. . . detailed an arrangement between investors, who would stay at home nd take three quarters of the profit, and merchants, who would put up the other quarter and do the travelling." Special booths (i.e., benches, "banks") at Fairs were run by money changers, who traded in different currencies based on books that listed international rates of exchange. This evolved into letters of credit, "as investors became more confident in the stability of the Fairs and their administrators" (Burke, p. 97). In other words, organization led to confidence in the system of finance, which led to the emergence of a financial industry.
The Black Death of the early fourteenth century stopped the development of fairs, but when international trade revived in the latter part of the century, certain financial systems were well in place
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