I'm going to offer something to this debate that I haven't noticed yet, the difference between wealth and power. One form of wealth can be material wealth, gold, silver, land, etc. But, in my opinion, a powerful man is somebody who can look a guy in the eye, who is trying to kill him, and plant a bullet between his ears, and then move on to the next guy. I've known wealthy men as well as powerful men. The wealthy men accumulated their wealth through trade. The powerful men I've known became powerful due to the circumstances of their environment. Wealthy men become powerful, not necessarily because they are powerful, but because they can buy the services of those who are. And a powerful man can become wealthy by carefully choosing the traders he makes an alliance with. You can find these alliances throughout history. Look at the groups we talk about here on Tnet... the Templars, the Jesuits, the KGC, all warriors who made alliances with...who? This is something to remember in your research. Some people on Tnet talk about tracking the money by going back a couple hundred years and moving forward but it might be easier to go back as far as you can, historically, and move forward...get the big picture and then look for the details.