Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-hvd4g Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-11T06:43:42.653Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Late Medieval Bullion Famine Reconsidered

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2009

Nathan Sussman
Nathan Sussman
Affiliation:
The Hebrew University, Department of Economics, Jerusalem, Israel 91905.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The bullion famine, manifested in chronic balance-of-payments deficits with the East, is widely cited as the cause of the great depression of the Renaissance. Adapting the monetary approach to the balance-of-payments model to the medieval commodity money setting this article shows that western Europe could not suffer a balance-of-payments deficits and bullion shortage simultaneously. New data show that it is unlikely that France suffered a shortage of silver from 1360 to 1415. Minting volumes diverged between regions according to economic fortunes. Excess silver stocks were likely hoarded rather than exported.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 58 , Issue 1 , March 1998 , pp. 126 - 154
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Allix, A. “Le trafic en Dauphiné la fin du moyen âge.” Revue de géographie alpine 11, (1923): 373–420.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bergier, Francois J.Genève et l'économie Européenne de la renaissance. Paris: S.E.V.P.E.N, 1963.Google Scholar
Caves, Richard E., Frankel, Jeffrey A., and Jones, Ronald W.. World Trade and Payments. New York: Harper-Collins, 1993.Google Scholar
Day, John. “The Great Bullion Famine.” Past and Present 79 (1978): 3–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fournial, Ettiene. Histoire monétaire de l'occident médiéval. Paris: FAC, 1970.Google Scholar
Flynn, Dennis O. “A New Perspective on the Spanish Price Revolution: The Monetary Approach to the Balance of Payments.” Explorations in Economic History 15, no. 4, (1978): 388–406CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayhew, Nicholas. “Numismatic Evidence and Falling Prices in the Fourteenth Century.” Economic History Review 2d ser., 27 (1974): 1–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miskimin, Harry A.Money, Prices and Foreign Exchange in 14th century France. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1964.Google Scholar
Miskimin, Harry A.Money and Power in 15th Century France. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miskimin, Harry A.Cash, Credit and Crisis in Europe 1300–1600. London: Variorum, 1989.Google Scholar
Miskimin, Harry A. “Missing Bullion or Missing Documents: A reply.” Journal of European Economic History 20, no. 3 (1991): 673–76.Google Scholar
Miskimin, Harry A. “Once More Unto the Breach.” Journal of European Economic History 22, no. 2 (1993): 403–09.Google Scholar
Munro, John H. A. “Bullionism and the Bill of Exchange in England, 1276–1663: A Study in Monetary Management and Popular Prejudice.” In The Dawn of Modern Banking, 169–239. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979.Google Scholar
Munro, John H. A. “Mint Policies, Ratios, and Outputs in the Low Countries and England, 1335–1420: Some Reflections on New Data.” The Numismatic Chronicle 141 (1981): 71–116.Google Scholar
Munro, John H. A. “Bullion Flows and Monetary Contraction in late-Medieval England and the Low Countries.” In Precious Metals in the Later Medieval and Early Modern Worlds, edited by Richards, J. F., 97–158. Durham, 1983.Google Scholar
Munro, John H. A. “Political Muscle in an Age of Monetary Famine: a Review.” Revue Belge de philologie et d'histoire (1986): 741–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Patterson, C. C. “Silver Stocks and Losses in Ancient and Medieval Times.” Economic History Review (1972): 205–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Phelps Brown, E. H., and Hopkins, Sheila V.. “Seven Centuries of the Prices of Consumables, Compared with Builders' Wage Rates.” Economica 23 (1956): 296–314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Postan, Michael. “Some Economic Evidence of Declining Population in the Later Middle Ages.” Economic History Review 2d ser., 2 (1950): 221–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rolnick, Arthur J., Velde, François R., and Weber, Warren E.. “The Debasement Puzzle: An Essay on Medieval Monetary History.” this JOURNAL 56, no. 4 (1996): 789–808.Google Scholar
De, Saulcy F.Recueil de documents relatifs à l'histoire des monnaies. Caen, 1888.Google Scholar
Sorenson, David W. “Silver and Billon coinage in France under Charles VI.” Ph.D. diss., Queens' College, Cambridge, 1988.Google Scholar
Spufford, Peter. Money and its Use in Medieval Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sussman, Nathan. “Missing Bullion or Missing Documents: A Revision and Reappraisal of French Minting Statistics: 1385–1415.” Journal of European Economic History, 19, no. 1 (1990): 147–62.Google Scholar
Sussman, Nathan. “Missing Bullion or Missing Documents: A Rejoinder.” Journal of European Economic History 20, no. 3 (1991): 677–82.Google Scholar
Sussman, Nathan. “Debasements, Royal Revenues and Inflation in France during the Hundred Years War, 1415–1422.” this JOURNAL 53, no. 1 (1993): 44–70.Google Scholar
Sussman, Nathan. “Once More Unto the Breach: A Reply.” The Journal of European Economic History 23, no. 2 (1994): 389–96.Google Scholar
Sussman, Nathan. “Minting Trends in France and the Bullion Famine Hypothesis: Regional Evidence (1384–1415).” In Fra Spazio E Tempo: Studi In Onore Di Luigi De Rosa, edited by Zilli. Napoli, Ilaria: Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane s.p.a., 1 (1995): 769–91.Google Scholar
Wolff, Philippe. Commerces et marchands de Toulouse (vers 1350 — vers 1450). Paris: Librairie Plon, 1954.Google Scholar
Zaban, Shaul. “The French Mint Production Debate; A New Approach.” The Journal of European Economic History 22, no. 3 (1993): 627–28.Google Scholar