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　　Many of today's banking services were first practiced in ancient Lydia, Phoenicia, China, and Greece, where trade and commerce flourished. The temples in Babylonia made loans from their treasuries as early as 2000 B.C.. The temples of ancient Greece served as safe-deposit vaults for the valuables of worshipers. The Greeks also coined money and developed a system of credit. The Roman Empire had a highly developed banking system, and its bankers accepted deposits of money, made loans, and pur- chased mortgages. Shortly after the fall of Rome in AD 476, banking declined in Europe.

　　(1) _______________ The moneychangers of the Italian states developed facilities for exchanging local and foreign currency. Soon merchants demanded other services, such as lending money, and gradually bank ser- vices were expanded.

　　The first bank to offer most of the basic banking functions known today was the Bank of Barcelona in Spain. Founded by merchants in 1401, this bank held deposits, exchanged currency, and carried out lending operations. It also is believed to have introduced the bank check. (2) _______________ These institutions laid the foundation for modern banks of deposit and transaction.

　　For more than 300 years, banking on the European continent was in the hands of powerful statesmen and wealthy private bankers, such as the Medici family in Florence and the Fuggers in Germany. (3) _______________

　　The Bank of France was organized in 1800 by Napoleon. The hank had become the dominant financial institution in France by the mid-1800s. In Germany, banking experienced a rapid development about the middle of the 19th century with the establishment of several strong stock-issuing, or publicly owned banks.

　　Banking in the British Isles originated with the London goldsmiths of the 16th century. These men made loans and held valuables for safekeeping. By the 17th century English goldsmiths created the model for today's modern fractional reserve banking -- that is, the practice of keeping a fraction of depositors' money in reserve while ex- tending the remainder to borrowers in the form of loans. Customers deposited gold and silver with the goldsmiths for safekeeping and were given deposit receipts verifying their Ownership of the gold deposited with the goldsmith. These receipts could be used as money because they were backed by gold. But the goldsmiths soon discovered that they could take a chance and issue additional receipts against the gold to other people who needed to borrow money. (4) _______________ Hence , the amount of receipts or claims on the gold frequently exceeded the actual amount of the gold, and the idea that bankers could create money was born.

　　(5) _______________ Other banks existed in the colonies prior to this, most notably the Bank of Pennsylvania, but these banks were chartered by individual states. In 1787 the Bank of North America changed to a Pennsylvania charter following controversy about the legality of a congressional charter. Other large banks were chartered in the early 1780s by the various states, primarily to is- sue paper money called bank notes. These notes supplemented the coins then in circulation and assisted greatly in business expansion. The banks were also permitted to accept deposits and to make loans.

　　A. Three other early banks, each managed by a committee of city officials, were the Bank of Amsterdam (1609), the Bank of Venice (1587), and the Bank of Hamburg (1619).

　　B. This worked as long as the original depositors did not withdraw all their gold at one time.

　　C. The increase of trade in 13th-century Italy prompted the revival of banking.

　　D. During the 19th century, members of the Rothschild family became the most influential bankers in all Europe and probably in the world. This international banking family was founded by German financier Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1743 ~1812), but it soon spread to all the major European financial capitals.

　　E. Because there were no minimum reserve requirements on deposits, bank notes were secured by the assets of the issuing banks. Most assets took the form of business loans.

　　F. The first important bank in the United States was the Bank of North America, established in 1781 by the Second Continental Congress. It was the first bank chartered by the U.S. government.