Bank

“Money is the best diplomat.”

The Bank is a sophisticated financial institution that manages deposits, extends credit, and facilitates the flow of capital throughout a city’s economy. By pooling the wealth of merchants, landowners, and the state itself, Banks amplify the productive power of gold and generate substantial revenue for the treasury. A city with a Bank becomes a financial powerhouse.

Stats

Effects

• +4 gold per turn in the city.

Strategy

The Bank is an exceptional economic building, providing +4 gold with zero maintenance. Combined with its prerequisite Marketplace (+2 gold, also zero maintenance), a single city generates +6 gold per turn from commercial buildings alone at no ongoing cost. This makes the Marketplace-Bank chain the most efficient gold generation in the game. Prioritise Banks in every city as soon as Banking is researched – the gold income funds unit maintenance, building upkeep, and rush purchases. In a large empire where maintenance costs scale with the number of cities, a strong banking infrastructure is the difference between prosperity and financial collapse.

Historical Background

Modern banking traces its origins to medieval Italy, where the great banking houses of Florence, Venice, and Genoa developed the financial instruments that underpin capitalism to this day. The Medici Bank, founded in 1397, pioneered double-entry bookkeeping, letters of credit, and a branch network spanning the major commercial centres of Europe. The word “bank” itself derives from the Italian “banca,” the bench on which money changers conducted their business. The establishment of national central banks – beginning with the Bank of Sweden in 1668 and the Bank of England in 1694 – marked the transition from private banking to state-managed monetary systems, enabling governments to finance wars, infrastructure, and colonial expansion on an unprecedented scale.