David Landreth
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199773299
- eISBN:
- 9780199932665
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199773299.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Shakespeare Studies, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
The Introduction situates the peculiar character of the English Renaissance's “Mammon”—i.e., money that talks— both theoretically and historically. What differentiates this Mammon from the medieval ...
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The Introduction situates the peculiar character of the English Renaissance's “Mammon”—i.e., money that talks— both theoretically and historically. What differentiates this Mammon from the medieval experience of money is the traumatic mid-sixteenth-century upheavals of inflation and monetary debasement. What differentiates it from the modern experience of money is its situation, not in the post-Enlightenment discourse of economics, but in the contemporary discourse of “commonwealth,” which coordinates material values with political, ethical, and theological ones. Landreth argues that straightforwardly economistic analyses are therefore insufficient to fully articulate the Renaissance's Mammon, and turn to the methods of object-oriented “material culture” and of metaphysical ontology.Less
The Introduction situates the peculiar character of the English Renaissance's “Mammon”—i.e., money that talks— both theoretically and historically. What differentiates this Mammon from the medieval experience of money is the traumatic mid-sixteenth-century upheavals of inflation and monetary debasement. What differentiates it from the modern experience of money is its situation, not in the post-Enlightenment discourse of economics, but in the contemporary discourse of “commonwealth,” which coordinates material values with political, ethical, and theological ones. Landreth argues that straightforwardly economistic analyses are therefore insufficient to fully articulate the Renaissance's Mammon, and turn to the methods of object-oriented “material culture” and of metaphysical ontology.
Niv Horesh
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780804787192
- eISBN:
- 9780804788540
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804787192.001.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
This book offers an interpretation of the Chinese monetary system, charting its evolution by examining key moments in history – from BCE 600 up to the present. It places these moments in ...
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This book offers an interpretation of the Chinese monetary system, charting its evolution by examining key moments in history – from BCE 600 up to the present. It places these moments in international perspective by comparing primary sources in multiple languages and across three millennia. The book begins exploring the trajectory of Chinese currency at the birth of coinage around the world and ends with the implications of the current global financial crisis for China and the rest of the world. Its narrative highlights the way that Chinese money developed in relation to the currencies of other countries, paying special attention to the origins of paper money, the relationship between the West’s ascendancy and its mineral riches, the linkages between pre-modern finance, debasement, and then inflation with the emergence of nation-statehood. The book then looks ahead to the possible globalization of the RMB, the currency of the People’s Republic of China against the backdrop of growing global uncertainties as to America’s federal debt.Less
This book offers an interpretation of the Chinese monetary system, charting its evolution by examining key moments in history – from BCE 600 up to the present. It places these moments in international perspective by comparing primary sources in multiple languages and across three millennia. The book begins exploring the trajectory of Chinese currency at the birth of coinage around the world and ends with the implications of the current global financial crisis for China and the rest of the world. Its narrative highlights the way that Chinese money developed in relation to the currencies of other countries, paying special attention to the origins of paper money, the relationship between the West’s ascendancy and its mineral riches, the linkages between pre-modern finance, debasement, and then inflation with the emergence of nation-statehood. The book then looks ahead to the possible globalization of the RMB, the currency of the People’s Republic of China against the backdrop of growing global uncertainties as to America’s federal debt.
Harry Dondorp
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- April 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780198704744
- eISBN:
- 9780191774041
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198704744.003.0013
- Subject:
- Law, Legal History
This chapter looks into the effects of debasement of monetary value on pre-existing debts during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It analyses the ideas of Charles Dumoulin regarding the ...
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This chapter looks into the effects of debasement of monetary value on pre-existing debts during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It analyses the ideas of Charles Dumoulin regarding the prevailing monetary theory and compares them with the views of his contemporaries. Dumoulin proposed a new interpretation of the Roman and Canon Law texts on which monetary law of the ius commune was built. He based his opinion about the age-old issue of repayment after debasements on a rational understanding of money, derived from its actual use in exchange. Before him, by distinguishing between ius commune and custom, Alberto Bruno had come to a similar result, when custom allowed debtors to render payment in any gold or silver coin. French law assimilated Dumoulin’s doctrine, but German jurist remained faithful to the ius commune principle, that after debasements pre-existing debts must be paid in the old coins.Less
This chapter looks into the effects of debasement of monetary value on pre-existing debts during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It analyses the ideas of Charles Dumoulin regarding the prevailing monetary theory and compares them with the views of his contemporaries. Dumoulin proposed a new interpretation of the Roman and Canon Law texts on which monetary law of the ius commune was built. He based his opinion about the age-old issue of repayment after debasements on a rational understanding of money, derived from its actual use in exchange. Before him, by distinguishing between ius commune and custom, Alberto Bruno had come to a similar result, when custom allowed debtors to render payment in any gold or silver coin. French law assimilated Dumoulin’s doctrine, but German jurist remained faithful to the ius commune principle, that after debasements pre-existing debts must be paid in the old coins.
