WI: earlier goldsmith bankers?

[DominusNovus]

Modern banks grew largely out of goldsmiths who used the gold they had to as deposits to start lending. When you think about it, it makes complete sense. But it doesn’t have a lot to do with the merchant banks of the Medieval age, or banking in the Classical world.

But there were certainly goldsmiths back then. What stopped them from engaging in similar practices?

 

[Mad Bad Rabbit]

IIRC, the Florentine banking families had vast amounts of political influence, land, and mercantile trade operations that the goldsmiths don't have. Since the key banking practices of fractional-reserve lending ("fraud") and charging useful amounts of interest ("usury") are forbidden in that era, the families are making their actual profits off of their trade networks and monopolies, and the banking services are merely facilitating those operations.