Roles Played by Financial Institutions in an Economy Essay

Roles Played by Financial Institutions in an Economy - Essay Example Financial Institutions play a very important role in the economy by the provision of various financial instruments (Frank, 2003). Different types of Financial Institutions provide different services to its members or clients. For example, Banks provide such services as mortgages, loans, and credit cards while on the other hand a financial institution such as Insurance Firms provide services such as insurance services, securities and buying and selling services of real estate. These financial institutions, however, interconnect with one another to provide different roles in the economy. Some of the major roles of Financial Institutions are discussed in this essay as follows. The first major role of financial institutions in the economy is that the financial institutions motivate the financial sector of the economy. Financial institutions such as banks in most cases will use the resources that they own to benefit themselves (Sera, 2005). They will use these resources to make profits for themselves and for their own growth. This is however helpful to the economy of a country as there will be an increase in the business of investing when these financial institutions grow. This because there will be a boost in the financial instruments such as an increase in the number of loans that a bank can give to an individual or to other companies. With the growth of these financial institutions, the financial sector of the economy becomes motivated and the economy of the country is strengthened. The second role of the financial institutions in the economy is that the financial institutions will introduce and develop Niche strategies.  

Motivation for Crusades Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Motivation for Crusades - Essay Example The Moslems themselves kept the routes open to Christians, and the Byzantine Empire safe, until 1071, when Seljuk Turks took the lands, and persecuted Christians on the way. Lost land, religious conflict, and internal pressures were the background to Western Europe's initiation of the Crusades. R.W. Southern notes that "The worsening position of the Eastern Empire, and the genuine desire of some to save it: the even more potent though secret desire of others to profit by its disintegration; the dim realization that Islam constituted athreat to Christendomsome hoped to be saved by going; others didn't care if they were damned so long as they found new fields for profit and adventure. There was something in the Crusades to appeal to everyone." (Southern, 56) The crusades were, as Riley-Smith states "A holy war fought against those perceived to be external or internal foes of Christendom for the recovery of Christian property or in defence of the church or Christian people" (Riley-Smith, 1987, xxviii). This was certainly the overt motivation for the first Crusade, as initiated by Pope Urban II in November of 1095. This Crusade had a peculiar beginning, and Riley-Smith has made extensive note of this: "Few nobles turned up, and the theatre must have been riskyeven so, his appeal for knights to liberate Jerusalem struck a chord in western society" (Riley Smith, 1995). Urban openly declared "'Dieu le veult' - 'God wills it!'" (Bishop, 105); for many hearing the religious leader of the Western World declaring God's Will, the Crusades must have seemed to be a religious duty. In considering why this speech made such an impression, it should not be forgotten that the majority of Western Europe was, by this time, Christian in name at the very le ast. Europeans had been making the arduous pilgrimage to Jerusalem for decades, and in some ways the early Crusades might be considered another form of pilgrimage. Personal penance and justification by faith were still quite strong issues of faith, and would remain so until at least the mid-fourteenth century (Flagellants during the Black Death being one example of this). Being a Crusader, not only fighting for Christ but also traveling to the Holy Land to do so, was therefore a religious duty, atonement for sin, and a Holy Quest, similar to that being written about in Early Medieval romances. In fact, it seems as though Urban did not intend to have such a dramatic effect upon the nobles of Europe: the impression is that "The pop was taken aback by the success of his proposal. No plan had been made for the prosecution of the crusade" (Bishop, 106). The organization of the First Crusade was rather like a mopping-up exercise, after the disastrous People's Crusade in 1096. Poor people such as this marched under their own steam to free Jerusalem, and rather than the idealism of the nobility, their motivations appear to be genuine religious concern for the Holy Land. It should be clear, therefore, that the overt motivation, religion, was also an emotional force for many of the participants in the first Crusades, Kings and princes, such as Richard I of England, who were not struggling to maintain a fief, were probably