Precious Metals in the Later Medieval and Early Modern Worlds

512 Pages·1983·32.467 MB·English

by  John F. Richards

Precious Metals
in the Later Medieval
and Early Modem Worlds

Xrecious Metals
1n the Later Medieval
and Early Modern Worlds
J.
Edited by F. Richards
Carolina Academic Press
Durham, North Carolina
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International Standard Book Number: 0-89089-224-5
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 82-73059
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© 1983 by J. F. Richards. All Rights Reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Carolina Academic Press
PO Box 8795 Forest Hills Station
Durham, North Carolina 27707
Contents
Preface page vii
Introduction 3
Part 1: Medieval Monetary Flows
1 The Italian Gold Revolution of 1252: Shifting Currents in
the Pan-Mediterranean Flow of Gold 29
Thomas Walker
2 Monetary Flows-Venice 1150 to 1400 53
Louise Buenger Robbert
3 Money and Money Movements in France and England at
the end of the Middle Ages 79
H any A. M iskimin
4 Bullion Flows and Monetary Contraction in late-Medieval
England and the Low Countries 97
John Munro.
5 Monetary Movements in Medieval Egypt, 1171-1517 159
Jere L. Bacharach
6 Outflows of Precious Metals from Early Islamic India 183
J.F. Richards
7 The China Connection: Problems of Silver Supply in
Medieval Bengal 207
John Deyell
Part 2: Monetary Expansion and Intensified Demand for Metals
8 Africa and the Wider Monetary World, 1250-1850 231
Philip D. Curtin
9 The Role of International Monetary and Metal Movements
in Ottoman Monetary History 1300-1750 269
H alil S ahillioglu
10 Gold and Silver Exchanges Between Egypt and Sudan,
l 6-l 8th Centuries 305
Terence Walz
11 Silver Mines and Sung Coins-A Monetary History of
Medieval and Modern Japan in International Perspective 329
Kozo Yamamura and Tetsuo Kamiki
12 Vietnam and the Monetary Flow of Eastern Asia, Thirteenth
to Eighteenth Centuries 363
John K. Whitmore
Part 3: New World Metals
13 South American Bullion Production and Export 1550-1750 397
H any E. Cross
14 New World Silver, Castile and the Philippines 1590-1800 425
John J. TePaske
1S The Exports of Precious Metal from Europe to Asia by the
Dutch East India Company, 1602-1795 447
F. S. Gaastra
16 Silver in Seventeenth-Century Surat: Monetary Circulation
and the Price Revolution in Mughal India 477
Joseph J. Brennig
Index 497
Preface
I first began considering world monetary history six years ago in a series of
conversations with Maureen Mazzaoui, my colleague and fellow-member of
the Comparative World History Program at the University of Wisconsin,
Madison. My interest in the medieval and early modern economic history of
India and the Middle East converged with her interest in the early-modern
economic history of Italy and the Mediterranean. Stimulated by a fresh
reading of Andrew Watson's well-known essay "Back to Gold and Silver,"
The Economic History Review (1967), we began to realize the need for a more
comparative, global view of monetary systems and their interaction before
the period of European colonial domination. A preliminary visit and lecture
by Andrew Watson, who supported and encouraged this view, led to our
decision to organize and hold a conference on this topic at Madison. Further
discussions, notably with our colleague Domenico Sella, reduced the scope of
the conference to a reasonably manageable and important theme: the inter
regional flow of precious metals in the period 1200 to 1750
A.D.
Setting the date of the proposed conference for early September 1977, we
allowed a full year for formulating and writing a coherent proposal. In the
course of that year we also gradually identified and contacted a group of more
than twenty historians, numismatists and other scholars who were actively
interested in the monetary history of one of the major world regions in this
period. The remaining months before the conference demanded a compli
cated fundraising effort and the actual organization of the conference. Final
ly, after this extended preparation we did convene the conference as planned.
Participants giving papers and additional commentators assembled at the
Elm Drive Conference Center on the lakeshore at Madison for five full days
of discussions.
To my knowledge this was a first attempt to convene a meeting of scholars
to consider both medieval and early modern monetary history on a world
scale. We tried, reasonably successfully, to have at least one paper devoted to
each of the conventionally defined-world regions (e.g., Southeast Asia, Mid
dle East). We tried to balance European specialists with specialists concerned
with Asia, Africa or Latin America. We tried to balance the conference
chronologically, not quite successfully, by including equivalent numbers of
vu
Vlll PREFACE
medievalists and early modernists. In the end we brought together an inter
national group of scholars of varied experience, age and reputation, and
distinctive area and disciplinary specialities. In other words this was not, as is
sometimes the case, a cozy group of specialists assembling once again to share
recent research in a well-defined field of mutual interest. Instead, for all
concerned the conference was a challenging and stimulating exposure to new
materials and new colleagues.
Consideration of unfamiliar material contained in each paper meant that
each conferee had to review his or her own research and historical under
standing to make comparative judgements and to enter the ongoing discus
sion. This juxtaposition of topics engendered a comparative assessment by
the group which was extremely valuable. I think that it is safe to say that each
conferee departed with possible new answers to old questions; with a better
grasp of inter-regional monetary connections; and with new issues and ques
tions to consider. For their willingness to engage in this debate, and for their
unfailing energy, warmth and civility-which added immeasurably to the
value of the conference-Maureen Mazzaoui and I must thank all the parti
cipants.
Sixteen of the original conference papers appear in this volume. All have
been revised by their authors subsequent to the Madison conference. All
address the question of inter-regional fine metal flows during the period from
1200 to 1800 Common themes and shared motifs do emerge from these
A.D.
essays as I have tried to suggest in the introduction. But the collection as a
whole does not and could not possibly present a definitive or systematic
global portrait of changing precious metal transfers prior to the 19th century.
Instead, together they offer a sampling, a beginning point for what we hope
will be a furthering of this aspect of monetary history not explored. Until
more monographic and systematic research is completed the state of the art
rests close to this point in this important branch of world economic history.
I cannot emphasize how much the organization and convening of the 1977
Madison conference depended upon the enthusiasm, scholarship and support
of Maureen Mazzaoui. Without her full partnership the conference could not
have been held. Although she has been unable to assist in the editing of this
volume, her work is very much a part of the volume as well as the conference.
Because of previous commitments, several of the original members of the
Wisconsin conference were unable to publish their revised papers in this
volume. Despite this loss, the contributions of Artur Attman, William Atwell,
K. N. Chaudhuri, Marie Martin, and Arthur Seltman to the shaping of this
volume are tangible and much appreciated. The discussants, Alan Heston,
Andrew Watson, and John Sharpless, added invaluable disciplinary and
research insights to the 1977 meeting. I am also grateful for advice and
support from Philip Curtin, Kamal Karpat, Steven Feierman, Domenico
Sella and others of my colleagues on the Comparative World History Com
mittee at the University of Wisconsin. Many other persons around the
country helped in identifying participants as well.
Preface IX
Maureen Mazzaoui and I are indebted to the National Endowment for the
Humanities for a grant toward the expenses of the conference. Dean E.
David Cronon supplied approximately half the funding required for the
conference from sources with the College of Arts and Science at the Univer
sity of Wisconsin. The latter assistance was indispensable. Finally, I should
like to acknowledge the support of the editor and publisher of Carolina
Academic Press, Keith Sipe, for his energy and vision in bringing this
volume to publication.
J. F. Richards
Durham, NC