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🌍 2. The Early Modern Period: Emergence of Proto-Global Finance

The defining struggle of the Early Modern era was the rise of the centralized nation-state and its desire to monopolize money (seigniorage).

Medieval exchequers used split wooden tally sticks to record debts. This was a physical, decentralized ledger. Both parties held a matching half, ensuring that neither could forge a transaction without the other. This functions as a primitive precursor to blockchain technology.