Making money in the early Middle Ages / Rory Naismith.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Naismith, Rory, 1983- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Coinage--Europe--History--To 1500.

Coinage.

Europe--Economic conditions--To 1492.

Europe.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xxi, 516 pages) : illustrations

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [2023]

Summary:

An examination of coined money and its significance to rulers, aristocrats and peasants in early medieval EuropeBetween the end of the Roman Empire in the fifth century and the economic transformations of the twelfth, coined money in western Europe was scarce and high in value, difficult for the majority of the population to make use of. And yet, as Rory Naismith shows in this illuminating study, coined money was made and used throughout early medieval Europe. It was, he argues, a powerful tool for articulating people’s place in economic and social structures and an important gauge for levels of economic complexity. Working from the premise that using coined money carried special significance when there was less of it around, Naismith uses detailed case studies from the Mediterranean and Northern Europe to propose a new reading of early medieval money as a point of contact between economic, social, and institutional history.Naismith examines structural issues, including the mining and circulation of metal and the use of bullion and other commodities as money, and then offers a chronological account of monetary development, discussing the post-Roman period of gold coinage, the rise of the silver penny in the seventh century and the reconfiguration of elite power in relation to coinage in the tenth and eleventh centuries. In the process, he counters the conventional view of early medieval currency as the domain only of elite gift-givers and intrepid long-distance traders. Even when there were few coins in circulation, Naismith argues, the ways they were used—to give gifts, to pay rents, to spend at markets—have much to tell us.

Contents:

1. Introduction. The Dark Age of Currency? ; The Dark Age of Money? ; The Meanings of Money ; Situating Early Medieval Money ; Investigating Early Medieval Money ; Sources and Approaches

2. Bullion, Mining, and Minting. Tracing the Origins of Gold and Silver ; Bullion, Profits, and Power ; Circulation of Bullion: Dynamics ; Imports of Bullion: Three Case Studies ; Conclusion

3. Why Make Money? How to Make Coined Money ; How Large Was the Early Medieval Currency? ; Why Were Early Medieval Coins Made? ; Fiscal Minting ; Impermeable Borders ; Renovatio Monetae ; Private Demand ; Conclusion

4. Using Coined Money. Money and Gift-Giving ; Making a Statement : Money, Status, and Ritual ; Giving God, King, and Lord Their Due ; Monetary Obligations ; Credit ; Fines and Compensation ; Getting Whatever You Want : Money and Commerce ; Markets and Prices ; Elites and Coined Money ; Peasants and Coined Money ; Conclusion

5. Money, Metal, and Commodities. Money and Means of Exchange ; Coin and Bullion : Categories or Continuum? ; The Social Dynamics of Mixed Moneys ; Case Study 1: Northern Spain ; Case Study 2: The Viking World ; Case Study 3: Tang and Song China ; Conclusion

6. The Roman Legacy. Later Roman Coinage : An Age of Gold ; "Money, the Cause and Source of Power and Problems" ; Currencies of Inequality ; "Caesar Seeks His Image on Your Gold" : Gold and the State ; State and Private Demands in Dialogue ; Conclusion

7. Continuity and Change in the Fifth to Seventh Centuries. Getting By in a Time of Scarcity : Low-Value Coinage ; Gold, Taxes, and Barbarian Settlement in the West in the Fifth and Sixth Centuries ; Post-Roman Italy ; New Gold 1: Merovingian Gaul ; New Gold 2: Visigothic Iberia ; New Gold 3: Early Anglo-Saxon England ; Conclusion

8. The Rise of the Denarius c. 660-900. From Gold to Silver ; Questions of Origins ; The Silver Rush c. 660-750 1: England ; The Silver Rush c. 660-750 2: Frisia and Francia ; Money and Power in the Carolingian Age ; Agency in Carolingian Coin Circulation ; Regional Distinctions in Coin Circulation ; Minting and Royal Authority ; Minting and Local Elites ; Southern England c. 750-900: A Parallel World? ; The Kingdom of Northumbria ; Conclusion

9. Money and Power in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries. At the Dawn of the Commercial Revolution? ; A Monetising Economy ; Money, Morality, and the Routinisation of Coin ; Money, Markets, and Lands: Mechanisms of Monetisation ; The Spread of the Penny ; New and Old Mints c. 850-1100 ; Italy ; West Francia ; East Francia/Germany ; England ; Conclusion

10. Conclusion: A Sketch of Early Medieval Money.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780691249339

0691249334

OCLC:

1372399822