https://www.worldbank.org.ro/about-banks-history
It is impossible to say exactly when banking properly began. We do, however, have evidence that it may have started to properly occur around 8000 BC, although these were not banking in the way that we see things now. It was more record keeping of trades that were being made. There may have been specific institutions developed specifically for banking, but we can’t possibly know for sure. All we have records of are people making trades and record their trades down in a log.
THE EARLIEST ‘PROPER’ BANKS
The first proper banks would have sprung up in ancient Mesopotamia. We have evidence that there were temples and palaces throughout Babylonia and other cities which provided lending activities. Although, a lot of this was not in the form of financial lending. Instead, banks would lend out seeds and the like. The idea is that by lending out seeds, farmers would have products that they could work with. When it came to the harvest, the farmers would pay back their seed loan from the harvest.
There are also records of credit from around this time. In fact, we have a history of credit and other banking activities throughout Asian civilization. The Temple of Artemis, for example, was a deposit for cash and there were records of debts held here. Mark Anthony plays a major role in these banks. He is said to have stolen cash from these banks.
BANKS DURING THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD
Banks really started to come into their own during the medieval period. Most of these banks were merchant banks, however. Again, this was a lot about crop loan and for financing expeditions across the silk routes. Some of the earliest forms of brokering took place in these banks. It is actually from around this time that bankruptcy started to spring up. The earliest banks were in Italy. Bankrupt comes from the word ‘banca rotta’ in Italian. When a trade failed to deliver on their promised route, then they would have been declared ‘banca rotta’.
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