Buch, Englisch, 432 Seiten, Format (B × H): 178 mm x 254 mm, Gewicht: 800 g
Buch, Englisch, 432 Seiten, Format (B × H): 178 mm x 254 mm, Gewicht: 800 g
Reihe: Princeton Economic History of the Western World
ISBN: 978-0-691-11635-8
Verlag: Princeton University Press
The Big Problem of Small Change offers the first credible and analytically sound explanation of how a problem that dogged monetary authorities for hundreds of years was finally solved. Two leading economists, Thomas Sargent and François Velde, examine the evolution of Western European economies through the lens of one of the classic problems of monetary history--the recurring scarcity and depreciation of small change. Through penetrating and clearly worded analysis, they tell the story of how monetary technologies, doctrines, and practices evolved from 1300 to 1850; of how the "standard formula" was devised to address an age-old dilemma without causing inflation.One big problem had long plagued commodity money (that is, money literally worth its weight in gold): governments were hard-pressed to provide a steady supply of small change because of its high costs of production. The ensuing shortages hampered trade and, paradoxically, resulted in inflation and depreciation of small change. After centuries of technological progress that limited counterfeiting, in the nineteenth century governments replaced the small change in use until then with fiat money (money not literally equal to the value claimed for it)--ensuring a secure flow of small change. But this was not all. By solving this problem, suggest Sargent and Velde, modern European states laid the intellectual and practical basis for the diverse forms of money that make the world go round today.This keenly argued, richly imaginative, and attractively illustrated study presents a comprehensive history and theory of small change. The authors skillfully convey the intuition that underlies their rigorous analysis. All those intrigued by monetary history will recognize this book for the standard that it is.
Autoren/Hrsg.
Fachgebiete
Weitere Infos & Material
List of Illustrations xiii
List of Tables xv
Preface xvii
Acknowledgments xxi
Part I: A Problem and Its Cure
Chapter 1. Introduction 3
Paper and gold. The enduring problem of small change. A model. Supply side: the mint. Demand side: the coin owner. Shortages. Price level determination. Remedies. A history. Structure of subsequent chapters.
Chapter 2. A Theory 15
Valuation by weight or tale. A basic one-denomination theory. Multiple denominations. Supply. Demand. Interactions of supply and demand. Economics of interval alignments. Perverse dynamics. Spontaneous debasements: invasions of foreign coins. Costs and Temptations. Opportunity cost. An open market operation from Castile. An open market operation for the standard formula. Transparency of opportunity cost. Trusting the government with bi = 0.
Chapter 3. Our Philosophy of History 37
History and theory. Clues identified by our model. Cures. Our history.
Part II: Ideas and Technologies
Chapter 4. Technology 45
Small coins in the Middle Ages. The purchasing power of a small coin. The medieval technology: hammer and pile. Production costs and seigniorage. Mechanization. The screw press. The cylinder press. Other inventions. The steam engine. Counterfeiting, duplicating, imitating. Technologies and ideas.
Chapter 5. Medieval Ideas about Coins and Money 69
Medieval jurists as advocates of Arrow-Debreu. Romanists and Canonists. Construction of the medieval common doctrine. Sources and methods of the romanists. Money in a legal doctrine of loans. Tests in a one-coin environment. Multiple currencies and denominations. Multiple denominations. Multiple metals. Fluctuating exchange rates: the stationary case. Multiple units of accounts. Demonetization. Overdue payments and extrinsic value. Trends in exchange rates. Debasements and currency reforms. A question from public law: setting seigniorage rates. Sources of the canonists. Debasements and seigniorage rates. Qualifications, exceptions, and discoveries. Early statement of double coincidence. Romanists repair the breach. Canonists versus romanists on seigniorage. Another breach. Philosophers help. The cracks widen: debasements and deficit financing. Concluding remarks.
Chapter 6. Monetary Theory in the Renaissance 100
Precursors of Adam Smith. Debt repayment, legal tender, and nominalism. Dumoulin the revolutionary. Dumoulin's impact. Dumoulin the conservative. Fiat money. Fiat money in theory: Butigella. Double coincidence of wants revisited. Other formulations. Fiat money in practice. The conditions for valued fiat money. Restrictions on fiat money. Limited legal tender. Quantity theory. Lessons from the Castilian experience: fiat money. In Spain: Juan de Mariana (1609). Forecasting inflation. In France: Henri Poullain (1612). Concluding remarks.
Part III: Endemic Shortages and "Natural Experiments"
Chapter 7. Clues 123
Shortages of small change and bullion famine. Shortages and invasions of coins. Ghost monies and units of account. Free minting. The evidence.
Chapter 8. Medieval Coin Shortages 131
England. France. Shortages elsewhere. Concluding remarks.
Chapter 9. Medieval Florence 139
Turbulent debut of large coins in Tuscany. The Quattrini affair. Ghost monies as legal tender and unit of account. Florentine ghost monies: details. Concluding remarks. Appendix A: mint equivalents and mint prices. Minting. Appendix B: a price index for fourteenth-century Florence.
Chapter 10. Medieval Venice 160
Four episodes. Piccolo and grosso, 1250 to 1320. Evolving units of account. Silver and gold, 1285 to 1353. Adaptation of units of account. Soldino and ducat, 1360 to 1440. Rehearsing fiat money. The torneselli in Greece. Expansion near Venice. Concluding remarks. Appendix: mint equivalents and mint prices.
Chapter 11. The Price Revolution in France 186
Relative price change as inflation. Disturbances to coin denominations. A three-coin model. Supply: mov
