Description
Book SynopsisJotham Parsons investigates the creation and circulation of currency in France.
Trade ReviewMaking Money in Sixteenth-Century France will be an important and invaluable reference for anyone working in early modern economic history. It is ambitious in its analysis, engagingly written, and wide ranging. The great strength of the book, in addition to its history of economic thought, is Parsons' astute weaving of different strands of sociological literature and unstudied archival material. In that account, his anlaysis achieves the right balance between breadth and depth. Coinage is a highly technical and ill-understood subject, and Parsons deserves much credit for his ability to make the intricacies of coinage in the sixteenth century understandable and interesting for a broad audience.
-- Veronica Aoki Santarosa * EH.Net *
Making Money ventures boldly into multiple domains of sixteenth-century life, offering insightful comments on cosmetics, alchemy, Scholastic philosophy, social mobility, monarchical propaganda, the Pleiade poets, William Cecil, John Locke, Pierre Corneille, New Comedy, and much else. In its exuberant intellectual abundance, Making Money occasionally seems to be channeling the spirit of the sixteenth century itself.
-- Jonathan Dewald * Renaissance Quarterly *
Table of ContentsIntroduction1. The Cour des Monnaies2. The Logic of Economic Regulation3. The Inflationary Crisis and the Reforms of 15774. Money and Sovereignty5. Crimes against the Currency6. The Monetary Imaginary of Renaissance FranceConclusion: The Court and the QueenBibliography
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