The Nature and Limits of the Money Economy in Late Anglo-Saxon and Early Norman England

454 Pages·2017·3.66 MB·English

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The Nature and Limits of the Money Economy in Late Anglo-Saxon and Early Norman
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Fairbairn, Henry
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This electronic theses or dissertation has been
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Title:
The Nature and Limits of the Money Economy in Late Anglo-Saxon and Early Norman

England
A uthor: Henry Fairbairn
The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or
information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement.
END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT
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The Nature and Limits of
the Money Economy in
Late Anglo-Saxon and
Early Norman England
Henry Oliver Fairbairn
King’s College, London, August 2013
This thesis is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
Abstract

This thesis will address a question which is fundamental to our understanding of the
period: was there a money economy in Anglo-Saxon and early Norman England? This
question has been asked often enough before, but currently the literature does not
afford a satisfactory answer, principally because the relevant historical and numismatic
evidence has never been systematically assembled and analysed. The object of my
research will be to make good this gap. It will seek to establish how, by whom, and in
what circumstances coins were − and were not − used in England between the reigns
of King Athelstan and King Henry I (924−1135).

The thesis will build on substantial secondary literature on the early English economy.
However, what this literature lacks is a comprehensive analysis of the documentary
evidence which reveals how money was actually used and what it could and could not
buy. One major strand of this thesis will be to examine this material systematically to
demonstrate the value of monetary equivalents and small-scale transactions in the
period before 1135. Secondly, there is abundant numismatic material in the form of
single coin finds and coin hoards, which affords more specific evidence of how money
was actually used. The other major element of my thesis will therefore be to assemble,
collate and analyse this material, in order to facilitate more precise and penetrating
analysis of such finds. The combination of approaches proposed here will make
possible to form a more precise understanding of how money was used throughout the
social spectrum of English society, from the peasantry to the upper ranks of the
nobility, throughout a period of momentous political change.

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Contents

Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................... 11

Note on foreign-language material ............................................................................................... 12

Note on money and units of account ............................................................................................ 12
Abbreviations ............................................................................................................................ 14

1. Introduction: modelling the economy, 924–1135 ............................................. 16

1.1 The principal elements of the economy .................................................................... 17

1.2 The use of coined money by the elite and in urban settings .................................. 23

1.2.1 The King and the State ......................................................................................... 24

1.2.2 The Church and Religious Houses ..................................................................... 32

1.2.3 The Lay Aristocracy .............................................................................................. 35

1.2.4 Traders and townsmen ......................................................................................... 38

1.3 The English peasantry and the money economy ..................................................... 39

1.4 The structure of the thesis .......................................................................................... 47

2. The values of objects and movables ............................................................... 49

2.1 Livestock ........................................................................................................................ 50

2.1.1 Oxen ........................................................................................................................ 50

2.1.2 Cows ........................................................................................................................ 55

2.1.3 Pigs .......................................................................................................................... 57

2.1.4 Sheep ....................................................................................................................... 59

2.1.5 Goats ....................................................................................................................... 62

2.2 Horses ............................................................................................................................ 63

2.2.1 Specifically-named horses .................................................................................... 64

2.2.2 Other horses .......................................................................................................... 66

2.3 Food ............................................................................................................................... 70

2.3.1 Salt ........................................................................................................................... 70

2.3.2 Herring .................................................................................................................... 73

2.3.3 Cheese ..................................................................................................................... 74

2.3.4 Honey ...................................................................................................................... 75

2.3.5 Corn and Wheat .................................................................................................... 76
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2.4 Other objects and movables ....................................................................................... 78

2.4.1 Hawks ..................................................................................................................... 80

2.4.2 Slaves ....................................................................................................................... 81

2.4.3 Miscellaneous ......................................................................................................... 81

2.5 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 84

3. The values of small-scale payments and services .......................................... 88

3.1 Rural rents and dues ..................................................................................................... 89

Rents: the pre-Conquest surveys .................................................................................... 90

Rents: the Early Twelfth-Century Surveys .................................................................... 92

Rents: Domesday Book rents from the perspective of the lord .............................. 111

Dues: commutations of labour services ...................................................................... 120

Dues: payments relating to pastoral rights and stock ................................................ 121

Dues: payments relating to status ................................................................................. 123

Dues: miscellaneous dues and commutations ............................................................ 124

3.2 Urban Rents and Dues .............................................................................................. 127

3.2.1 Rents ..................................................................................................................... 128

3.2.2 Dues ...................................................................................................................... 134

3.3 Church Dues ............................................................................................................... 137

3.3.1 Tithe ...................................................................................................................... 137

3.3.2 Churchscot ........................................................................................................... 139

3.3.3 Soulscot ................................................................................................................ 141

3.3.4 Lightscot ............................................................................................................... 142

3.3.5 Plough alms .......................................................................................................... 143

3.3.6 Other alms ............................................................................................................ 145

3.3.7 Peter’s Pence ........................................................................................................ 145

3.4 Dues and payments to the king and to the state .................................................... 149

3.4.1 Carrying services (avera) ..................................................................................... 149

3.4.2 Guard duty ........................................................................................................... 150

3.4.3 Military Service .................................................................................................... 153

3.4.4 Taxation ................................................................................................................ 158

3.5 Fines ............................................................................................................................. 165

3.5.1 Types of fines and selected values of punishments ....................................... 166

3.5.2 The impact of fines and the ability to pay ....................................................... 170
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3.6 Tolls .............................................................................................................................. 172

3.6.1 Tolls imposed on sales or goods ....................................................................... 172

3.6.2 Tolls imposed on access ..................................................................................... 178

3.7 Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 179

4. The volume of mint output and the size of the currency in relation to the size
of the economy .................................................................................................... 187
4.1 Quantifying the value of the English economy: GDP estimates based on

Domesday Book .................................................................................................................. 187

4.2 The Volume of Mint Output .................................................................................... 192

4.2.1 Historiographical background ........................................................................... 192

4.2.2 The first principles of calculating mint output ............................................... 193

4.2.3 The large hoard-based datasets ......................................................................... 196

4.2.4 The mint studies .................................................................................................. 200

4.2.5 The die-estimating methods .............................................................................. 201

4.2.6 National die estimates ......................................................................................... 204

4.3 The size of the currency ............................................................................................ 212

4.3.1 Metcalf’s model ................................................................................................... 213
4.3.2 Currency-size models based on the average number of single finds per year

and 1158 mint-output estimates ................................................................................... 215
4.3.3 Revised estimates of the size of the currency in 1158 and updated currency-
size estimates for the Anglo-Saxon and Norman periods based on Allen’s single-

find model ........................................................................................................................ 226

4.4 Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 231

5. Analysis of the numismatic evidence: Single finds ....................................... 237
5.1 How single finds are discovered and how this affects interpretation of the

evidence ................................................................................................................................ 238

5.2 The current single-find dataset ................................................................................. 241

5.3 A summary of Metcalf’s observations and conclusions........................................ 244
5.4 Coins were handled by everyone in society – ‘rich and poor, farmers and

merchants, officials and soldiers’. ..................................................................................... 245

5.5 The physical velocity of the coinage ........................................................................ 246

5.5.1 Local and non-local circulation patterns and inter-regional flows ............... 246

5.5.2 Distance from mint as a crow flies ................................................................... 257
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5.6 Royal income and taxation as a determinant of the physical velocity of the

coinage .................................................................................................................................. 275

5.6.1 Metcalf’s analysis ................................................................................................. 275

5.6.2 Discussion and evaluation ................................................................................. 276

5.7 Trade and commerce as a determinant of the physical velocity of the coinage 280
5.7.1 The proportion of non-local coin is fairly uniform throughout England and

did not respond to political factors. ............................................................................. 281
5.7.2 The vast majority of the silver required for the English coinage appears to

have come from abroad, which in itself alludes to overseas trade. ......................... 281
5.7.3 The most important mints (ranked by output) were east-facing riverine and

coastal towns.................................................................................................................... 286
5.7.4 The geographic distribution of single finds also has a broad south-eastern

and coastal bias. ............................................................................................................... 288

5.8 Fractions ...................................................................................................................... 294
5.9 Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 297

6. Analysis of the numismatic evidence: Hoards .............................................. 300

6.1 Defining hoards and depositions ............................................................................. 301

6.2 The hoard evidence .................................................................................................... 303

6.3 Analysis of the hoard evidence ................................................................................. 306

6.3.1 Hoard sizes and depositor identities ................................................................ 306

6.3.2 Hoard vessels ....................................................................................................... 309

6.3.3 The presence of non-coin objects .................................................................... 311

6.3.4 Coin types, control of the coinage and the monetary system ....................... 312

6.4 The physical velocity of the coinage ........................................................................ 329

6.5 The chronological distribution of the hoards ........................................................ 334

6.6 The geographical distribution of the hoards .......................................................... 336

6.7 Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 341

Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 343

Appendix A: Weights and capacities in Domesday Book ................................................. 352

Appendix B: The value of fines, 924–1135 ......................................................................... 365

Appendix C: National die estimates, c. 973–1066............................................................... 405
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Appendix D: Distances travelled by single finds at 25km intervals from their mints of

origin, 924–1135 ...................................................................................................................... 412

Appendix E: Summaries of coin types in the hoards, 924–1135 ..................................... 414
Appendix F: Distances travelled by coins (from their mints of origin) found in hoards at

25km intervals, 924–1135 ...................................................................................................... 426
Appendix G: single coin finds used in this thesis (on CD)
Appendix H: distance-from-mint data related to coins in hoards (on CD)

Bibliography ............................................................................................................................. 427

7
List of Tables

Table 1: the value of oxen and bulls, 924–1135 ................................................................... 51
Table 2: the value of cows, 924–1135 .................................................................................... 56
Table 3: the value of pigs, 924–1135 ...................................................................................... 58
Table 4: the value of sheep, 924–1135 ................................................................................... 62
Table 5: the value of specifically-named horses, 924–1135 ................................................ 65
Table 6: the value of other horses, 924–1135 ....................................................................... 68
Table 7: the value of food, 924–1135 ............................................................................... 72–73
Table 8: the values of miscellaneous objects, 924–1135 ............................................... 78–80
Table 9: the amount of recorded objects and movables that 1 penny could buy, 924–
1135 ............................................................................................................................................. 84
Table 10: Bridbury’s comparison between the values of Burton Abbey’s Domesday
manors and the values of censarii renders in the Burton Abbey B survey ......................... 96
Table 11: number of bovates held for work and for rent in the Burton Abbey A survey
...................................................................................................................................................... 97
Table 12: rental values for small tenements on the Shaftesbury Abbey estates, c. 1127–
30 ............................................................................................................................................... 101
Table 13: rental values on the manors of Ramsey Abbey during the reign of Henry I
................................................................................................................................................ 104–5
Table 14: Bridbury’s comparison between the values of Ramsey Abbey’s Domesday
manors and the values of rents in the Ramsey Cartulary .................................................. 106
Table 15: annual values per county and per acre in 1086 derived from Darby ....... 114–15
Table 16: the values of rural dues, 924–1135 ................................................................ 126–27
Table 17: payments of burgage tenure attributed to burgesses and urban plots in
Domesday Book ...................................................................................................................... 130
Table 18: burgage-tenure values in the Winton Domesday survey, c. 1110 .............. 131–32
Table 19: the values of urban payments, 924–1135 ........................................................... 137
Table 20: the values of church dues, 924–1135 ................................................................ 1488
Table 21: the values of payments and services to the king and to the state,
924–1135 .................................................................................................................................. 164
Table 22: the value of tolls imposed on sales or goods, 924–1135 ............................ 173–75
Table 23: value of tolls imposed on entry, exit, lying-in-port or on passage, 924–1135
.................................................................................................................................................... 179
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