ABSTRACT
The formation of an efficient financial system is a fundamental element in the process by which contemporary capitalist societies have taken shape. The circumstances of the financial market in the British Isles were not the same as those on the continent, nor did the authorities and the citizens themselves have the same perception of the treatment that should be given to the commercial innovation of banknotes. In parallel to the state-sponsored banks, other banking entities sprang up in every country in order to provide financial assistance to the economy’s private sector, giving rise to the figure of the banker or the banking house whose main function was to discount bills, make loans to businesses and individuals and take deposits. The private banking activity carried out by individual bankers covered the financial needs of the private sector satisfactorily in most countries until the early eighteenth century.
