RW note: It has been suggested that the early use of coins by the Englisc (Anglo-Saxons) was only for such payments. Certainly it was not until later that coins were used for trade. Even then, the trade started as an enterprise directly controlled by royalty to supply them with prestige goods from distant places. Once the prestige goods arrived, I guess they entered the cycle of gift exchanges that bound a lord (drihten) to his companions (gesithes). See 'Dark Age Economics', Hodges, pub. Duckworth.
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