History of Banking - Earliest Forms of Banking

Earliest Forms of Banking

Wealth is deposited and kept in temples; in thêsaurus (treasure houses) and treasuries, where safety is afforded by the will of the gods. The earliest banks were used exclusively by rulers to fund the more important and larger festivals and for building expenses.

All secure knowledge of the origin of the abacus is lost. By the time of the ancient Hindus, Greeks and Romans a form of counting calculation was in use, initially the dust abacus and later the counting table. The term originally referred to table, bench or board.

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