For the two hundred or so years that the Templars had been in existence they had amassed a fortune in donations of money, land, and other valuables. They may have been called the Poor Knights of the Temple of Solomon but they were far from being poor.

 

The Templars had developed a great business acumen and are credited with inventing the double-entry bookkeeping system. More importantly, in their role as helpers of christian pilgrims traveling to Jerusalem, they had invented the first banking system. Pilgrims would deposit funds at a Templar site near the start of their pilgrimage and receive in return a promissory note suitably encoded. On arrival at their destination in Jerusalem they would exchange it for cash. So effective was this system that it began to appear wherever the Templars operated in Europe and travelers needed protection as well.

 

In order to support the Templars and travelers coming from Europe to the Holy Land they had a huge fleet of fast and powerful ships. So in our hunt we're looking for places and people heavily involved in Banking and Shipping today.

 

The most important countries in shipping and ship building are Greece, Japan, and Liberia.

 

Assigned values - 0=not involved in either; 1=Banking or Shipping; 2=Banking and Shipping