

The Medici Bank made a notable contribution to the practice of banking, creating the double accounting system, separating credits and debits in its books, or in other words, deposits and withdrawals.

The first Medici to enter the banking business was Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici (1360-1429), supported by the commissions received for the administration of the papal assets and the benefits of the Florentine textile production. Italian and Florentine political affairs, to such an extent that he financed the completion of the dome of the Florence Cathedral, as well as supported numerous Florentine artists and to a large extent financed the historical artistic period called the Renaissance. While the Medici were developing their financial empire in Italy on the Iberian Peninsula, the Spanish kings had begun their colonial adventure in the Americas.

As a result of the occupation of the American territories by the Spanish crown and in particular the exploitation of the silver mines in Potosí and Mexico, the Spanish government began to mint its own currency, giving rise to a new and very important boost to the bases of Finance capitalism in the 16th and 17th centuries

The silver coin that Spain began to mint from the silver of its mines was the peso.

The minted coins included the images of the so-called columns of Hercules, that is, the Strait of Gibraltar and a band written with the words Plus Ultra displayed between the columns. This phrase sought to recall that the phrase non plus ultra was used in the past as the symbol of the inaccessibility of the Ocean Sea beyond the Pillars of Hercules, that is, the Strait of Gibraltar.

The columns together with the written band where it said plus ultra became the symbol that would be used in the future throughout the world to denominate the currencies of various countries, from pesos to dollars. The famous international symbol of money ($).

From Danilo Anton blog Visiones heréticas y no convencionales en ciencia y cultura.