It has come to my attention, while reviewing the entries in the family banking records, that the merchant we have been in recent trade negotiations with had brought upon this family a legal issue in the form of a lawsuit. The records indicate that our dearest uncle had loaned the merchant money for his travels through our region to trade with the Ottoman Empire. However, this merchant failed to return to the great city of Genoa with goods, a return of payment, or even a ship to speak of. For this, our family sued the merchant on three accounts: one, that said merchant had allowed his ship to be detained by the Knights of Malta; two, that the merchant did not disclose that his Orthodox religion was reason to be detained by the Knights of Malta; and three, the lawsuit was brought under the pretenses that our great Grimaldi family had right to bring the merchant to suit under the law of the Knights of Malta as the ship was captured in their territory and our great family has members in the Knights of Malta. This merchant should not be trusted under any circumstances. Our great family placed our trust in his word some twenty years ago, however, our family has decided to only lend money to those of our faith as only those people can be trusted under the Christian faith. If it were not for our glorious cousin, crusading for God with the Knights of Malta, this family would have had no hope of ever seeing our investment brought home to Genoa. It is only through our dearest cousin that the lawsuit could be negotiated in our favor and our investment returned with compensation for the troubles we incurred trying to navigate the legal system of the Knights of
Malta.
Experiments in the Past 