r/ThinkofRomeDaily

As I often do, I was thinking of Rome the other day as I digitally transferred some money to my landlady. And I wondered, did Romans have to physically haul giant boxes of coins around the city, or did they have a smarter system? Did they have a checking style of system? Did they have wax tablets, papyrus records, or some other way to keep track of the money and valuables held by a bank? Who were these bankers? Where did they keep all this money?!?!

Interestingly the Romans had something much closer to a banking system than I expected. Roman bankers, known as argentarii, accepted deposits, exchanged currency, extended credit, maintained account records for their customers, etc, etc. Wealthy Romans did not necessarily need to walk around carrying a fortune in silver denarii. Instead, bankers kept written records and could settle debts or transfer value through entries in their books, reducing the need to physically move large amounts of coin for every transaction.

These bankers were not necessarily Romans from Rome. The Forum was filled with people from across the Empire. Greeks, Jews, Egyptians, North Africans, Syrians, Gauls, Spaniards and countless others. A successful banker might have spoken multiple languages while serving customers from every corner of the known world. Super International!!

They maintained shops and offices known as tabernae argentariae usually located around the Forum and other busy commercial areas. Smaller amounts of coin might be kept in strongboxes, locked chests, or secured rooms as the wealthy often stored valuables in private household safes or trusted temple treasuries. Unlike a modern bank with a giant vault and federal insurance, security depended on locks and guards and trust and reputation and also the physical strength of the building itself!

On the other hand, a successful banker could be responsible for handling a fortune in gold and silver, yet much of that wealth might be represented only by entries on wax tablets and account records rather than piles of coins sitting in a back room.

Rome operated on a metallic currency system and physical money remained important. A large payment might involve chests of coins carried by trusted servants using pack animals that would be loaded onto ships by guards with plenty of risk. Romans were keeping accurate records, establishing trust being able to transfer value between people in attempted to avoid moving heavy loads of money whenever possible. Roman banker sitting behind a bench in the Roman Forum was solving the same financial challenges that banks are solving nearly two thousand years later!

And weirdly today, when we have digital transfers, banks and businesses physically move huge amounts of cash. Financial institutions order and deposit currency through Federal Reserve cash services, and armored carriers still transport physical money. So somewhere between ancient Roman bankers with wax tablets and a modern armored truck, the basic problem has stayed the same and money may be an idea, but sometimes it still has to be carried.

I think I was most surprised to learn that we are currently moving large amounts of cash money daily, even when we could be just using digital scratch mark with safeguards. Crazy!

Cited Sources:

^(World History Encyclopedia – Banking in the Roman World) ^(https://www.worldhistory.org/article/974/banking-in-the-roman-world/)

^(University of Chicago (Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities) – Argentarii) ^(https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Argentarii.html)

^(Encyclopaedia Romana – Roman Banking and Finance) ^(https://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/economy/banking/banking.html)

^(Federal Reserve – FedCash Services) ^(https://www.frbservices.org/financial-services/cash)

^(Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco – Cash Services) ^(https://www.frbsf.org/about-us/financial-services/cash-services/)