Medieval monetary practices reveal an alternative approach to currency stabilisation. This column examines the role of Mint prices as a device for stabilising the medieval bullion market. This might seem to be of limited relevance to managing modern currencies, yet a longer historical view helps to highlight different approaches to currency stabilisation. This raises a question for modern policymakers: should the price of some of the asset counterparts of today’s money be anchored, as bullion prices once were under the Mint system?VOX
Currency stabilisation and asset-price anchors: An examination of medieval monetary practices with some implications for modern policy
Anthony Hotson | Research Fellow at the Winton Institute for Monetary History, Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
1 comment:
This is great, thanks! Few people realize that the old 'pris fixe' that Isaac Newton put in place in the 18th century broke with prior practice, in which gold parity could be adjusted to economic reality. We could actually lay the blame for the Long Depression and Great Depression (and by extension, the Holocaust and WWII) at Newton's feet. Scary thought.
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