The simple beginnings of the credit system are already around 3000 BC. In Mesopotamia. In the course of the development of a simple payment and credit system cereal seeds were lent to farmers, which had to be returned only after the harvest plus interest. In ancient Greece as well as in Lydia emerged during the 7th century BC. The first coins minted. Thus, the first currency exchange and lending business could establish, which would be called loans today.
In Greece, finally, a more advanced form of credit developed. Because released slaves had the same legal status as incumbent metics, they were not allowed to earn land or work in agriculture, which is why many of them worked in the monetary field. In the 3rd century BC It was a freed slave called Pasion, who kept deposits in the Athenian port of Piraeus and continued to invest them by agreement. Of his debtors he demanded between 10 and 12% interest. In Roman law, the basic type of lending business was the informal mutuum (loan), the transfer of a sum of money or other justifiable matter (seed, wine, oil) with the agreement to return the same sum or amount of money or commodity.
The dedication of the Mutuum justified the obligation to return, so that a real contract existed. In the Gaian institutions is referred to a Senate decision, the „Senatus consultum Macedonianum“ from the year 47 AD, in which it is mentioned that Macedo borrowed money to insecure debtors – an early form of doubtful Requirements. As a rule, no loan interest was required because they were not covered by the Mutuum, but it required a special agreement for the interest payment. The Romans knew interest rates quite thoroughly and they were very interested in it. Already the early republican twelve-board law set a maximum limit for interest. At least since the Roman emperor Constantine the Great (ruled from 306 to 337), credit transactions were common at a rate of 12%.
The medieval economy required extensive consumer credit because of the generally prevailing cash shortage. The „Borgkauf“ – today’s trade credit – was in the Middle Ages almost the rule. [8] A hindrance in granting credits was the Christian interest ban. Pope Alexander III. allowed the Jews in 1179 specifically the interest business, but demanded the IV Lateran Council of 1215 from the Jews the compensation at high interest rates. The resulting success of the Jews in the credit business prompted the Franciscans in 1462 to set up credit funds from Christian money in order to free the Christians „from the clutches of Jewish usurers“.
In 1397, Cosimo de ‚Medicis Bank granted loans to, among others, the Florentine merchant Niccolò Niccoli. The first evidence of a systemically secured loan in the form of the Lombard loan can already be found around the year 1400, when merchants gave out loans to feudal lords and nobles against surrender and thus contributed to the rise of northern Italian trading companies. Noteworthy is the Florentine bank Compagnia dei Bardi, which was in business relationship with the English royal family in the 14th century and in 1344 to Edward III. 900,000 gold florin. If you want to know more about credits, go and visit kredit-fabrik.de, where you will find any information about different types of credits, such as sofortkredit, kredite für azubis, autokredite and kredite mit langer laufzeit.