Ive mentioned before that Im enjoying Game of Thrones on HBO—and yes, Ive heard the books are terrific, but Im reading very little these days that doesnt relate somehow to George Armstrong Custer. One scene that impressed me was Stannis Baratheons visit to the Iron Bank. The Bank was about to turn down his request for a loan until Davos Seaworth turns everything around by showing his hand, with the fingers chopped off by Stannis, and testifying to his character. That emphasis on personality was, in fact, the way that credit worked until fairly recently. The records of the first credit bureau in America, kept at the Harvard Business School, consist of reports on businessmen for other businessmen. Reputation mattered almost as much as financial strength in these reports. Though the nineteenth-century idea of moral rectitude was a little different from ours: One report on Daniel Drew noted that he engaged in heavy insider trading as treasurer of the Erie Railway—and concluded that it made him a good credit risk. Not unlike, I guess, the Iron Bank trusting its money to a king who chops the fingers off his chief underlings hand. #gameofthrones #IronBank #DavosSeaworth #banking #credit
Posted on: Sun, 22 Jun 2014 20:14:23 +0000
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