“What’s the difference?”

“Mathematically? There is no difference. But the word is different.”

They were coming close to the huge compound of the Knights Templar now, and they had stopped to gaze at it.

“How is it the Templars are so rich?” Jacob had asked Baruch.

“They had huge land grants. For generations. They don’t pay taxes. And they lend money. The king owes them a fortune.”

“They lend for a fee, then,” Jacob said. “No interest.”

“Of course,” Baruch replied. “Actually,” he went on, “the Templars are interesting. They lend money. But that’s only part of it. They’re brilliant.”

“Why?”

“Look at their building. It’s an impregnable fortress. There’s probably more gold in there than any other building in France. It all got started when they transported bullion out to the Holy Land for the crusaders to use. They kept the money in fortresses out there, too. But that was just the start. Since then, they’ve built fortified bullion stores all over Christendom. So what’s so clever about that?”

“I suppose then they have bullion ready for any purpose, in any country.”

“True, but that’s not the point. The point,” said Baruch, “is that when you travel, you don’t have to take a lot of money with you. No armed guards. No fear of getting robbed. You just deposit your bullion with the Templars in London or Paris, get a receipt, and that gives you credit to draw on the Templars’ bullion deposits wherever you’re going. The Templars will charge you a large fee for the service, but it’s worth it. You’ve saved yourself a fortune in security.”

“Did the Templars invent this?”

“No. The old merchants around the Mediterranean have been holding credit balances with each other since time out of mind. But the scale of the Templars’ operations is stupendous. They’ve got enough stashed in some of their forts to pay for an army.”

“They must have to transport bullion themselves, sometimes,” Jacob said.

“Yes. But who’s going to attack a bullion shipment guarded by the Temple Knights. You’d have to be an idiot. Those bastards fight only to the death.” Baruch chuckled. “Funny, isn’t it: The only knights who always fight to the death are the ones protecting the money.”

Jacob had nodded and smiled. Yet his mind was in a whirl.

No doubt his cousin Baruch just thought he was having a chat with a boy who was going to be a physician. But his words were having a much more profound effect than he could have imagined.