{"id":116101,"date":"2022-12-26T12:57:03","date_gmt":"2022-12-26T11:57:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/?post_type=ciekawostki&p=116101"},"modified":"2022-12-26T12:57:03","modified_gmt":"2022-12-26T11:57:03","slug":"argentarii-roman-bankers","status":"publish","type":"ciekawostki","link":"https:\/\/imperiumromanum.pl\/en\/curiosities\/argentarii-roman-bankers\/","title":{"rendered":"Argentarii – Roman bankers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Roman bankers appeared in the 3rd century BCE. Initially, they were called trapezitai<\/em> in Greek, but then the Latin name argentarii<\/em> came into use.<\/p>\n

Argentarii<\/em> did business in the taverna<\/em> in the Forum, near the Temple of Castor and Pollux. Bad business conduct could end in bankruptcy for the bankers. Bankruptcy was referred to as foro cedere<\/em>, foro abire<\/em> or a foro fugare<\/em>, “escape from the forum”. Such a strange combination of words resulted from the fact that the presence on the forum was the duty of a man doing business. In this way, he gave proof of his solvency. Leaving the square led to the obvious thesis that the banker was involved in shady business.<\/p>\n

Bankers took deposits, made loans, exchanged money, and sometimes conducted auctions for a one-per cent commission. A specific operation was the receptum argentarii<\/em> agreement, in which the banker guaranteed his client’s loan from a third party, becoming indebted to the latter in the event of the client’s insolvency. Over time, this operation was replaced by constitutum debiti alieni<\/em>, i.e. an informal obligation to pay someone else’s debt. Such solutions enabled the development of new credit operations.<\/p>\n

Each banker was obliged to keep two types of books: adversarium<\/em> and codex rationae mensae<\/em>.<\/p>\n