Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of maps
- List of tables
- List of graphs
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I Before the Commercial Revolution
- Part II 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 Later Middle Ages
- 16 Money on the Eve of the Price Revolution
- Conclusion
- Appendix I The Coins Most Commonly in Use in the Middle Ages
- Appendix II Money of Account
- Appendix III Production at Some Later Medieval Mints
- Bibliography
- Coin Index
- General Index
14 - The Money of Europe around 1400
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 November 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of maps
- List of tables
- List of graphs
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I Before the Commercial Revolution
- Part II 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 Later Middle Ages
- 16 Money on the Eve of the Price Revolution
- Conclusion
- Appendix I The Coins Most Commonly in Use in the Middle Ages
- Appendix II Money of Account
- Appendix III Production at Some Later Medieval Mints
- Bibliography
- Coin Index
- General Index
Summary
By the early fifteenth century three distinct levels of coin and credit had developed in western Europe, and each of these levels was characterised by a different sort of coin: gold, silver and billon. Each sort of coin had a different function.
At the highest level there were by the early fifteenth century ‘national’ gold coinages in most parts of Europe, as well as the great ‘international’ gold coinages of Florence and Venice that had been gradually replacing the currency of uncoined gold and of silver ingots since the mid thirteenth century. Even in the early fifteenth century the florin and the ducat still preserved something of their original role for making large international commercial payments. The ‘national’ coinages served primarily for large internal payments, although these ‘national’ gold pieces were very frequently also used for international transactions. Moreover, the ‘national’ pieces very frequently had some close relationship to the ‘international’ pieces. When the minting of gold spread in the fourteenth century, the first gold coins in many countries had been direct imitations of Florentine florins.
A hoard concealed in the Veneto around 1370 provides an astonishing example of the ‘international’ circulation of the florin–ducat denomination at that date. It contained 100 ducats minted in Venice itself, and a further 176 florins from other North Italian cities (Florence 90, Genoa 82, Savona 4), as well as 103 florins that had come from the general direction of the Kremnica goldfield (Hungary 92, Austria 8, Bohemia 3).
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- Money and its Use in Medieval Europe , pp. 319 - 338Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1988
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