Trade & Commerce Through Corporations: From Mediaeval Templers to Modern Settlers

PART 1 - THE BEGINNING

The Templars became a favored charity throughout Christendom, and grew rapidly in membership and power. Templar knights, in their distinctive white mantles with a red cross, were amongst the most skilled fighting units of the Crusades.

Flag used by the Templars in battle.

SOURCE: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

It is very strange to think about such a large organization at that time; however the Medici of Florence in Modern day Italy was a big name in Banking at that time as Bankers of Pope and largest in known Western world, i.e. Europe. The Templars were prominent in Christian finance, non-combatant members of the order, who made up as much as 90% of their members, managed a large economic infrastructure throughout Christendom. 

Convent of Christ Castle in Tomar, Portugal. 

Built in 1160 as a stronghold for the Knights Templar, 

it became the headquarters of the renamed Order of Christ. 

In 1983, it was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

SOURCE: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

They developed innovative financial techniques that were an early form of banking, building its own network of nearly 1,000 commanderies and fortifications across Europe and the Holy Land, and arguably forming the world's first multinational corporation.