Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- INTRODUCTION
- 1 THE ECONOMIC BACKGROUND: MONETIZATION AND MONETARY CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE THIRTEENTH AND FOURTEENTH CENTURIES
- 2 THE ARISTOTELIAN MODEL OF MONEY AND ECONOMIC EXCHANGE
- 3 THE EARLIEST LATIN COMMENTARIES ON THE ARISTOTELIAN MODEL OF ECONOMIC EXCHANGE: ALBERTUS MAGNUS AND THOMAS AQUINAS
- 4 MODELS OF ECONOMIC EQUALITY AND EQUALIZATION IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY
- 5 EVOLVING MODELS OF MONEY AND MARKET EXCHANGE IN THE LATE THIRTEENTH AND FOURTEENTH CENTURIES
- 6 LINKING THE SCHOLASTIC MODEL OF MONEY AS MEASURE TO PROTO-SCIENTIFIC INNOVATIONS IN FOURTEENTH-CENTURY NATURAL PHILOSOPHY
- 7 LINKING SCHOLASTIC MODELS OF MONETIZED EXCHANGE TO INNOVATIONS IN FOURTEENTH-CENTURY MATHEMATICS AND NATURAL PHILOSOPHY
- Bibliography
- Index
- Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought Fourth series
1 - THE ECONOMIC BACKGROUND: MONETIZATION AND MONETARY CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE THIRTEENTH AND FOURTEENTH CENTURIES
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 July 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- INTRODUCTION
- 1 THE ECONOMIC BACKGROUND: MONETIZATION AND MONETARY CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE THIRTEENTH AND FOURTEENTH CENTURIES
- 2 THE ARISTOTELIAN MODEL OF MONEY AND ECONOMIC EXCHANGE
- 3 THE EARLIEST LATIN COMMENTARIES ON THE ARISTOTELIAN MODEL OF ECONOMIC EXCHANGE: ALBERTUS MAGNUS AND THOMAS AQUINAS
- 4 MODELS OF ECONOMIC EQUALITY AND EQUALIZATION IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY
- 5 EVOLVING MODELS OF MONEY AND MARKET EXCHANGE IN THE LATE THIRTEENTH AND FOURTEENTH CENTURIES
- 6 LINKING THE SCHOLASTIC MODEL OF MONEY AS MEASURE TO PROTO-SCIENTIFIC INNOVATIONS IN FOURTEENTH-CENTURY NATURAL PHILOSOPHY
- 7 LINKING SCHOLASTIC MODELS OF MONETIZED EXCHANGE TO INNOVATIONS IN FOURTEENTH-CENTURY MATHEMATICS AND NATURAL PHILOSOPHY
- Bibliography
- Index
- Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought Fourth series
Summary
When historians and economists speak of the monetization of European society in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, they are speaking in relative rather than absolute terms of a multi-faceted social process. Increases in the volume of coinage in circulation and the frequency of monetary transactions are only two of many factors involved. The process of monetization was inextricably tied to what has been called “the commercial revolution of the thirteenth century”: the rapid growth of trade, markets, and towns; the acceleration of agricultural and craft production; the evolution of specialized commercial enterprises and techniques; and the penetration of monetary and commercial values into all areas of social life. In this sense, the process of monetization is first apparent in the Italian cities of the late eleventh and twelfth centuries. For England and France, historians identify the “long” thirteenth century – that is, between approximately 1180 and 1320 – as the period of most rapid monetization.
The accelerated use of money had ever-expanding social, economic, and intellectual consequences. As the process of monetization gathered speed, habits of thought and perception initially restricted to those actively engaged in commerce came to be adopted by members of all segments of society. Among the most characteristic of these new habits were: the focus on monetary profit and loss in a wide range of decision making; the recognition of the importance of detailed written records for this calculation; the resulting broad development of literacy and numeracy; and the translation of qualitative values into quantitative, often monetary, terms as a way to simplify the process of calculation.
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- Economy and Nature in the Fourteenth CenturyMoney, Market Exchange, and the Emergence of Scientific Thought, pp. 15 - 36Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1998
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