Robert Morris was born in Liverpool, England in 1734, the son of ironmonger Robert Morris, Sr. When the senior Morris emigrated to the colonies, he settled in Maryland and became a tobacco agent. Robert joined his father in Maryland in 1747 and was an apprentice in the Philadelphia mercantile house of Charles Willing. Here he…
By the mid 1700’s Great Britain was at its height of power, but was also heavily in debt. Since the creation of the Bank of England, they had suffered four costly wars and the total debt now stood at £140,000,000, (which in those days was a lot of money). In order to make their interest…
A goldsmith named Amshall Moses Bauer opened a counting house in Frankfurt Germany in 1743. The two-headed eagle emblem of the Byzantine Empire (Roman Empire) on a Red Shield was adopted by Bauer. The shop became known as the “Red Shield firm”. The German word for ‘red shield’ is Rothschild. His son later changed his…
King Henry VIII, King of England, produced sticks of polished wood, with notches cut along one edge to signify the denominations. The stick was then split full length so each piece still had a record of the notches. The King kept one half for proof against counterfeiting, and then spent the other half into the…
In Medieval England in 1000-1100A.D., we find goldsmith’s offering to keep other people’s gold and silver safe in their vaults. In return, people walked away with a receipt for what they have left there. These paper receipts soon became popular for trade as they were less heavy to carry around than gold and silver coins.…
Jesus was so upset by the sight of the money changers in the temple, he waded in and started to tip over the tables and drive them out with a whip, this being the one and only time we ever hear of him using force during his entire ministry. Jesus entered the temple courts and…
Money and how it works is probably one of the most interesting things on earth. It is fascinating and mysterious how money appeared on earth. Most things we enjoy can be traced back to a particular inventor or civilisation. But interestingly money appeared in a similar way in civilisations all over the earth at times…