Description
Book SynopsisOriginally published in 1985. Frederic C. Lane and Reinhold C. Mueller, in the first volume of Money and Banking in Medieval and Renaissance Venice, discuss Venice's economic achievement in terms of the complex system the city's inhabitants developed to manage moneys of account and coins. Money merchants of Venice developed a system whereby a premium attached to moneys of account acted as a stabilizing force and allowed merchants to engage in long-term trade. This system, according to the authors, helped establish Venice as a dominant city-state in international trade and exchange. This book outlines the development and success of this system through 1508. At the time it was first published, this book made a significant contribution to the history of money and economics by underscoring the large role that Venice played in the economic history of the West and the ascendance of capitalism as a structuring force of society.
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations
List of Tables
Preface
List of Abbreviations
Part I: The Background
Chapter 1: What Money Is and Was
Chapter 2: Seigniorage and International Flows of Silver and Gold
Chapter 3: Recoinage: Revaluations and Devaluations
Chapter 4: Bimetallism and Multiple Monetary Standards
Chapter 5: Metallic Values and Exchange Values
Chapter 6: The Rise of Bankers
Chapter 7: Venice's Place in Monetary History
Part II: Venice's Moneys, Bullion Market, and Mint
Chapter 8: The First Coins and Moneys of Account
Chapter 9: The Bullion Trade and Market
Chapter 10: The Mint's Products, Purchases, and Prices
Chapter 11: Communal Revenue
Chapter 12: Within the Mint
Part III: The Genesis and Persistence of Bimetallism
Chapter 13: Competing Moneys and Venice's First Bimetallic Standard
Chapter 14: The Rise of Gold
Chapter 15: The Restructuring of Venice's Monetary System
Chapter 16: The Multiplication of Moneys of Account
Chapter 17: The Fall of Gold
Chapter 18: Devaluations of the Silver Money
Chapter 19: Foreign Exchange During the Fall of Gold
Chapter 20: The Mobility and Utility of Europe's Moneys of Account
Chapter 21: Motivations in Venetian Monetary Policy
Appendixes
Bibliography
Index
