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Trade in coinage, Gresham's Law, and the drive to monetary unification: the Holy Roman Empire, 1519-59

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  • Volckart, Oliver

Abstract

Research on premodern monetary unions has so far started out from the idea that such unions were designed to promote trade and economic integration. The present paper demonstrates that this in an anachronistic misconception. Premodern monetary unions were the answer to political and fiscal problems caused by Gresham’s Law in a monetary environment characterised permeable borders and by the increasing integration of currency markets. As integration advanced significantly in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, the regional monetary unions that had been formed in the late medieval Holy Roman Empire were increasingly insufficient to address these problems. This is why the imperial estates were interested in creating and Empire-wide common currency – an aim they reached at the end of the 1550s.

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  • Volckart, Oliver, 2021. "Trade in coinage, Gresham's Law, and the drive to monetary unification: the Holy Roman Empire, 1519-59," Economic History Working Papers 109885, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:wpaper:109885
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • B11 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - Preclassical (Ancient, Medieval, Mercantilist, Physiocratic)
    • O52 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Europe
    • N0 - Economic History - - General
    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics

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