[Interest] FWD: The last crusade of the Templars

[R.A. Hettinga]

I've liked to joke that, because of their encrypted "passbook" accounting
and payment system, a way for holy-land pilgrims to deposit money in
Europe, deduct amounts from an encrypted document for Templar-sponsored
passage, hostelry, etc., en route, and collect the remainder on arrival in
Jerusalem, that the Templars were the original financial cryptographers.
:-).

More seriously, it was operating this kind of medieval Western Union cum
Brinks cum Wells Fargo cum Hilton, which not only allowed them to
effectively transfer the asset value of whatever booty they may have
acquired in their early days back home, but also to make the lion's share
of the money they were eventually disbanded for...

Cheers,
RAH
Who put a "Templar's Square" maths puzzle on the IBUC shirt at the first
EFCE conference in Edinburgh because of Roslyn Chapel, just outside of
town, and who, coincidentally, has spent the last 16 years in the Boston
neighborhood of Roslindale, the former home of a large, discrete, Masonic
temple, speaking of punters who think they're modern Templars...
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