The appearance of the tradesmen of Lombardy, Tuscany, and other parts of Italy completed the work of the Jews and gave an energetic impulse to the commerce of the middle ages. The latter, from that time, traded in everything, and put in circulation real and personal property, such as horses, lands and houses. The historian Rigord goes so far as to say that the Jews were, at that time, real proprietors of half the kingdom.... It is also claimed that it was at this time that the first Bills of Exchange appeared, the invention of which some trace to about the seventh century, and others, only to the middle of the twelfth. It is a point which has not yet been cleared up, and which is not of so much consequence as some have supposed. The date of such a discovery, even if it could be authentically fixed, would be of interest simply as a matter of curiosity; but it appears destined to remain forever in doubt. It is thought, and with reason, that the invention is rather due to the Italian traders than to the Jewish brokers of this time, the latter not having had occasion as soon as the others to devote themselves to trade between different places, which probably suggested the idea. The very name of Letter of Exchange, which was primitively Italian, seems to indicate their true authorship; and the first city where they were used, Lyons, then the entrepot of Italy, is a further indication. It is probable that the Lombards and the Jews had an equal part in inventing them, and divined, from the beginning, the important consequences from their use.[36a] These ingenious contrivers later entered into a strife, and the history of the Italian republics of the middle ages is full of the debates which arose between them on the subject of privileges which some wished to exercise to the exclusion of others. We see the Jews become intendants, stewards, procurators, bankers, and even agents in marriages, according as they are more or less forcibly driven from all the regular commercial positions by the bulls of the Popes or by the jealousy of competitors. Everything thus contributed to narrow them down to a vicious circle, from which they can only escape by usury and money negotiations. When envy has forced them to abandon a city, the interest of the inhabitants calls them back; their capital has become so necessary to their industrial cities that the orders of the authorities are disregarded to prevent the Jews carrying it elsewhere. Moreover, soon houses for loaning money are started even in the villages; and the Jews of Tuscany direct from a central point a multitude of branch-houses of their establishments at Florence and Pisa.