This book brings together the most significant uncollected writings of the renowned economic historian Peter Spufford (1934–2017). Spanning topics from medieval coinage and monetary policy to international trade and shifting financial centres, this volume showcases Spufford’s unique ability to integrate numismatics, economic history, and archival research across multiple languages and disciplines.The collection includes both previously published and unpublished studies, some of which were originally available only in German, French, or Italian. These papers reflect Spufford’s lifelong commitment to uncovering the complexities of medieval economies through rigorous analysis of primary sources, archaeological evidence, and pictorial materials. The volume makes accessible a wealth of scholarship that had remained scattered or difficult to obtain, offering new insights into the monetary and commercial systems of Europe from the Middle Ages to the early modern period. It will be a fascinating resource for historians of money, trade, and medieval Europe.
Jan Lucassen is an Honorary Fellow at the International Institute of Social History, the Netherlands. Peter Spufford was Professor of European History at the University of Cambridge, UK.
The mint buildings of medieval Europe.- How rarely did medieval merchants use coin?.- Debasement of the coinage and its effects on exchange rates and the economy.- Some economic effects of debasements.- The provision of stable moneys by Florence and Venice.- Moneys of account in the Burgundian Netherlands.- Money and its use thirty years on.- The Medieval Loaf as a Proxy for Monetary Change.- Late medieval merchant’s note books.- Merchants and trade in England at the end of the Middle Ages.- Lapis, indigo, woad: artists’ materials in the context of international trade.- From Antwerp to London.- From Genoa to London.