http://www.discipleship.net/parable/talents.htm (Link chosen at random)
What I never realised when I was told
parable of the talents was that a talent was a
lot of money. I had the impression of coins, not of
nearly someone's weight in gold. Though estimates vary a lot.
Of course, it's hard to establish any kind of comparison because everything would cost different amounts relative to everything else. And gold would be rather differently valued itself.
I hadn't hitherto realise banks were so well established then. Lots of fantasy worlds have some sort of banking, but they generally seem based on english banking as of 17th century.
Apparently you could *lodge* your money somewhere since forever, but I'm not sure when paying interest became the norm. Or how reliable banks were -- from 17th century times there were still "The king takes all your gold" problems :(