Quite literally. The bank of England was founded via deposits from anyone who cared to, with a promise of 7% returns. There's a ledger that records all the payments, from the smallest to the largest. That money was used to pay off naval debts and to reconstitute the English fleet, around 1665.
Discussion
600 years earlier, and not entirely on topic, but I do have a copy of the Domesday book. It is an excellent example of human-focused knowledge graph possibility as we deal with crisis/recovery.
That was a monumental undertaking and is an incredible piece of history. I'd love to look through it one day, though I know my family name won't be there as it didn't arrive as a name until quite late.