Jaco Zuijderduijn
Senior lecturer
Coins, currencies, and credit instruments : Media of exchange in economic and social history
Author
Summary, in English
How, in historical societies, did people finalise transactions? Over the past few decades many economic and social historians have concerned themselves with this question, following the examples set by Douglass North and Craig Muldrew. Surprisingly, they have almost completely disregarded the most straightforward solution that historical societies had to offer, namely by using coins and currencies. Those scholars assumed, in part, that credit instruments were much more important in day-to-day trade. In this introduction we argue that studies into the unequal socioeconomic distribution of media of exchange - coins, currencies, and credit instruments - reveal mechanisms that are crucial to understanding broader social and economic processes. To this end, we discuss how the five articles in this special issue contribute to the growing literature on this topic.
Department/s
- Department of Economic History
Publishing year
2014
Language
English
Pages
1-13
Publication/Series
The Low Countries Journal of Social and Economic History / Tijdschrift voor Sociale en Economische Geschiedenis
Volume
11
Issue
3
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
International Institute of Social History
Topic
- Business Administration
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 1572-1701