Where did banking and business, including usury, begin?

Les teaches that banking and business, and spending or using money for usury, began with Babylon. That was the first empire to promote banking and business in that way, and that’s why the Jews settled down so quickly in Babylon. He then notes that the Medes and Persians came next, and many of their attributes are still with us today, though not as evident as the Babylonian or Greek. Much of the Greek culture, Rome was careful not to destroy because they saw it profitable to integrate it into their own empire. This fits the broader sequence of empires, with the revived Roman Empire containing remains of previous empires before Christ destroys it at His Second Coming.