Can you imagine back to 1185? It’s so hard. It’s forever back.
The Templars built a Temple back then, just south of the river fleet. They had money. Back then it was the crusades kicking off. “That thing you believe is wrong. We will teach you that our idea is right. By force.”
With a modern sensibility it seems absurd that a belief structure can be used as grounds for war. But still now in the modern world pretendywendy things are the unquestioned basis for absurd acts. People actually literally explode themselves publicly because their flibbedywobbet has PINK wings, not blue like those hateful fools have believed for centuries!
The Knights Templar created the idea of banks, before banks became about gambling for profit and actively destroying the economy.
Back then you could lodge your money in London and shortly have it available in Jerusalem. Amazing, and difficult and rare. It was still a gamble, of course, but the gamble was on the Templars. Less likely to result in some pasty faced narcissist eating your stuff. They tried to make sure you got your stuff.
The gold you left wasn’t the gold you withdrew, of course. They didn’t need to send the bank manager off walking from London to Jerusalem laden with your stuff without getting beaten up. They just passed a promissory note down the line, faster than any individual could travel.
It was a gamble. It was largely predicated on pillaging. But it worked. Yes the gold was mostly stolen but there was enough stolen gold to satisfy the people who didn’t get killed when they asked for it.
Meanwhile the heart of their economy sat in London. It’s still there, in the thick of it, pulled back from the main drag. The inner Temple is a strange anomaly – a quiet public private bit of land, just off the main drag. Sometimes I know someone who has a key to private gardens around there. I’ve covered that ground in different contexts very deeply. The church itself is a huge beautiful and fascinating monument. And whatever it was built on, in the heart of London, it’s a powerful building.
This evening I watched Macbeth there. Good to see a show with witches in that ancient edifice. All the stone churches are built on places of power.
The guys in the Twelfth Night company told me I was mad to go and watch a play. Particularly a Shakespeare’s play. I’ve had a six day week on Shakespeare and then on the Saturday before my day off I pay money to see people do it instead of just stopping. But hell, I love working with that person’s words and I always learn from watching other people.
Right now Macbeth is of particular interest to me as it’s the active Factory project. I basically literally know every single line. I’m interested in how they deliver them, and whether the company can sweep me up enough that I forget. But meanwhile I reserve the right to be distracted by a glorious ceiling…
AlBarclay 