This volume contains essays based on the papers presented at the international colloquium "Banks, Loans and Financial Archives in the Ancient World", held in Ghent and Brussels in 2006 in honour of R. Bogaert. Specialists of various fields and periods have contributed studies on banking and finance in the Ancient World (including the Near East) and 18th-century England, each applying his or her own research strategies, methodologies and traditions. A common ground was found transcending the boundaries between disciplines as diverse as Assyriology, social and economic history, Roman law, epigraphy, papyrology and economics. The result of this collaborative effort is a consistent study that takes up many of the challenges posed by recent discoveries and new insights concerning the 'nature' of the ancient economy. As such, it will prove a substantial contribution to the ongoing effort to better understand the genesis, development and role of money, credit and financial mediation in the Ancient World.