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Gold, credit, and mortality: distinguishing deflationary pressures on the late medieval English economy
Author(s) -
NIGHTINGALE PAMELA
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
the economic history review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.014
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1468-0289
pISSN - 0013-0117
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0289.2010.00525.x
Subject(s) - deflation , fifteenth , economics , debt , circulation (fluid dynamics) , keynesian economics , monetary economics , population , gold standard (test) , ancient history , history , macroeconomics , demography , monetary policy , medicine , physics , sociology , thermodynamics
This article uses national and local records of debt and evidence from coins, prices, and wages to discuss the economic effects of the gold coinage that was introduced into England in 1344. It distinguishes between the deflationary effects of gold and those of the falling population on prices and credit, and shows that a coinage dominated by gold reduced the volume of credit and transactions far more than the mortality rate and the total circulation of coin would indicate was likely. It relates these findings to the economic and social changes of the fifteenth century.