| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| woodwwad |
Posted - 04 Aug 2010 : 22:30:58
I'm looking for info around dr 1373
can anyone give me some info on banks in the realms? Which places have them & how they opporate.
thanks for any help |
| 4 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Kyrene |
Posted - 05 Aug 2010 : 06:39:09
Also read through the relevant merchant parts of Power of Faerūn if you can. There are things like "backers," "surety," "coinrings" and the like, that while not purely banks, do performs aspects of banks. |
| woodwwad |
Posted - 05 Aug 2010 : 06:26:00
The idea of bringing temples into the mix is a good one, thanks to both of you for that.
What I did was had a bank in Athkatla, which I set up like an old West bank. He put his money in at that location, they gave him a reciet (which you've pointed out should be called a blood note) & he'll have to go back there to pick it up. Of course the bank is not insured or backed by the gov. but instead of charging him a fee, which doesn't make much sense to me, they'll be paying him a slight interest. After all, they want to have money to make all those loans with, & Amn is busy. |
| The Sage |
Posted - 05 Aug 2010 : 01:18:22
There are merchant companies, enterprises and trading costers, that people in the Realms use to invest their money in, as well as agents who handle the investments and manage the financial transactions. There are people who will hide and/or protect your money, for a fee of course, and there are rentable storage spaces in various cities and other locales, as well as moneylenders and money-changers.
There are locales described in The Night Parade which function like "cache-houses"... existing as businesses equipped with what can only be assumed to be safe deposit boxes.
Ed's noted a rather integrated "bank" and "moneychanging" system at work in Delzimmer. See his Elminster Speaks articles at WotC.
As well, Waukeenar do, in fact, tend to run some of their temples as "moneylending" locales... within large cities across the Realms. |
| Thauramarth |
Posted - 04 Aug 2010 : 22:56:58
OK, off the top of my head - I don't think that there are any "consumer banks" in the Realms in the traditional sense, i.e. a financial institution where you can deposit funds in one branch, and withdraw them from another branch, or obtain credit (based on 1E and 2E lore, which is all I have access to), and as far as I remember, Big Ed has either not been asked the question in his thread, or has not answered it yet if he has been asked the questio.
It depends on what kind of "banking service" you would be looking for.
American Express is probably not available  .
Most every city has one or more moneylenders, who fulfill similar roles. Certainly for obtaining credit, although interest rates will probably be exorbitant, by modern earth standards (double digit rates per month would not be unheard of). But moneylenders would be individuals, a family, or a front for an unincorporated group of "investors".
Transfer of funds would be a lot more tricky. Either you are dealing with a large organisation (say, the Zhentarim, or one of the big trade costers, of the merchant organisation of one of Waterdeep's noble families or, how could we forget, the church of Waukeen, and many temples in general), or with an individual.
Transfer of funds would likely consist of someone handing over coin to one moneylender, and receiving a promissory note (called bloodnotes in the Forgotten Realms Adventures hardback) which he could take to either an associate of the individual, or a representative of the same organisation in another area. These bloodnotes would not be universally accepted means of payment; it would just serve to be able to withdraw an amount of coin (minus a small commission, of course) from a counterpart known and trusted by the recipient of the coins.
I suppose that the bloodnotes might be used as a means of payment and be accepted by some other parties, provided they know and trust the counterpart that is supposed to make the payment. Depending on how difficult they think it would be to collect, they might accept the bloodnote at a discounted value. Some groups might accepts bloodnotes issued by some parties at full value; for instance, I would imagine that it might be a matter of honour for a representative of one Waterdhavian noble family to accept a bloodnote payable by another Waterdhavian family at full value. |
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