Can you guess when people-to-people lending was invented? Would you believe 300 A.D. in China? But not just in China, in fact, for centuries small groups of people all over the world have been coming together to lend each other money. The names may be different, but the idea is the same. In China it’s called Lun-hui, in Egypt it’s called Gameya, and in Mexico the Spanish word is Tanda.
Why not use a bank or a credit card?
Well, banks as we know them are a relatively new thing. The world’s oldest central bank, Sveriges Riksbank (AKA the Swedish National Bank), wasn’t founded until 1668—almost 1,400 years after the first recorded Lun-hui!
Oh. My. God.