FIRST BANK NOTES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 77, 9 July 1910, Page 9

FIRST BANK NOTES.

j INVENTED I'X SI'AIX. The first bunk was instituted at Venice in 1157, which city at that time, and long afterwards, was a place of great commercial activity. The next establishment of the kind was opened in 1407 ' at Genoa, another city of Italy famous lor its riches and trade. Hank notes were contrived long after .banks had been in operation. Hanks were the invention of Italians. Paper money ori-1 ginated in Spain. A nobleman called I the Count de TendiJla was the I 1 first to think of it, and it was in the j year 14S4—just four hundred and twen-ty-six years ago. One of the ..Spanish chroniclers thus tells the story:— "It happened that this Catholic cavalier at one time was destitute of gold and ailver, wherewith to pay the wages of his troops, and the soldiers murmured greatly, seeing that (hey had not flumeans of purchasing necessaries from the people of the town, in this dilemma I wlut does this most sagacious commander do'/ He takes a number of little morsels of paper, on which lie inscribes various sums, large and small, according to the nature of the case, and signs them with his own hand and name. j These did he give to the soldiery in earnest of their pay. How, you will say, are soldiers to lie paid with scraps of .paper V Even so, I answer, and well | paid, too, as I will presently make niani-1 fest; for the good Count issued a .proclamation ordering the inhabitants of Alhama to take these morsels of paper for the full amount thereon, promising to redeem them at a future time with silver and gold, and threatening severe punishment to all who should refuse. Thj people -having full confidence in his word, and trusting that he would be as willing to perform the one .promise as he was certainly able to perform the other, toek those curious morsels of paper without hesitation or demur. Thus, 'by a subtle and most miraculous kind of alchemy did this Catholic cavalier turn worthless .< .paper into precious gold, and make his ', late impoverished garrison abound in 4 money." 1

The sagacious Count, like a noble knight, redeemed his .promise; and his miracle as it appeared to the ancient chronicler, is the first instance on record of paper money, which has since inundated the civilised world with unbounded opulence.