Date of Award
2018
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelors
Department
Social Sciences
Second Department
Humanities
First Advisor
Benes, Carrie
Area of Concentration
History
Abstract
This thesis examines money as a part of developing systems of government in the middle ages. In England, the recreation of counterfeiting as a crime and the enforcement of the nominal value of money as distinct from its value as bullion reflected the creation of a centralized English state over the tenth through thirteenth centuries. In northern Italy, independent city-states used money and regulation of the cash economy as part of an effort to establish distinct identities and legitimate their rule between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries. Both societies contended with the subsequent development of finance, and the pressure of the religious usury proscription; however, economic exigency tended to win out over moral aversion, and banks became integral to the operation of governments, while Christian moneylenders scapegoated Jews.
Recommended Citation
Deal, Victoria, "MAGNA LATROCINIA: MONEY AND GOVERNANCE IN ENGLAND AND NORTHERN ITALY BETWEEN THE TENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES" (2018). Theses & ETDs. 5502.
https://digitalcommons.ncf.edu/theses_etds/5502