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概括:As Italy and much of Europe struggle with their finances, the city of Florence has staged an art exhibition looking at the critical — and controversial — role that financial institutions have played for centuries.
听写方式:全文听写
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Florentine
florin
Florence
Rischio
Tuscan
Catholic Church
banco
English King Edward III
Tim Parks
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As illustrated in the exhibit, Florentines also invented the letter of exchange, whereby a banker would give a client, say 1,000 florins in one country with a pledge that the loan would be paid back in another within three months in the local currency. The banker made a profit on the exchange rate. Many of today's financial terms derive from 14th century Florence. Rischio, or risk, was the Tuscan word used to denote the costs incurred, or contingencies, of a loan. It was simply a euphemism for interest, a taboo for the Catholic Church. The word bank comes from banco, the bench on which itinerant merchants traded. An insolvent merchant would have his banco broken, hence bankruptcy. One of the many objects exhibited is an account book that illustrates the dangers of sovereign default, as when the English King Edward III reneged on big loans he'd gotten from Florentine bankers. Exhibit curator Tim Parks describes the impact of the new flow of wealth from this new standardized money as it pervaded every sphere of life. "Suddenly, everything has a unit value and everything can be compared in numbers. A priest has a fee for a wedding and a funeral. Is that more or less than the cost of a flask of wine, or a prostitute?"