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Lothar von Hacklheber

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This will be The Confusion page for Lothar von Hacklheber

Stephensonia

Seems Cryptonomicon's Rudolf von Hacklheber was telling the truth about Enoch Root's links to his family. While he was introduced in Quicksilver — we learn more about him in The Confusion. Seems he is close to The Doctor as well.

Authored entries

Community entry: Lothar

Lothar through his bank trades in commodities. As a child he was tutored by Egon von Hacklheber - a distant relation of sorts. Smallpox took his two older brothers when they were children. The experience took its toil.

Commodity markets

[edited for a Baroque Cycle focus] Commodity markets define and trade contracts for delivery of any product or service that can be characterized in an interchangeable way. They are complex, and include a wide array of instruments to manage risk.

What's in a contract:

The modern commodity markets have their roots in the trading of agricultural products. While wheat and corn, cattle and pigs, were widely traded using standard instruments in the 19th century in the United States, other basic foodstuffs as soybeans were only added quite recently in most markets. For a commodity market to be established, there must be very broad consensus on the variations in the product that make it acceptable for one purpose or another.

Similar specifications apply for orange juice, cocoa, sugar, wheat, corn, barley, "pork bellies" (pigs), milk, feedstuffs, fruits, vegetables, other grains, other beans, hay, other livestock, meats, poultry, eggs, or any other commodity which is so traded.

In addition, delivery day, method of settlement and delivery point must all be specified. Typically, trading must end 2 (or more) business days prior to the delivery day, so that the routing of the shipment (which for soybeans is 30,000 kilograms) can be finalized via ship or rail, and payment can be settled when the contract arrives at any delivery point.

Delivery and condition guarantees

However, the commodity status of living things is always subject to doubt - it was hard to validate the health or existence of sheep or goats. Excuses for non-delivery were not unknown, and there are recovered Sumerian letters that complain of sickly goats, sheep that had already been fleeced, and etc..

Such concerns persist to the present day - the concept of an interchangeable deliverable or guaranteed delivery is always to some degree a fiction. Trade in commodities is like trade in any other physical product or service. No magic of the commodity contract itself makes "units" of the product totally uniform nor gets it to the delivery point safely and on time.

To keep commodity markets operating, some potential is always required - to requlate at least enough to ensure that delivery happens and non-delivery is noted as part of the seller's reputation.

Reputation and clearing

If a seller's reputation was good, individual "backers" or "bankers" could decide to take the risk of "clearing" a trade. The observation that trust is always required between market participants later led to credit money. But until relatively modern times, communication and credit were primitive. Credit money is money that is backed by a promise to pay other than that of the state. Examples of credit money are bank deposits orcredit card loans.

During the Crusades in Europe, precious goods would be entrusted to the Catholic Church's Knights Templar, who effectively created a system of modern credit accounts. Over time this system grew into the credit money that we know today, where banks create money by approving loans - although the risk and reserve policies of each national central bank sets a limit on this.

Classical civilizations built complex global markets trading gold or silver for spices, cloth, wood and weapons, most of which had standards of quality and timeliness. Considering the many hazards of climate, piracy, theft and abuse of military fiat by rulers of kingdoms along the trade routes, it was a major focus of these civilizations to keep markets open and trading in these scarce commodities. Reputation and clearing became central concerns, and the states which could handle them most effectively became very powerful empires, trusted by many peoples to manage and mediate trade and commerce.

Commodity and empire

Europe did not establish a central banking system until the Knights Templar in the 13th century. A series of commodity markets prevailed in medieval Europe throughout that time, as wheat and cheese and iron and wood were traded in more local markets. The gold standard acquired its pre-eminence to back trade, as it did not depend on the constantly-shifting medieval feudal alliances.

Knights Templar

History

The first of the military orders, the Knights Templar or Poor Knights of Christ were founded in 1118 in the aftermath of the First Crusade to help the new Kingdom of Jerusalem maintain itself against its defeated Muslim neighbors, and to ensure the safety of the large numbers of European pilgrims that flowed towards Jerusalem after its conquest. Templarius.jpg

Seal of the Knights
The two riders have been
interpreted as a sign
of poverty, the duality of
monk/soldier or hidden
homosexuality

Their name alludes to their historical headquarters in the Mosque of Omar (a.k.a. "Dome of the Rock") on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. This they renamed Templum Domini. Represented on one of their seals, the structure was believed to be a remnant of the Temple of Jerusalem, and was the model for many Templar churches in Europe, for example the Temple Church in London. See also Raphael's painting The Marriage of the Virgin on show in the Brera Gallery, Milan.

The Templars were organized as a monastic order, following a rule created for them by Bernard of Clairvaux, the founder of the Cistercian Order. The Templars were well-connected and quickly became prime movers in the international politics of the Crusades period. In time, they were endowed with several extraordinary Papal bulls (see Omne Datum Optimum) that permitted them, among other things, to levy taxes and accept tithing in the areas under their direct control, facilitating their quick rise to institutional power.

There were four divisions of brothers in the Templars: * the knights, equipped as heavy cavalry * the sergeants, equipped as light cavalry and drawn from a lower social class than the knights * farmers, who administered the property of the Order * the chaplains, who were ordained priests and saw to the spiritual needs of the Order.

At any time, there were approximately 10 people in support positions for each Knight. In addition, there were brothers devoted only to banking, as this extraordinary Order was often trusted with precious goods by participants in the Crusade - over time this grew into a new basis of money as Templars became increasingly involved in banking activities. It is some indication of their powerful political connections that the Templars' involvement in usury did not lead to more controversy within the Order and the church at large.

The Templars' political connections and awareness of the essentially urban and commercial nature of the Outremer communities naturally led the Order to a position of significant power both in Europe and the Holy Lands. Their success attracted the jealousy and greed of many other Orders and eventually that of the nobility and monarchs of Europe as well, who were at this time seeking to monopolize control of money and banking after a long chaotic period in which civil society, especially the Church and its lay Orders, had dominated financial activities. The Templars' holdings were extensive both in Europe and the Middle East, including, for a time, the entire island of Cyprus.

Besides Palestine, the order also fought in the Spanish Reconquista. They were given extensive possessions and castles in frontier land. At one point, they were to inherit the kingdom of Aragon, jointly with other military orders.

On October 13, 1307, what may have been all the Knights Templar in France were simultaneously arrested by agents of Philip the Fair (Philippe le Bel), to be later tortured into admitting heresy in the Order. A modern historical view is that Philip, who seized the treasury and broke up the monastic banking system, simply sought to control it for himself. This, and the Templars' original banking of assets for suddenly-mobile depositors, were two of many shifts towards a system of military fiat to back European money, removing this power from Church Orders. The Hospitallers of St John of Jerusalem, seeing the fate of the Templars, were also convinced to give up banking at this time.

Many kings and nobles supported the Knights at that time, and only dissolved the order in their fiefs when ordered so by Pope Clement V. In particular, Robert the Bruce, King of the Scots, had already been excommunicated for other reasons and was not, therefore disposed to pay any attention to Papal commands. As a result many of the order fled to Scotland and also to Portugal, where the order name was changed to "Order of Christ" and is believed to have contributed to the first naval discoveries of the Portuguese.

However, the accusation of religious heresy was not, by the standards of the time, entirely without merit. Under torture, some Templars "admitted" to homosexual acts and the worship of a "bearded head" ("Baphomet"). Their leaders later denied the admission and for that were executed. Some authors discount this as a common accusation (as it was in the Inquisition), and therefore a typical forced admission.

Conspiracy theories related to the suppression of the Knights Templar often go far beyond the simple and obvious motive of simply seizing property and consolidating political power, which was and remains an extremely common motivation for all forms of religious persecution. Some Freemasons believe they were descended from Templars who fled to Scotland and that the group really did have heretical beliefs. Ironically, it is the Catholic Church's position that the persecution was unjust, that there was nothing wrong with the Templars, and that the Pope at the time was tricked into suppressing them.

There is a growing debate about the possibility that the Knights Templar may have sponsored pre-Columbian voyages to America.

There is also a Masonic Knights Templar organization which in America and other countries is part of the York Rite. In most jurisdictions it is open only to those who profess a belief in the Christian religion. It is unknown whether or not it has historical connections with the original Knights Templar.

However, an ecumenical Christian chivalric society named the Sovereign Military Order of the Temple of Jerusalem was founded in 1804, with the support of Napoleon, that is dedicated to charitable works and antiquarian research. This order operates on the basis of the traditions of the medieval Knights Templar. It is probably the modern organization that most effectively reclaims the spirit of, but does not assert any direct descent from the ancient order. In 2001, the United Nations granted the Order of the Temple a special consultative status.

Banknotes

A banknote is a kind of currency, issued as legal tender. With coins, banknotes make up the cash forms of all modern money systems. Coins are used for lower valued units, notes for the higher values.

The first recorded use of banknotes was in the 7th century in China, however in Europe the first banknotes were issued by Stockholms Banco (described below) in 1660, although the bank ran out of coins to redeem its notes in 1664 and ceased operating in that year. It was 1694 when the Bank of England issued the first permanently circulating banknotes. The use of fixed denominations and printed banknotes came in use in the 18th century.

Most banknotes are made of heavy paper, sometimes made with linen, cotton, or other textile fibres. Some countries including Mexico and Australia produce banknotes made from plastic, in order to incorporate a small transparent window a few mm in size as a security feature that can't be reproduced by common counterfeiting techniques.

For information about banknotes of particular countries or supranational entities see: * Australian banknotes * British banknotes * Euro banknotes * Turkish banknotes * United States banknotes (Federal Reserve notes)

Sveriges Riksbank

front
The Swedish Krona (2001)
The text on the coin reads:
“Carl XVI Gustaf, Sveriges Konung”
(Carl XVI Gustaf, King of Sweden)Sveriges Riksbank is the central bank of Sweden, sometimes called just the Bank of Sweden. It is known to be the world's oldest Central bank.

Its' History

The Riksbank began its operations in 1668, its antecedent being the Bank of Palmstruch or the Stockholm Banco, which was founded in 1656. Although the bank of Johan Palmstruch was private, it was the King who chose its management: in a letter to Palmstruch he gave permission to its operations according to stated regulations.

However, Stockholm Banco, the world's oldest note-issuing bank collapsed as a result of the issuing of too many notes without the necessary collateral. Palmstruch, who was considered responsible for the bank's losses, was condemned to death, but later received clemency. On September 17, 1668, the privilege of Palmstruch to operate a bank, was transferred to the Riksens Ständers Bank and was run under the auspices of the parliament of the day. Due to the failure of Stockholm Banco the new bank was managed under the direct control of the Riksdag of the Estates to prevent the interference of the King. When new Riksdag was instituted in 1866, the name of the bank was changed to Sveriges Riksbank.

The lesson learnt of the Stockholm Banco-experience, the Riksbank was not permitted to issue bank-notes. Nevertheless, in 1701 permission was granted to issue so called credit-notes. Some time in the middle of the 18th century counterfeit notes began appearing which caused serious problems. To prevent forgeries it was decided that the Riksbank should produce its own paper for bank-notes and a paper-mill was founded in Tumba, on the outskirts of Stockhom.

A few years later, the first commercial banks were founded and these were also allowed to issue bank-notes. The bank-notes represented a claim to the bank without interest paid, and thus became a considerable source of income to the banks. Nonetheless, security in the form of a deposit at the Riksbank was required to cover the value of all notes issued.

During the 19th century the Riksbank maintained a dominant position as a credit institution and issuer of bank-notes. The bank also managed national trade transactions as well as continuing to provide credit to the general public. The first branch-office was opened in 1824, later followed with subsidiary branches opening in each county (län). The present operational activities as a central bank differ from those during the 19th century. For example, no interest-rate related actvities were conducted.

The position of the Riksbank as a central bank dates back to 1897 when the first Riksbank Act was accepted concurrently with a law giving the Riksbank the exclusive right of issuing bank-notes. This copyright concluded its role and importance regarding monetary policy in a modern sense, as the exclusive right to issue notes is a condition when conducting monetary policy and defending the value of a currency. Behind the decision were repeated demands that the private banks should cease to issue notes as it was considered that the ensuing profits should befall the general public.