How banks worked around year 1500 or so?
Been playing Assassin’s Creed recently and had a thought. How actually banks worked back then?
I mean a guy could show up and ask for a loan. Let’s say he wants 1000 for a week. All goes well -> the guy returns money with interest. But the other outcome is – the guy decides to move to another city or simply don’t go to the bank. How the bank would get its money back, considering that there were a lot less documents and such for each person? Probably some of them didn’t have an ID or some kind of an equivalent.
Wife suggested that bank didn’t have out loans to poor people at all because was impossible to know whether the guy returns money or not.
In: Economics
> I mean a guy could show up and ask for a loan. Let’s say he wants 1000 for a week.
They probably simply wouldn’t give a loan to some nobody who could just disappear into another town like you describe. Instead they would only be willing to provide a loan to someone who they trusted, like a person well known and established in the city. Loans might require collateral (something of value left with the bank to ensure their money is returned) or a similarly affluent/well-reputed cosigner. If the borrower skipped town the bank could sell of the collateral or go to the cosigner for payment.
That is one of the reasons that being from a noble house would have been so important. Being part of the House of Auditore would have given Ezio significant legitimacy to borrow if he needed to, as if he failed to pay back his debts then they could in concept collect from any other Auditore who would be seeking to retain their reputation.
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