Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. This book describes the history of banking systems across the world. The notion of banking systems have been in existence since throughout the centuries. In fact, many of the world's oldest banks are still in existence today. Project Webster represents a new publishing paradigm, allowing disparate content sources to be curated into cohesive, relevant, and informative books. To date, this content has been curated from Wikipedia articles and images under Creative Commons licensing, although as Project Webster continues to increase in scope and dimension, more licensed and public domain content is being added. We believe books such as this represent a new and exciting lexicon in the sharing of human knowledge.