15世纪货币 通缩和王朝更替.pdfVIP

Journal of Monetary Economics 18 (1986) 337-346. North-Holland MONEY, DEFLATION AND SEIGNIORAGE IN THJ3 FIFTEENTHCENTURY A Review Essay Michael D. BORDO* Universi@ of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, US 4 1. Introduction Monetary economists have long been interested in economic history as a laboratory for the testing of theory. For the monetary economist, unusual monetary disturbances such as gold discoveries and hyperinflations, unique institutional arrangements such as free banking, and unique monetary stan- dards such as bimetallism, provide the raw materials for the testing of theories. Monetary economics has focused mainly on the experience of Western Europe and North America since the beginning of the nineteenth century,’ because of the availability of data and of continuity to modem times of institutions then established. However, there has also been considerable inter- est in episodes from the preceding three centuries, e.g., the Price Revolution of the sixteenth century [Hamilton (1934)], Colonial money issues [Smith (1985), Wicker (1985)], the assignat hyperinflation [White (1985)], the historical sources of hyperinflation [Capie (1986)], and the South Sea Bubble [Neal and Schubert (1985)]. One largely overlooked episode of history of great potential interest to the monetary economist is the late Middle Ages in Northwestern Europe.