Bullion Flows and Monetary Policies in England and the Low Countries, 1350–1500

Did ’money matter’ in the economic history of medieval Europe? In these essays John Munro has pursued the controversies surrounding the monetary (not ’monetarist’) history of the period, specifically in relation to England and Flanders, and the other Burgundian Low Countries, during the late Middle Ages. He argues that, without doubt, monetary factors and policies were crucial, and attempts to integrate them with other factors, themselves often of equal significance, such as demographic change or institutional controls. The focus is upon the international flow of precious metals through the region and various related economic themes: the so-called late-medieval ’bullion famine’; the relation between monetary and price changes; the role of coinage in financing warfare ; ’bullionist’ mint policies as both fiscal and monetary remedies for perceived economic, political, and military problems; and the consequences of warfare, war-financing, monetary policies, and related monetary problems for the two countries' commerce, finance and industries, especially those involving woolen textiles.