Mints and Money in Medieval England
Cambridge University Press
Edition: Illustrated, 2/23/2012
EAN 9781107014947, ISBN10: 1107014948
Hardcover, 596 pages, 25.4 x 17.8 x 3.3 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English
Money could be as essential to everyday life in medieval England as it is today, but who made the coinage, how was it used and why is it important? This definitive study charts the development of coin production from the small workshops of Anglo-Saxon and Norman England to the centralised factory mints of the late Middle Ages, the largest being in the Tower of London. Martin Allen investigates the working lives of the people employed in the mints in unprecedented detail and places the mints in the context of medieval England's commerce and government, showing the king's vital interest in the production of coinage, the maintenance of its quality and his mint revenue. This unique source of reference also offers the first full history of the official exchanges in the City of London regulating foreign exchange and an in-depth analysis of the changing size and composition of medieval England's coinage.
1. Moneyers and mints, c.973–1158
2. The centralisation of minting, 1158–1278
3. Mints and their men, 1279–1544
4. Mint workshop practice and equipment
5. Standards of weight and fineness
6. Profits
7. The exchanges in the city of London
8. The sources of bullion for the English coinage
9. Mint output
10. The changing size of the currency
11. The currency in circulation
Conclusion
Appendices.
'This detailed and clearly-written history of English coinage from the Anglo-Saxon age through the Tudor period fills the longstanding need for a comprehensive and judicious synthesis of the numismatic and documentary evidence for all facets of monetary history from the acquisition of bullion, through the size of the circulating medium, to the role of mint profits in the fiscal organization of the state.' Alan Stahl, Princeton University
'The provision of coinage was a fundamental responsibility of a medieval king of England and Martin Allen here provides a book-length exploration and dissection of what this meant in practice, weaving together numismatic and documentary sources to make a complex subject clear and comprehensible. There is nothing on the English coinage to match it for the medieval period and there is no question it will be a standard work for a generation.' Barrie Cook, British Museum
'In 1953, Cambridge University Press published Sir John Craig's The Mint. Forty years later it published A New History of the Royal Mint, edited by Christopher Challis. Another twenty years of historical scholarship have passed in this field. Martin Allen has brought it together, and extended it, in this, the next landmark volume.' Peter Spufford, University of Cambridge