Traveller's Cheques Were Invented by Monks With Swords

Travelling to the Holy Land in the twelfth century posed a logistical problem: the roads were crawling with bandits, and carrying gold on you was like painting a target on your back. The solution came from an order of warrior monks: the Templars.

It worked like this: you deposited your money at a Templar house — in Paris, in London — and they handed you a letter with the amount noted in code. On reaching your destination, you presented the document at another house of the order and they paid out its value, minus a fee. The money didn't travel with you: the paper did. Eight centuries before traveller's cheques, this was, for all practical purposes, an international banking network with branches, commissions and anti-fraud codes.

They did so well that they ended up managing entire fortunes: the kings of France entrusted them with the royal treasury, and the Paris Temple served as the crown's strongbox. That success was, in part, their undoing: in 1307 Philip IV, drowning in debts he owed them, arrested the entire order on a Friday the 13th and kept the vault.

Modern banking has many fathers. Few as unexpected as monks sworn to poverty.