Money and its Use in Medieval Europe

TLDR

The book surveys medieval European money beyond coinage, drawing key elements from multiple countries, periods, and themes to provide historians with a comprehensive overview. It traces the evolution from precious‑metal mining to banking practices such as cheques and bills of exchange, organizing chapters chronologically to illustrate money’s shifting roles across Europe. The study shows that money’s value varied among societies and that war, trade, and political or ecclesiastical forces moved and reshaped it across national and East‑West boundaries.

Abstract

This is a 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 values 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'.