Money and its Use in Medieval Europe

Money and its Use in Medieval Europe
Peter Spufford | 1989-09-29 00:00:00 | Cambridge University Press | 484 | Economics
This is the first 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 significances 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'.
Reviews
Peter Spufford's highly detailed history of Medieval European money is an invaluable reference book for numismatists who want to know deep details of the coins they study, and for historians interested in the impact of trade, plunder, metal mining, and industry on the Medieval economy.

Strangely, what I found it most useful for was as an aid to running fantasy role-playing games (e.g., Dungeons & Dragons). Spufford explains the impact of inflation in Medieval economies caused by the rapid influx of ready money (from the silver mines of Bohemia, for example), which would closely parallel the impact of a treasure hoard brought to a civilized community by fantasy adventurers.

Likewise, Spufford deals with the shortage of precious metals and their impact on coinage: debasement, depreciation, and depression, as "white" (silver) money gradually becomes "black" (base metal) coinage. DMs could readily reduce the impact of inflation in their campaigns by having adventurers discover a hoard of debased coinage with only a limited amount of "good" gold and silver coins. Rather than assuming that "treasure types" in monster hoards and lairs are good coinage all of the time, even a cursory study of "Money and Its Uses" should give the DM ideas for tossing in debased coinage.

Debased coins in hoards could, in turn, become adventure hooks if the player characters actually bother to study what they have found: why, for example are the coins of King Poobah IV mostly lead mixed with a small amount of silver when his father, King Poobah III, issued sound coins of good silver? Did something happen to cut off the silver supply? Is there perhaps an orc-infested silver mine somewhere nearby? As Spufford indicates -- primarily in relation to gold -- enemy action could off one state from its supply of precious metals in some other part of the world, enriching the enemy at the expense of the suddenly deprived state. In a fantasy campaign, the enemy might well be orcs, a dragon, or a lich instead of Turks or Mongols. On the other hand, a third state might well profit by trading with the first state's enemy. (In The Forgotten Realms Campaign setting, imagine Calimshan suddenly boycotting Waterdeep to trade exclusively with Amn, and you have a parallel with the commercial rivalry of, for example, Venice and Genoa trying to snare trade with the Muslim East.)

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