Money & its Use in Medieval Europe
Cambridge University Press
Edition: Revised ed., 8/21/2008
EAN 9780521375900, ISBN10: 0521375908
Paperback, 484 pages, 24.6 x 18.9 x 2.8 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English
This is a full-scale study of the history of money, not merely of coinage, to have been written for medieval Europe. The book is not limited to one country, or to any one period or theme, but extracts the most important elements for the historian across the broadest possible canvas. Its scope extends from the mining of precious metals on the one hand, to banking, including the use of cheques and bills of exchange, on the other. Chapters are arranged chronologically, rather than regionally or thematically, and offer a detailed picture of the many and changing roles played by money, in all its forms, in all parts of Europe throughout the Middle Ages. Thus money is seen as having differing values for differing parts of individual societies. The book shows money moving and changing as a result of war and trade and other political, economic and ecclesiastical activities without regard for national barriers or the supposed separation between 'East' and 'West'.
List of maps
List of tables
List of graphs
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part I. Before the Commercial Revolution
1. Roman-Barbarian discontinuity
2. The appearance of the denier and the revival of trade
3. 'Feudal' deniers and 'Viking' dirhams
4. Saxon silver and the expansion of minting
Part II. The Commercial Revolution of the Thirteenth Century
5. New silver c.1160–c.1330
6. The balance of payments and the movement of silver
7. European silver and African gold
8. New mints
9. Ingots of silver
10. New money
11. The place of money in the commercial revolution of the thirteenth century
Part III. The Late Middle Ages
12. The victory of gold
13. The scourge of debasement
14. The money of Europe around 1400
15. The bullion-famines of the Late Middle Ages
16. Money on the eve of the price revolution
Conclusion
Appendices
Coin index
General index.
' ... a major contribution to numismatic literature, and a mature achievement by a scholar whose name will be well known to most readers ... It is a book to read and re-read, for it is the fruit of very wide historical learning, assimilated by an experienced monetary historian, who has thought constructively about the problems he discusses for half a life-time ... Highly recommended.' Michael Metcalf, Spink's Numismatic Circular