>DOUGH
By 1150, the Order's original mission of guarding pilgrims had changed into a mission of guarding their valuables through an innovative way of issuing letters of credit, an early precursor of modern banking. Pilgrims would visit a Templar house in their home country, depositing their deeds and valuables. The Templars would then give them a letter which would describe their holdings. Modern scholars have stated that the letters were encrypted with a cipher alphabet based on a Maltese Cross; however there is some disagreement on this, and it is possible that the code system was introduced later, and not something used by the medieval Templars themselves. While traveling, the pilgrims could present the letter to other Templars along the way, to "withdraw" funds from their accounts. This kept the pilgrims safe since they were not carrying valuables, and further increased the power of the Templars.
The Knights' involvement in banking grew over time into a new basis for money, as Templars became increasingly involved in banking activities. One indication of their powerful political connections is that the Templars' involvement in usury did not lead to more controversy within the Order and the church at large. Officially the idea of lending money in return for interest was forbidden by the church, but the Order sidestepped this with clever loopholes, such as a stipulation that the Templars retained the rights to the production of mortgaged property. Or as one Templar researcher put it, "Since they weren't allowed to charge interest, they charged rent instead."
>One indication of their powerful political connections is that the Templars' involvement in usury did not lead to more controversy within the Order and the church at large. Officially the idea of lending money in return for interest was forbidden by the church, but the Order sidestepped this with clever loopholes, such as a stipulation that the Templars retained the rights to the production of mortgaged property.
<"Since they weren't allowed to charge interest, they charged rent instead."
>go learn your history and stop with your falsity
that's some weird flak, time to read about templar banking
>Inside huge NYPD gang takedown
Ride along with police in Queens as they conduct what could be the largest gang takedown in the borough's history.
What can you tell me about templar banking?
https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1638133419900280832
Current and former CDC staff members say they wrestled with guilt, anger and powerlessness in 2020 as Trump administration officials meddled with or simply disregarded important scientific research about Covid.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/21/health/covid-cdc.html
‘We Were Helpless’: Despair at the C.D.C. as the Pandemic Erupted
Current and former employees recall rising desperation as Trump administration officials squelched research into the new coronavirus.
keep talking
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-38499883
The warrior monks who invented banking
On London's busy Fleet Street, opposite Chancery Lane, is a stone arch through which anyone may step, and travel back in time.
A quiet courtyard houses a strange, circular chapel and a statue of two knights sharing a single horse.
The chapel is Temple Church, consecrated in 1185 as the London home of the Knights Templar.
But Temple Church is not just an important architectural, historical and religious site. It is also London's first bank.
The Knights Templar were warrior monks. A religious order, with a theologically inspired hierarchy, mission statement, and code of ethics, but also heavily armed and dedicated to holy war.
How did they get into the banking game?
>How did they get into the banking game?
The Templars dedicated themselves to the defence of Christian pilgrims to Jerusalem. The city had been captured by the first crusade in 1099 and pilgrims began to stream in, travelling thousands of miles across Europe.
Those pilgrims needed to somehow fund months of food and transport and accommodation, yet avoid carrying huge sums of cash around, because that would have made them a target for robbers.
Fortunately, the Templars had that covered. A pilgrim could leave his cash at Temple Church in London, and withdraw it in Jerusalem. Instead of carrying money, he would carry a letter of credit. The Knights Templar were the Western Union of the crusades.
We don't actually know how the Templars made this system work and protected themselves against fraud. Was there a secret code verifying the document and the traveller's identity?
>Was there a secret code verifying the document and the traveller's identity?
Financial fixers
The Templars were not the first organisation in the world to provide such a service. Several centuries earlier, Tang dynasty China used "feiquan" - flying money - a two-part document allowing merchants to deposit profits in a regional office, and reclaim their cash back in the capital.
But that system was operated by the government. Templars were much closer to a private bank - albeit one owned by the Pope, allied to kings and princes across Europe, and run by a partnership of monks sworn to poverty.
The Knights Templar did much more than transferring money across long distances.
As William Goetzmann describes in his book Money Changes Everything, they provided a range of recognisably modern financial services.
If you wanted to buy a nice island off the west coast of France - as King Henry III of England did in the 1200s with the island of Oleron, north-west of Bordeaux - the Templars could broker the deal.
Henry III paid £200 a year for five years to the Temple in London, then when his men took possession of the island, the Templars made sure that the seller got paid.
And in the 1200s, the Crown Jewels were kept at the Temple as security on a loan, the Templars operating as a very high-end pawn broker.
The Knights Templar were not Europe's bank forever, of course. The order lost its reason to exist after European Christians completely lost control of Jerusalem in 1244, and the Templars were eventually disbanded in 1312.
So who would step into the banking vacuum?
If you had been at the great fair of Lyon in 1555, you could have seen the answer. Lyon's fair was the greatest market for international trade in all Europe.
>Lyon's fair was the greatest market for international trade in all Europe.
Sophisticated exchange
But at this particular fair, gossip was starting to spread about an Italian merchant who was there, and making a fortune.
He bought and sold nothing: all he had was a desk and an inkstand.
Day after day he sat there, receiving other merchants and signing their pieces of paper, and somehow becoming very rich.
The locals were very suspicious.
But to a new international elite of Europe's great merchant houses, his activities were perfectly legitimate.
He was buying and selling debt, and in doing so he was creating enormous economic value.
A merchant from Lyon who wanted to buy - say - Florentine wool could go to this banker and borrow something called a bill of exchange. This was a credit note, an IOU, but it was not denominated in the French livre or Florentine lira.
Its value was expressed in the ecu de marc, a private currency used by this international network of bankers.
And if the Lyonnaise merchant or his agents travelled to Florence, the bill of exchange from the banker in Lyon would be recognised by bankers in Florence, who would gladly exchange it for local currency.
Through this network of bankers, a local merchant could not only exchange currencies but also translate his creditworthiness in Lyon into creditworthiness in Florence, a city where nobody had ever heard of him - a valuable service, worth paying for.
Every few months, agents of this network of bankers would meet at the great fairs such as Lyon's, go through their books, net off all the credit notes against each other and settle any remaining debts.
Our financial system today has a lot in common with this model.
An Australian with a credit card can walk into a supermarket in Lyon and walk out with groceries.
The supermarket checks with a French bank, which talks to an Australian bank, which approves the payment, happy that this woman is good for the money.
Checks and balances
But this web of banking services has always had a darker side to it.
By turning personal obligations into internationally tradable debts, these medieval bankers were creating their own private money, outside the control of Europe's kings.
Rich, and powerful, they had no need for the coins minted by the sovereign.
That description rings true even today. International banks are locked together in a web of mutual obligations that defies easy understanding or simple control.
They can use their international reach to try to sidestep taxes and regulations.
And, since their debts to each other are a very real kind of private money, when the banks are fragile, the entire monetary system of the world also becomes vulnerable.
We are still trying to figure out what to do with these banks.
We cannot live without them, it seems, and yet we are not sure we want to live with them.
Governments have long sought ways to hold them in check.
Sometimes the approach has been laissez-faire, sometimes not.
Few regulators have been quite as ardent as King Philip IV of France.
He owed money to the Templars, and they refused to forgive his debts.
So in 1307, on the site of what is now the Temple stop on the Paris Metro, Philip launched a raid on the Paris Temple - the first of a series of attacks across Europe.
Templars were tortured and forced to confess any sin the Inquisition could imagine. The order was disbanded by the Pope.
The London Temple was rented out to lawyers.
And the last grandmaster of the Templars, Jacques de Molay, was brought to the centre of Paris and publicly burned to death.
>By turning personal obligations into internationally tradable debts, these medieval bankers were creating their own private money, outside the control of Europe's kings.
>And the last grandmaster of the Templars, Jacques de Molay, was brought to the centre of Paris and publicly burned to death.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65036208
Zelensky visits ruined frontline near Bakhmut
The arrests caused some shifts in the European economy, from a system of Fiat money back to European money, removing this power from Church orders. Seeing the fate of the Templars, the Hospitallers of St John of Jerusalem and of Rhodes were also convinced to give up banking at this time.
>from a system of Fiat money back to European money
Pope Clement issued the bull Pastoralis Praeeminentiae, which instructed all Christian monarchs in Europe to arrest all Templars and seize their assets.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastoralis_praeeminentiae
Pastoralis praeeminentiae was a papal bull issued by Pope Clement V on 22 November 1307 to all Christian monarchs. It ordered the arrest of all Knights Templar and to seize their properties on behalf of the church. Clement was forced to support the campaign against the Templars by Philip IV of France, who owed them a great deal of money and had initiated the first arrests against the Templars on 13 October 1307.
Despite the papal request, not all the monarchs complied immediately, most notably, Edward II of England who at first refused to believe the allegations, but later carried out the order.
Following the arrests, a period of trials was sanctioned against the Templars, enforced by torture and pain-induced confessions.
>who are Ron's parents?
>Sadly Ron is currently regarded as an only child because he lost his sister, Christiana on 12th May 2015 in London.
>St. Elmo Society
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https://nypost.com/2021/01/15/who-is-john-sullivan-accused-provocateur-charged-in-capitol-riot/
Who is John Sullivan, accused provocateur charged in Capitol riot?
>Blinken testifies on State Department budget and diplomacy before Senate committee
https://www.ted.com/speakers/kimberley_motley
>https://www.ted.com/speakers/kimberley_motley
American lawyer Kimberley Motley is the only Western litigator in Afghanistan's courts; as her practice expands to other countries, she thinks deeply about how to build the capacity of rule of law globally.
Why you should listen
Kimberley Motley possesses a rare kind of grit—the kind necessary to hang a shingle in Kabul, represent the under-represented, weather a kaleidoscope of threats, and win the respect of the Afghan legal establishment (and of tribal leaders). At present she practices in the U.S., Afghanistan, Dubai, and the International Criminal Courts; as her practice expands to other countries, she thinks deeply about how to engage the legal community to build the capacity of rule of law globally.
After spending five years as a public defender in her native Milwaukee, Motley headed to Afghanistan to join a legal education program run by the U.S. State Department. She noticed Westerners stranded in Afghan prisons without representation, and started defending them. Today, she’s the only Western litigator in Kabul, and one of the most effective defense attorneys in Afghanistan. Her practice, which reports a 90 percent success rate, often represents non-Afghan defendants as well as pro-bono human rights cases.
What others say
“To the male-dominated Afghan court and prison establishment, she must appear to be someone from outer space. She acknowledges this but declares that she gets respect… She has proven to be a very effective and tenacious fighter.” — Tom Freston, Vanity Fair
pro
https://www.msnbc.com/andrea-mitchell-reports/watch/-there-are-thousands-of-them-and-they-are-coming-from-afghanistan-desperate-pleas-for-help-118794821962
'There are thousands of them, and they are coming': From Afghanistan, desperate pleas for help
International human rights attorney Kimberley Motley calls the U.S. abandonment of women and girls a “human rights abomination,” saying that “There are 20 million women and girls in Afghanistan, and they are all screwed.” She plays a voice message she just received from a panicked Afghan woman begging for help.
Aug. 16, 2021