Money changers served as middlemen who determined the relative worth of coins: “Do these twenty shillings equal one gold florin, or does a fair exchange require twenty-three of these shillings?” Money changers charged a fee for their services, and this long caused them to be condemned as usurers, but their services could not be done away with. In time the money changers began to maintain accounts of deposit for their clients and to lend as well as change money, thereby becoming banks of deposit.
