Crusading For Coinage

The following is a chapter from the book Money, Sex, Power & Faith.

“If you want to make a little money, write a book. If you want to make a lot of money, create a religion.” – L. Ron Hubbard

By the time the Roman Empire fell, the Roman Catholic Church had already grown to the point where it was no longer reliant upon the government to support it. However, it wasn’t quite able to fully defend itself, and as Muslims started moving into the territory around Jerusalem, Pope Urban decided to call in Christians throughout Europe in 1095 to come chase their estranged cousins out. Although the 7 or so Crusades that happened throughout the next couple of centuries created a lot of misery for everyone involved as various popes called for bloodshed, they did prove that war was an effective way to generate money, and it was largely thanks to the Crusades that banking was back in business.

Henry II used the Crusades to levy quite a few taxes, assigning the Templars and Hospitallers to collect payments throughout the Holy Land for the “protection” they offered, an early model of the protection the mob would come to use later on. When Richard I took the throne in 1189, he privatized the assets of the monarchy to pay for his own Crusade, and managed to get taken prisoner on his way through Europe, discovering yet another way that war can improve the economy — ransoms…