the monarchies of Europe the only avenue to wealth at first open to
private men was the government service. Offices, benefices, naval and
military commands, were bought with the expectation, often justified,
of making money out of them. The farmed revenues yielded immense
profit to the collectors. No small fortunes were reaped by Empson and
Dudley, the tools of Henry VII, but they were far surpassed by the
hoards of Wolsey and of Cromwell. Such was the great fortune made in
France by Semblancay, the son of a plain merchant of Tours, who turned
the offices of treasurer and superintendent of finances to such good
account that he bought himself large estates and baronies. Fortunes on
a proportionately smaller scale were made by the servants of the German
princes, as by John Schenitz, a minion of the Archbishop Elector Albert
of Mayence. So insecure was the tenure of riches accumulated in royal
or princely service that most of the men who did so, including all
those mentioned in this paragraph, ended on the scaffold, save, indeed,
Wolsey, who would have done so had he not died while awaiting trial.

It is to be noted that, though land was the principal form of wealth in
the Middle Ages, no great fortunes were made from it at the beginning
of the capitalistic era, save by the titled holders of enormous
domains. The small landlords suffered at the expense of the burghers
in Germany, and not until these burghers turned to the country and
bought up landed estates did agriculture become thoroughly profitable.

[Sidenote: Banking]

The intimate connection of government and capitalism is demonstrated by
the fact that, next to officials, government concessionaires and
bankers were the first to make great fortunes. At this time banking
was {519} closely dependent on public loans and was therefore the first
great business to be established on the capitalistic basis. The first
"trust" was the money trust. Though banking had been well started in
the Middle Ages, it was still in an imperfect state of development.
Jews and goldsmiths made a considerable number of commercial loans but
these loans were always regarded by the borrower as temporary
expedients; the habitual conduct of business on borrowed capital was
unknown. But, just as the new output of the German mines was
increasing the supply of precious metals, the greater costliness of
war, due to the substitution of mercenaries and fire-arms for feudal
levies equipped wi