Monopoly Power
How Banks Replaced Popes Atop Europe's Political Hierarchy
Overview
The following essay briefly describes how we came to be ruled by banks. Central banks took over for the Popes after the power and influence of the Papacy was limited by the Protestant Reformation. The timing is revealing; the ink had barely dried on the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 when the first central bank popped up in England in 1694.
The P…