Medieval and Early Modern Coinage and Its Problems | Hacker News Reader

Medieval and Early Modern Coinage and Its Problems

papers.ssrn.com

68 pointsgwern8 comments

For anyone who finds historical money markets interesting, the problems arising from a lack of efficient currency in the late 17th century are the recurring theme in Neal Stephenson's _The Baroque Cycle_, which is a great (if long!) read. I can't vouch for the accuracy, but one example is a 30-page dramatized story of a primary character learning why it was easier for France to buy baltic lumber than to ship it from its interior to its shipyards. There's similar dramatized stories of how to arbitrage letters of exchange from banks in different cities, having so much gold that it can't be spent, and what it means to ship specie across an ocean. Overall, a very economically cerebral trio action novels.

Where my education in the history of science overlaps with Neal Stephenson, there is often not too much agreement. Naturally, he has license to make things work however he choses in his fictional universe. I'd be wary about thinking that you have learned anything direct about history from his writing. Remember, this is the author who defined BIOS as "built-in operating system", not because he didn't know better, but because that's what he would like it to stand for.

I much preferred Anathem for this reason, when he's writing about another world he's not polluting the real history of this one. In a sense Neal Stephenson's novels that are set in apparently historical contexts are a little like later chapters in "the book" from Anathem

A good book about medieval money is "Money and Its Use in Medieval Europe" by Peter Spufford: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1387158.Money_and_Its_Us...

Another interesting paper by Meir Kohn, this one about the evolution of the bill of exchange: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=151849

I'm still sad that they didn't name the euro ecu (after both the ECU that preceded it and the ancient French coin).

France has responded by calling Euro cents "centimes".

Anyone can recommend a computer or pen-and-paper games that use this variety of currency as a game mechanic? Would be a welcome distraction from the usual D&D copper/silver/gold/platinum stereotype.

This is an awesome read.

The throwaway line that richard the lionheart was ransomed for 100,000 pounds of silver, 5 times his annual income, is brilliant.

Nice article, but should this have a [1999] in the title?

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