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IMC 2011: Sessions

Session 1321: Making the World Go Round: Coinage, Currency, Credit, Recycling, and Finance in Medieval Europe, IV

Wednesday 13 July 2011, 16.30-18.00

Sponsor:SMC @ IMC: Studies in Medieval Coinage at Leeds International Medieval Congress
Organiser:Tony Abramson, Institute for Medieval Studies, University of Leeds / Department of Archaeology, University of York
Moderator/Chair:Nick Mayhew, Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Paper 1321-aThe Currency and the Economy in Late Medieval England
(Language: English)
Martin Allen, Department of Coins & Medals, Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge
Index terms: Economics - Trade, Numismatics
Paper 1321-bMedieval 'Traveller's Cheques': Financing Foreign Travel in 14th- and 15th-Century England
(Language: English)
Tony Moore, International Capital Market Association (ICMA) Centre, University of Reading
Index terms: Economics - General, Numismatics
Paper 1321-cKings, Coins, and Royal Entries in Late Medieval England
(Language: English)
Barrie J. Cook, Department of Coins & Medals, British Museum, London
Index terms: Numismatics, Politics and Diplomacy
Abstract

Paper -a:
Estimates of the English currency between the Black Death and the second half of the 15th century show a fall in the size of the silver coinage, which may have affected retail trade and other parts of the economy dependant upon the availability of small change. The use of foreign coinage as an alternative form of small change was inhibited by legislation. Gold coins increasingly supplied the largest element of the English currency, but coin hoards support the assumption that much of the gold currency was immobilised in reserves of cash. The contribution of credit and written financial instruments to the money supply is controversial and impossible to quantify.

Paper -b:
Medieval English kings frequently sought to regulate and control bullion flows from England, including the use of financial instruments such as bills of exchange. From the mid-14th century they introduced a licensing system for non-mercantile letters of exchange. Between 1367 and 1424 there are over 1,000 surviving licences, issued to a wide variety of travellers and for a great range of sums. This paper will analyse the recipients in terms of their social status, likely destination, purpose of travel and the amount of money that they were licensed to export in cash or to collect abroad.

Paper -c:
In early modern England, coins formed an integral part of many royal ceremonies, helping to define the relationship of the monarch to God and to his or her subjects. It seems clear that many of these ceremonies either began or became formalised in the late medieval period, especially in the 15th century, and this paper attempts to examine the evidence for the role of coins in one of most public and in some ways most symbolic of these ceremonies, the king's formal entry into the cities and towns of his realm. The particular focus will be the pre-coronation procession into the City of London and royal entries into York made by Richard III, Henry VII, and Henry VIII.