Money, Bank Credit, and Economic Cycles - The Ludwig von Mises ...

Historical Violations of the Legal PrinciplesGoverning the Monetary Irregular-Deposit Contract 57The argentarii conducted their business in a special placecalled a taverna. Their books reflected the debits and creditsmade to their clients’ checking accounts. Roman bankers’books qualified as evidence in court and had to be kept as setdown in the editio rationum, which stipulated the wayaccounts were to be dated and managed. 34 Bankers were alsohe found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sittingat tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out ofcords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle;he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturnedtheir tables.(New International Version). The translation of these biblical passages isnot very accurate, and the same mistake is found in García del Corral’stranslation of the Digest. Instead of “money changers,” it should read“bankers,” which is more in accordance with the literal sense of the Vulgateedition of the Bible in Latin, in which Matthew’s account reads asfollows:Et intravit Iesus in templum et eiiciebat omnes vendentes etementes in templo, et mensas numulariorum, et cathedrasvendentium columbas evertit: et dicit eis: Scriptum est:Domus mea domus orationis vocabitur: vos autem fecistisillam speluncam latronum. (Biblia Sacra iuxta VulgatamClementinam, Alberto Colunga and Laurencio Turrado, eds.[Madrid: Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos, 1994], Mateo21:12–13, p. 982)These evangelical texts confirm that the temple at Jerusalem acted as atrue bank where the general public, rich or poor, made deposits. Jesus’sclearing of the temple can be interpreted as a protest against abusesstemming from an illicit activity (as we know, these abuses consisted ofthe use of money on deposit). In addition, these biblical references illustratethe symbiosis already present between bankers and public officials,since both the chief priests and the teachers of the law were outragedby Jesus’s behavior (all italics have, of course, been added). Onthe importance of the Jerusalem temple as a deposit bank for Hebrews,see Rostovtzeff, The Social and Economic History of the Roman Empire, vol.2, p. 622.34 Jean Imbert, in his book, Historia económica (de los orígenes a 1789),Spanish translation by Armando Sáez (Barcelona: Editorial Vicens-Vives, 1971), p. 58, points out thatthe praescriptio was an equivalent of today’s checks. When acapitalist instructed a banker to make a loan payment in hisname, the banker would do so upon presentation of a bankdraft called a praescriptio.