>Excellent research on this, thank you! I'd also like
>to add that when an economy changes from barter to
>cash (which is bound to happen in the wake of the
>introduction of large numbers of lunar coins sincs the
>invasion) a great many social changes tend to occur.
Not precisely relevent, but I have just been reading a book on the mediaeval English economy and was quite surprised by how prominent the whole market mechanism was, even back then. For example:
Making beer is a relatively simple process, but it's one that benefits hugely from economies of scale. Therefore, instead of everyone brewing their own, in each village various families in turn would brew a large batch then sell drinks to their neighbours. Brewing was generally seen as a female profession; while the husband worked in the fields, his wife brewed the beer. (Hence 'ale-wife'). It was a useful way of supplementing your income for a poor cottar family.
Likewise for food. All but the poorest peasant families would own a pig or two, which would be fattened up over the year then slaughtered for meat. Of course, this could be preserved (as bacon or sausages) but it was much more convenient to take the pig to the local market town and sell it to a butcher, then use the money to make small purchases of meat throughout the year.
They even had pension schemes. The average villein couldn't sell their land, since they didn't own it. However, when they grew too old to farm it themselves, they'd transfer it to another tenant (possibly their own son) in return for a 'maintenance agreement'. This often specified a fixed amount of produce (usually 12 bushels of grain per year, plus other extras) to be paid to the former tenant until their death. While this was usually intended to be baked into bread and eaten by the pensioner, there is documentary evidence that it was instead often sold and the money used to purchase other living essentials.
Finally, note that a cash economy allows greater differentials in size of landholding. Previously, a family could only farm as much land as it has able-bodied adults able to work it (barring some sort of manorial right to the labour of other peasants). With a supply of cash, you can pay people to bring more fields under cultivation. Equally, a poor family without sufficient land was once at risk of starving to death every poor harvest; now, they can supplement their income with wages.
Stephen
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