That appears to fit with my suspicion that banking was connected to or even arose from the Medieval trading houses.
Medieval ideas of usury IIRC come from Plato who wrote that money is “sterile” and therefore interest is impossible. Lots of neo-Platonism in the Medieval Catholic intellectual world.
Calvin was largely responsible for legalizing the payment of interest in the Protestant Reformation, pointing out that the Biblical prohibitions against interest were talking specifically about loans given to the very poor.
IIRC come from Plato who wrote that money is “sterile” and therefore interest is impossible.
Thanks Pelham. The notion of interest tramples the idea of "hard money" to death, so it figures that Plato and many of his time (and thereafter) would have that idea fixed in their noggins.