THE CONSOLIDATION OF WEALTH & POWER
In the 1500s and early 1600s, exchange banks were formed in the Netherlands and in other parts of Italy to deal with currency exchange based on expanding trade. Privately owned financial institutions developed simultaneously with state-owned banks.
Subsequently, the great banking families of the 1600s and 1700s emerged in Europe: the Medicis, the Fuggers, and the Rothschilds.
When you study these families, you see that they were very effective at leveraging their wealth to dominate entire populations. They wielded this power to dominate all aspects of the culture, thorough cooperation or coercion. They were always revered for the power their money created.
This model created even greater systems of commerce, with even larger footprints to facilitate power and control on regional and eventually global scales.
Read Part Six of this 7 part series next week.
To contact Christopher Bayer directly, please email Christopher.Bayer@TheShareholderActivist.com.
