The Great Wave: Price Revolutions and the Rhythm of History

by David Hackett Fischer

Silver stocks expanded throughout Europe in the thirteenth century. One study finds that silver coins minted in England rose from 200,000 pounds in the period 1210–18, to more than 500,000 in the 1240s, and above 1,000,000 pounds in the 1280s. As the quantity of money increased, its value declined. The effect was to drive prices higher.31 Gold, which had drained away from Europe during the early Middle Ages, now began to flow in again. Some of it was stolen by Venetian pirates, Teutonic knights and French crusaders. More was gained in trade, and large quantities of bullion were imported from the mines of Africa. In the mid-thirteenth century, the Italian city-states became the first in the West to mint gold coin since the fall of Rome. Genoa may have been the earliest trading town to do so, as early as 1249. The people of Florence followed with gold florins in 1252. Venice began to issue gold ducats in 1284. The ducat became renowned for its stability, by keeping its gold content unchanged for more than five hundred years, from 1284 to the fall of the Venetian republic in 1797. The quantity of gold and silver in circulation, and probably their velocity as well, increased during the late thirteenth century, and added to inflationary pressures.