Banking. Where did it all go wrong?
The Crusades of the Middle Ages are part of western folklore. We are told tales of the brave knights that set out from Europe to reclaim the holy lands for the Catholic Church and to convert people to Christianity from Islam. These knights were part of a military order and were, in essence, mercenaries working for the Pope, who bestowed charitable status upon them. The knights built castles and fortresses as well as the Temple Church in London, which became known as a safe place to deposit wealth and allowed the Temple Church knights, known as the Knight Templar, to finance their crusades.
The practice of making pilgrimages to the Holy Lands began around this time, at the end of the eleventh century, once the Knights Templar had completed their network of safe houses, where gold and silver was deposited for safe keeping. Nevertheless, these pilgrimages were still hazardous, and pilgrims were easy prey for all sorts of criminals, as they still had to carry funds to pay for their lodgings and food en-route. So, the Knights Templar devised a way to make the journeys safer. This system allowed pilgrims to deposit deeds and valuables either at the Temple Church, or one of their network of safe houses elsewhere in Europe. The Knights then provided a letter of exchange listing the value of the deposit.
Once the pilgrims reached their destination, or at one of the fortresses en-route, they were able to draw on their letter of credit (LOC) and withdraw their savings as needed. This was how the first known financial services company was established, as more often than not, the pilgrims would simply use the LOC as a means of exchange with other pilgrims. LOC would change hands and eventually this system of what were essentially promissory notes became widely accepted.
The lending of large quantities of these Templar paper notes became a local currency that created prosperity in towns and villages throughout Europe along with a growing debt caused by the loans and rental fees for the use of this money. When crops failed due to bad weather, the Templars would foreclose on the properties and as a result the Templars acquired vineyards and vast real estate holdings throughout Europe. The Templars system of lending credit in the Middle Ages was, in essence, the forerunner of today's modern banking system. The Knights Templar discovered that they could lend the same money out several times over as paper Notes promising redemption in gold or silver coins. This deception worked because people believed they could redeem the Notes anytime they wanted to. Their power and influence grew and extended to the highest levels. Their demise was allegedly triggered by King Philip IV of France, who was deeply in debt to the Templars. In 1307, the King issued a royal warrant accusing the Templars of acts of heresy. Their assets were seized by the King, who thereby avoided having to settle his debts, and soon after, Pope Clement then issued a Papal Bull, instructing all the European monarchs to arrest the Templars and seize their assets.
Despite the discovery that the Templars had very little gold and silver in their vaults, their cashless money system was later revived, probably in Sweden, but predominantly by the Rothschild banking dynasty at the start of the nineteenth century. You can read more about the Rothschilds in the useful websites section, but their grip on international banking remains, and today we use an updated version of this Middle Ages scam. Computers have replaced the handwritten bookkeeping the Templars used, and modern banks create "money" by writing checks and adding digital money to a borrower's bank account. The assets that back up the credit card and loan transactions are the borrowers own promise to repay the credit borrowed when the card is used, or the loan taken out.
The first U.S. bank founded in 1791 issued Notes based on the Rothschild model used at the Bank of England. It was the legislative child of Alexander Hamilton, then George Washington's Treasury Secretary. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison opposed the bank as a private corporation allowed to issue money and the controversy over who should have the power to issue a Nation's money began then and still exists to this day.
The Templar's secret is the same as a modern-day banker's secret; they make loans beyond the total value of their customer's deposits and use your signed application form as security. These loans are digitally added to a checking account that the account holder can spend and exist simply as a bookkeeping entry to a customer's bank account. It's all just an illusion. Once you become aware of this fraud and ask your bank to show you proof that they actually owned the "money" they claim to have lent, you will discover that there is none.