forex, a business, a game or gambling?

During the fifteenth century the Medici family were required to open banks at foreign locations in order to exchange currencies to act on behalf of textile merchants.

To facilitate trade the bank created the nostro (from Italian translated – "ours") account book which contained two columned entries showing amounts of foreign and local currencies,

– "ours") account book which contained two columned entries showing amounts of foreign and local currencies, information pertaining to the keeping of an account with a foreign bank.[13][14][15][16] During the 17th (or 18th ) century Amsterdam maintained

an active forex market.[17] During 1704 foreign exchange took place between agents acting in the interests of the nations of England and Holland

Prior to the first world war there was a much more limited control of international trade. Motivated by the outset of war countries abandoned the gold standard monetary system.[

From 1899 to 1913, holdings of countries' foreign exchange increased at an annual rate of 10.8%, while holdings of gold increased at an annual rate of 6.3% between 1903 and 1913

At the time of the closing of the year 1913, nearly half of the world's foreign exchange was conducted using the Pound sterling.[25] The number of foreign banks operating

within the boundaries of London increased in the years from 1860 to 1913 from 3 to 71. In 1902 there were altogether two London foreign exchange brokers..

In the earliest years of the twentieth century trade was most active in Paris, New York and Berlin, while Britain remained largely uninvolved in trade...

until 1914. Between 1919 and 1922 the employment of foreign exchange brokers within London increased to 17, in 1924 there were 40 firms operating for the purposes of exchange.

During the 1920s the occurrence of trade in London resembled more the modern manifestation, by 1928 forex trade was integral to the financial functioning of the city

exchange controls, plus other factors, in Europe and Latin America, hampered any attempt at wholesale prosperity from trade for those of 1930's London.[28]

During the 1920s,

the Kleinwort family were known to be the leaders of the foreign exchange market; while Japheth, Montagu & Co., and Seligman still warrant recognition as significant FX traders...