Money in the Medieval English Economy 973–1489

Download or read book Money in the Medieval English Economy 973–1489 written by Jim Bolton and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 2012-09-15 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The importance of money as one of the key variables in the workings of the medieval economy is often overlooked. This new study first provides the reader with a background to the problems of modeling the medieval economy and the value of the Fisher equation of exchange to monetary historians, to the practical processes of striking coins from silver and gold acquired through foreign trade and to the importance of royal control over mints and exchanges. These theories are then used to analyze how money worked within the economy of the early, central, and late middle ages with fluctuations in the size of the circulating medium and the availability of credit acting as either a brake on or a stimulus to economic expansion. A full money economy did not emerge until c. 1300, but its existence and flexibility helped the economy survive the severe shocks of the late middle ages.