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First Theory of Credit and its Institutions: Benevolent Credit Institutions in an Economic History of the West For millennia, there have been two credit theories in the Western tradition and two types of credit institutions derived from them. One focused on raising capital for investment purposes, the other dealing with lending of money to private individuals for consumption. This distinction, which is the key to understanding ancient and medieval economic thought, not only allows us to better understand the question of usury in the past, but is also the key to a proper understanding of the development of European credit markets, which have evolved in two ways-investment banking and retail banking. Particular attention is paid to benevolent credit institutions, which laid the foundations for European retail banking.