<P> The temple of Artemis at Ephesus was the largest depository of Asia . A pot - hoard dated to 600 B.C. was found in excavations by the British Museum during the year after 1904 . During the time at the cessation of the first Mithridatic war the entire debt record at the time being held, was annulled by the council . Mark Anthony is recorded to have stolen from the deposits on an occasion . The temple served as a depository for Aristotle, Caesar, Dio Chrysostomus, Plautus, Plutarch, Strabo and Xenophon . </P> <P> The temple to Apollo in Didyma was constructed sometime in the 6th century . A large sum of gold was deposited within the treasury at the time by king Croesus . </P> <P> In ancient India there are evidences of loans from the Vedic period (beginning 1750 BC). Later during the Maurya dynasty (321 to 185 BC), an instrument called adesha was in use, which was an order on a banker desiring him to pay the money of the note to a third person, which corresponds to the definition of a bill of exchange as we understand it today . During the Buddhist period, there was considerable use of these instruments . Merchants in large towns gave letters of credit to one another . </P> <P> Main: History of banking in China </P>

The earlier evidence of banking transaction in india comes from