#meme #memes #nostrmemes #bitcoin

On this day in 1412, the Medici Bank became the official bank of the papacy, solidifying their influence throughout Europe and leading to some integral banking innovations that would impact the rest of monetary history.

The Medici family, originating from the Mugello region north of Florence, rose to prominence through their innovative banking practices and shrewd business acumen. Their ascent to financial power began in 1397 when Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici founded the Medici Bank in Florence.

On January 16, 1412, the Medici family reached a significant milestone by becoming the official bankers of the papacy. This partnership with the Catholic Church turbocharged their business across Europe and solidified their position as one of the most influential banking dynasties of the Renaissance era.

The Medici Bank introduced several groundbreaking innovations that revolutionized the banking industry:

Double-entry bookkeeping: The Medicis popularized this system, which allowed for more accurate tracking of financial transactions. This method used a ledger where both debits and credits were recorded, providing a clearer overview of a business's financial status.

Letters of credit: This innovation facilitated international trade by eliminating the need to transport large sums of money across Europe. Traders could deposit money at one Medici branch and receive a letter of credit to be honored at another branch, making transactions safer and more efficient.

Branch banking: The Medici established a network of bank branches across major European cities, including London, Bruges, Geneva, and Avignon. This system allowed for easier movement of money and credit across borders.

Holding company structure: The Medici Bank operated as an early form of a holding company, with the Florence headquarters acting as the central entity overseeing various partnerships across Europe.

In addition, to circumvent the Church's prohibition on usury (charging interest on loans), the Medici devised clever methods to generate profit:

Currency exchange: By manipulating exchange rates between different currencies, the bank could build interest into transactions without explicitly charging it.

Bills of exchange: These financial instruments allowed the bank to profit from the time delay between issuing credit in one location and receiving payment in another.

The Medici's innovations and their extensive network of branches made banking more accessible and efficient. Their system allowed for easier transfer of funds across Europe, facilitating trade and commerce. By charging fees for services rather than direct interest, they managed to operate within the Church's restrictions while still generating substantial profits.

The Medici Bank's success was closely tied to its relationship with the papacy. By 1434, half of the bank's revenue came from its Rome branch, which essentially functioned as a mobile bank following the Pope. This connection gave the Medici immense power and influence, as everyone wanted an account with the Pope's personal bank.

The Medici's banking empire reached its zenith under Cosimo de' Medici, with profits averaging around 19,386 florins per year between 1435 and 1450. Their financial innovations and strategic partnerships, particularly with the Church, laid the groundwork for modern banking practices and played a crucial role in financing the Italian Renaissance.

These "on this day" posts are inspired by my love of the greatest minds of the Western canon. It is in this spirit that I post these tidbits for the Bitcoin community as a way to bring beauty and knowledge to the world.

You strike me as someone who is very familiar with St. Thomas Aquinas and Aristotle. I have been meaning to read their work. Perhaps that will help me understand your perspective.

Here is my final thought: I completely agree that what makes money unjust is the justice of the method. Coercive monopoly is what is unjust to me, but I agree that we should strive to make transactions easy for people too. That's asking for a solution to everything now though, and is too difficult, even impossible a thing for people to just suddenly know how to do. It is not unethical for them to fail to do it, in my view. I work for solutions, to things I value, as an individual. I follow the NAP and build a world that's better and gives people lower transaction costs. That's my solution. I don't put it in the realm of ethics. I just make it something I care about and pursue. It is a moral value. Even disregarding this value for other people's wellbeing though, this is what ethical capitalists do. They exclude no one from having the power they need, but rather they create the means for everyone to achieve even greater success at what they value.

Seniorage, you mean first mover advantage? If so, then on the contrary, Bitcoin has that in common with gold. Fiat allows printing up money for free, which makes it far more imbalanced, and thus substantively different in terms of human interaction, since ethics seems to be what you are trying to distinguish. Gold and bitcoin both can be mined, moreso by those with the knowledge and positioning to do so. Fiat is privileged to a select few not in a free market, which would be merely unsustainable, but in a monopoly, which can extract value from people for a long, long time. This I guess you could argue is usury. But the key thing is that extraction of value is taking place arbitrarily against the consent of the people using the money (because they are forced via taxation and the police force that taxes pay for to use it), whereas in bitcoin, extraction is voluntary. Value will be derived from all participants in the network, as causality cannot be completely separated into private, discrete entities with no entanglements, and values are SUBJECTIVE.

I said nothing of kindness's necessity, and in my mind no implications have been made one way or the other regarding that. You are arguing within your own framework if ideas that I do not share.

What is extraction to you? What qualifies it, what are some examples?

Also, who manufactured man's separation from his refrigerator? Is this manufactured alienation caused by the will of a human being? Which human being or beings? If not, who else manufactured this separation? I see nature. Nature everywhere. This is not merely manufactured by man. This is how we have always been. Wolves even must hunt for food. This takes time. There are costs incurred over time. What artificial imposition is made there? Does the wolf deserve instant gratification by nature of being a wolf? Does man deserve 0% cost money whenever he asks? But there is a cost to asking, he must expend energy! An injustice!! Do you demand pleasure domes with no values other than instant pleasure, constantly provided by nature? Who or what is imposing the cost? What is the standard of value?

0% interest rates are possible, and may happen on a large scale in enough time. 0% usury is already the case because there is no such thing. You're using nonsense words.

Do you think that a person's labor is as interchangeable as atoms of oxygen or as units of account on the ledger?

"Usury" is just the result of individual acknowledgement of alternative processes that take time. You might as well say it is tragic and cruel that we have to work our way to the kitchen and make a sandwich before eating it. I'm glad you are at least convinced of its necessity. I wonder what can convince you of its benevolence and natural belonging as part of Creation.

It’s all connected can’t you see??Creating credit (the opposite of money) out of thin air and loan it out at interest it’s the most profitable business on earth. That’s the reason why we lost 4 patriot American presidents history books hidden this facts from us.

I think is cristal clear at least you want to put your head under the sand.