The Power of Gold: The History of an Obsession

by Peter L. Bernstein

  18. Ibid., p. 106.

  19. Marx, 1978, p. 235.

  CHAPTER 4 THE SYMBOL AND THE FAITH

  1. Sutherland, 1959, p. 107.

  2. Encyclopedia Britannica On-Line: Irene.

  3. Ibid.: Nicephorus.

  4. Marx, 1978, p. 242.

  5. Encyclopedia Britannica On-Line: Basil III.

  6. Marx, 1978, pp. 241-242.

  7. Ibid., pp. 231-232.

  8. Cherry, 1992, especially Figs. 20, 59, and 60.

  9. Langer, 1952, p. 150.

  10. Marx, 1978, p. 231.

  11. Ibid., p. 232.

  12. Lopez, 1951, p. 228.

  13. Ibid., p. 232.

  14. Ibid., pp. 224-260.

  15. Ibid., p. 209.

  16. Sutherland, 1959, pp. 113-115.

  17. Lopez, 1951, p. 211.

  18. Ibid., p. 214.

  19. Encyclopedia Britannica On-Line: Leo III and the Age of Iconoclasm.

  20. Ibid.: Irene.

  21. Ibid.: Coinage in the Byzantine Empire.

  22. Lopez, 1951, p. 214.

  23. Ibid., p. 215.

  24. Ibid., p. 221.

  25. Ibid., p. 221.

  CHAPTER 5 GOLD, SALT, AND THE BLESSED TOWN

  1. Marx, 1978, p. 248.

  2. Ibid., p. 246.

  3. Ibid., pp. 243-248.

  4. Sutherland, 1959, p. 113.

  5. Ibid., pp. 113-115.

  6. Ibid., pp. 114-116.

  7. Vilar, 1976, p. 46.

  8. Bovill, 1958, p. 10.

  9. Tracy, 1990, Table 10.5, p. 329.

  10. Ibid., p. 342.

  11. Bovill, 1958, p. 48.

  12. Ibid., p. 68.

  13. Ibid., p. 141.

  14. Ibid., p. 195.

  15. Ibid., p. 236.

  16. Ibid., p. 119.

  17. Ibid., p. 103.

  CHAPTER 6 THE LEGACY OF EOBA, BABBA, AND UDD

  1. Crosby, 1997, p. 69, citing St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae.

  2. For a detailed and illuminating description of hoarding in the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance, see North, 1990. This volume discusses a lot more than hoarding, but hoarding is a frequent subject inter alia.

  3. Bloch, 1933, p. 8. Marc Bloch was one of the most brilliant young French economists of the 1930s. As a soldier in the French army in World War II, he was caught in the general Allied retreat during the German offensive of May 1940. He escaped to Britain in the massive evacuation from Dunkirk while the Germans besieged the port. Bloch voluntarily returned to France a few weeks later to fight in the underground. A Jew, he was captured and murdered in one of the death camps.

  4. Fischer, 1996, p. 16.

  5. Marx, 1978, p. 254.

  6. Davies, 1995, p. 123.

  7. Feaveryear, 1963, p. 9.

  8. Ibid., pp. 123-126.

  9. Lacey and Danziger, 1999, p. 68.

  10. Langer, 1952, p. 155.

  11. Marx, 1978, pp. 233-234.

  12. Miskimin, 1977.

  13. Davies, 1995, and information supplied by Professor Benjamin Friedman of the Harvard Economics Department.

  14. Kindleberger, 1993, p. 22.

  15. Feaveryear, 1963, p. 96.

  16. Davies, 1995, p. 145.

  17. Ibid., pp. 145-146.

  18. Ibid., p. 139.

  19. Gibbon, 1804, Vol. I, pp. 352-353.

  20. Ibid., p. 164.

  CHAPTER 7 THE GREAT CHAIN REACTION

  1. Fischer, 1996, p. 13.

  2. Ibid., p. 16.

  3. See Becker et al., 1999.

  4. Bryant, 1962, p. 309.

  5. Watson, 1976, pp. 9-10.

  6. Ibid., p. 10.

  7. See Vilar, 1976, p. 34, and Watson, 1976, pp. 7-8.

  8. Lopez, 1956, p. 239.

  9. Langer, 1952, p. 211.

  10. Lopez, 1956, p. 237.

  11. Ibid., p. 230.

  12. Ibid., pp. 233-234.

  13. Cipolla, 1956, p. 26.

  14. Lopez, 1956, p. 219.

  15. Merchant of Venice, Act III, Scene 1.

  16. Fischer, 1996, p. 25.

  17. Feaveryear, 1963, pp. 22-29.

  18. Tuchman, 1978, p. 96.

  19. Feaveryear, 1963, p. 24.

  CHAPTER 8 THE DISINTEGRATING AGE AND THE KINGS' RANSOMS

  1. Tuchman, 1978, pp. xiii-xiv.

  2. Ibid., p. 41.

  3. Miskimin, 1977, Table 1, p. 21, and Tuchman, 1978, p. 94.

  4. Tuchman, 1978, pp. 96-100.

  5. Langer, 1952, p. 222.

  6. Fischer, 1996, p. 41.

  7. Bainton, 1952, p. 12.

  8. Tuchman, 1978, p. 353.

  9. Miskimin, 1989, VII, p. 486.

  10. Ibid., pp. 484-485.

  11. Miskimin, 1977, pp. 20-21.

  12. Day, 1987, p. 191.

  13. Miskimin, 1989, VII, p. 487.

  14. Day, 1987, p. 191; see also Miskimin, 1989, VII, p. 488.

  15. Tuchman, 1978, p. 123.

  16. Miskimin, 1989, VII, pp. 488-489.

  17. Davies, 1995, p. 164.

  18. Feaveryear, 1963, pp. 33-34.

  19. Davies, 1995, p. 162.

  20. Tuchman, 1978, p. 378.

  21. Marx, 1978, pp. 256-259.

  22. Tuchman, 1978, p. 130.

  23. Ibid., p. 144.

  24. Ibid., p. 150.

  25. Ibid., p. 152.

  26. Ibid., p. 151.

  27. Bryant, 1964, p. 139.

  28. Tuchman, 1978, p. 189.

  29. Ibid., p. 191.

  30. Ibid., p. 191.

  31. Tuchman, 1978, p. 198.

  32. Davies, 1995, p. 165, says three million gold crowns were equal to £500,000. Feaveryear, 1963, p. 21, comments that laborers earned Is 8d per week, and that both one sheep and six gallons of ale fetched the same amount.

  33. Leary, 1959, p. 343.

  34. Miskimin, 1977, p. 21.

  35. The population number is from Vilar, 1976, p. 49.

  36. See Kindleberger, 1993, p. 24.

  37. One metric ton = 32,150 oz. Four metric tons = 129,000 oz. 129,000 X 28.35 = 3,646,000 grams. 3,646,000 _ 3.5 = 1,042,000 ducats.

  38. Day, 1978, p. 9.

  39. Kindleberger, 1993, p. 24.

  40. Vilar, 1976, p. 19.

  41. Day, 1978, p. 13.

  42. Ibid., p. 15.

  43. Ibid., p. 16.

  44. Challis, 1992, pp. 198-201.

  45. Day, 1978, p. 60.

  46. Kindleberger, 1993, p. 24. See also Davies, 1995, p. 184.

  47. Day, 1978, p. 142. See also Davies, 1995, pp. 184-186.

  48. Vilar, 1976, p. 45.

  49. Fischer, 1996, p. 51.

  50. Feaveryear, 1963, Appendix II.

  51. Davies, 1995, p. 175.

  52. Vilar, 1976, p. 64.

  CHAPTER 9 THE SACRED THIRST

  1. Brimelow, 1998.

  2. Austen, 1990, in Tracy, 1990, Tables 10.1 and 10.6, pp. 315 and 332-333.

  3. Wright, 1970, pp. 15-16.

  4. Ibid., p. 41.

  5. Vilar, 1976, p. 55.

  6. Ibid., pp. 55-56.

  7. Wright, 1970, pp. 57-59.

  8. Ibid., p. 62.

  9. Ibid., pp. 60-68.

  10. Marx, 1978, p. 300.

  11. Vilar, 1976, p. 63.

  12. Marx, 1978, p. 323.

  13. Ibid., p. 323.

  14. Green, 1993, p. 11.

  15. Ibid., pp. 329-330.

  16. Prescott, 1847, p. 91.

  17. Ibid., p. 91.

  18. Emmerich, 1965, p. 79.

  19. Wright, 1970, p. 229; see footnote.

  20. Emmerich, 1965, p. 42, says 3.5 million to 7.0 million.

  21. Wright, 1970, p. 236.

  22. Prescott, 1847, p. 199.

  23. Ibid., p. 203.

  24. Ibid., p. 206.

  25. Ibid., p. 207.

  26. Ibid., p. 207.

  27. Ibid., p. 207.

  28. Ibid., p. 213.

  29. Page 100.

 
; 30. Emmerich, 1965, pp. 173-174.

  31. Ibid., pp. 25-40.

  32. Vilar, 1976, p. 91, ascribes this measurement to jean Bodin's work of 1578, Response to Malestroit, and says that the figures appear to be genuine.

  33. Emmerich, 1965, pp. 43, 48.

  34. Each peso was equal to 3.5 grams; there are 1000 grams in a metric ton. Therefore, 1,326,529 pesos d'oro weighed 4,642,887 grams, or 4.6 metric tons. A metric ton is equal to 1.102 U.S. tons. Therefore, 4.6 metric tons is equal to 5.0 tons, or 10,000 pounds avoirdupois. If the output of the mines was 190 tons, the gold in the chamber was the equivalent of about twenty years' production from the mines.

  35. Prescott, 1847, p. 241.

  36. Smith, 1776, p. 421.

  37. Emmerich, 1965, p. 154.

  38. Gibbon, 1804, Vol. I, p. 179.

  CHAPTER 10 THE FATAL POISON AND PRIVATE MONEY

  1. Brace, 1910, p. 9, quoting Jacob, 1831.

  2. Parry, 1967, pp. 200-201, in Rich and Wilson, 1967.

  3. Ibid., pp. 127, 137.

  4. Sutherland, 1959, p. 135.

  5. See both Andrews, 1978, and Andrews, 1984, for a full discussion of the role of piracy in the development of British, French, and Dutch interests in the riches of the New World.

  6. Hamilton, 1934, p. 19.

  7. Parry, 1967, p. 202.

  8. Andrews, 1978, pp. 19-31.

  9. Encyclopedia Britannica On-Line: Drake, Sir Francis.

  10. Sutherland, 1959, p. 139. See also Wright, 1970, pp. 307-327.

  11. Marx, 1978, p. 364.

  12. Hamilton, 1934, Table 3, p. 42.

  13. Kindleberger, 1989, p. 28.

  14. Vilar, 1976, pp. 166-168.

  15. Ibid., p. 160.

  16. See Mauro, 1990, in Tracy, 1990, pp. 279 et seq.

  17. Boyer-Xambeu et al., 1994, p. 116.

  18. Ibid., p. 116.

  19. Vilar, 1976, p. 149.

  20. Kindleberger, 1989, pp. 30-31.

  21. Ibid., p. 47.

  22. For a discussion of the impact of this innovation on business practice, and the admirable monk Luca Paccioli who introduced it, see Bernstein, 1996, pp. 41-43.

  23. Feaveryear, 1963, pp. 51-52.

  24. Marx, 1978, p. 296.

  25. Ibid., p. 292.

  26. Sutherland, 1959, p. 142.

  27. Encyclopedia Britannica On-Line: Francis I.

  28. Hackett, 1929, p. 12.

  29. Ibid., p. 113.

  30. Bowle, 1964, pp. 96-99.

  31. Hackett, 1929, p. 112.

  32. Bowle, 1964, p. 99.

  33. Fischer, 1996, pp. 65-91. See also the full text of Braudel and Spooner, 1967, in Rich and Wilson, 1967.

  34. Fischer, 1996, p. 74.

  35. Davies, 1995, p. 211.

  36. Hamilton, 1934, pp. 291-292.

  37. Miskimin, 1977, p. 21.

  38. Fischer, 1996, p. 73.

  39. Ibid., p. 334.

  40. Kindleberger, 1989, p. 6.

  41. Feaveryear, 1963, p. 52.

  42. Cited in Hamilton, 1934, p. 283.

  43. Vilar, 1976, p. 91.

  44. Wilkie, 1994, p. 3.

  45. Kindleberger, 1989, Tables 1 and 2, pp. 13-15. See also Morineau, 1985, for a full-scale attack on the notion that the peak was reached before 1600.

  46. Schwartz, 1973.

  47. Vilar, 1976, p. 174.

  48. Ibid., p. 174.

  49. Feaveryear, 1963, Appendix II, p. 347.

  50. Gould, 1976, p. 272.

  51. Smith, 1776, p. 333.

  52. See Boyer-Xambeu et al., 1994, pp. 68-95; Kindleberger, 1989, pp. 39-41; Kindleberger, 1993, p. 37; and citations covering many localities in Postan and Habakkuk, 1952.

  53. Mauro, 1990, pp. 263-266.

  54. Boyer-Xambeu et al., 1994, Table 5.2, pp. 114-115.

  55. Crosby, 1997, p. 202.

  56. See Boyer-Xambeu et al., 1994, and Kindleberger, 1993, pp. 41-43.

  57. Kindleberger, 1989, p. 10.

  58. Boyer-Xambeu et al., 1994, p. 93.

  59. Ibid., the whole book, but especially pp. 3-16 and 104-129.

  CHAPTER 11 THE ASIAN NECROPOLIS AND HIEN TSUNG'S INADVERTENT INNOVATION

  1. Kindleberger, 1989, pp. 15-18.

  2. Ibid., p. 78.

  3. Hume, 1752, p. 334.

  4. Mun, c. 1620, p. 49. For an authoritative analysis of this fascinating man, his times, his importance, and his role in the development of theories of trade and foreign exchange, see Kindleberger, 1990.

  5. Kindleberger, 1989, p. 25.

  6. Hume, 1752, p. 335.

  7. Ibid., p. 335.

  8. Kindleberger, 1989, p. 31.

  9. Hamilton, 1934, p. 302.

  10. The Economist, January 15, 1998, p. 67.

  11. Polo, 1289, p. 123.

  12. Ibid., p. 122.

  13. Ibid., p. 125.

  14. All quotations regarding Japan are from ibid., p. 244.

  15. Vilar, 1976, p. 94.

  16. Polo, 1289, p. 178.

  17. Ibid., p. 187.

  18. Vilar, 1976, p. 94.

  19. Ibid., p. 97.

  20. Davies, 1995, p. 56, and Kindleberger, 1989, p. 69.

  21. Cribb et al., 1990, pp. 198-206.

  22. Davies, 1995, pp. 180-181.

  23. Ibid., pp. 182-183.

  24. Polo, 1289, p. 147.

  25. Ibid., p. 147.

  26. Ibid., pp. 147-148.

  27. Ibid., p. 148.

  28. Ibid., p. 148.

  29. Kindleberger, 1989, p. 58.

  30. Marx, 1978, p. 302.

  31. Cribb et al., 1990, p. 208.

  32. Kindleberger, 1996b.

  33. Smith, 1776, p. 183.

  34. Ibid., p. 183.

  35. Kindleberger, 1986, p. 55.

  36. Smith, 1776, p. 75.

  37. Ibid., p. 78.

  CHAPTER 12 THE GREAT RECOINAGE AND THE LAST OF THE MAGICIANS

  1. Jacob, 1831, p. 322.

  2. Challis, 1992, p. 16.

  3. Davies, 1995, p. 241.

  4. For a detailed description of the moneyers' elaborate and time-consuming methods, see Challis, 1992, pp. 305-307.

  5. Ibid., Table 34, pp. 309-311.

  6. Ibid., p. 302.

  7. Davies, 1995, pp. 241-242.

  8. Ibid., p. 242. See also Quinn, 1996, p. 480.

  9. Challis, 1992, p. 362.

  10. Feaveryear, 1963, pp. 89-90.

  11. See Davies, 1995, pp. 241-243 regarding this whole discussion.

  12. Feaveryear, 1963, p. 111.

  13. Li, 1963, p. 56, citing Haynes's manuscript, BriefMemoire Relating to the Silver and Gold Coins of England, written between 1700 and 1702. This work is a major source for much of the known data about the coinage during these years.

  14. Challis, 1992, p. 380.

  15. Feaveryear, 1963, p. 120.

  16. Supple, 1959, quoting the contemporary observer Edward Misselden.

  17. Li, 1963, p. 58.

  18. Feaveryear, 1963, p. 115.

  19. Kindleberger, 1993, p. 190.

  20. Ibid., pp. 191-192.

  21. Feaveryear, 1963, pp. 119-121.

  22. Ibid., p. 121.

  23. Ibid., pp. 122-123.

  24. Li, 1963, p. 98.

  25. Ibid., p. 64.

  26. Ibid., pp. 104-105.

  27. Cited by Haynes in his Memoire; see Li, 1963, p. 89.

  28. Ibid., p. 92.

  29. Ibid., p. 170.

  30. Feaveryear, 1963, pp. 123-124.

  31. Li, 1963, p. 114.

  32. Ibid., pp. 114-115.

  33. Challis, 1992, Table 55, p. 384.

  34. White, 1977, p. 260.

  35. Feaveryear, 1963, p. 129.

  36. Challis, 1992, p. 387.

  37. Feaveryear, 1963, p. 130.

  38. Li, 1963, p. 138.

  39. Feaveryear, 1963, p. 136.

  40. White, 1977, p. 3.

  41. Unless otherwise specified, all the following Newton biographical material is fr
om White, 1977.

  42. Ibid., p. 52.

  43. Ibid., p. 227.

  44. Ibid., p. 227.

  45. Ibid., p. 253.

  46. Li, 1963, p. 127.

  47. McCulloch, 1856, p. 274.

  48. Ibid., p. 277.

  49. Ibid., p. 277.

  50. Ibid., pp. 278-279.

  51. Green, 1993, p. 19.

  52. Li, 1963, p. 161.

  CHAPTER 13 THE TRUE DOCTRINE AND THE GREAT EVIL

  1. Davies, 1995, p. 298.

  2. Feaveryear, 1963, pp. 212-213.

  3. Ibid., p. 170.

  4. Cannan, 1919, p. xi, and Table II on p. xliv.

  5. Feaveryear, 1963, pp. 168-178.

  6. Cannan, 1919, p. xvii.

  7. Li, 1963, p. 173.

  8. Jastram, 1977, p. 32, and Wilkie, 1994, p. 3.

  9. For a detailed description of how the English system of money and banking evolved, see Feaveryear, 1963, pp. 160-174.

  10. Cannan, 1919, p. xii.

  11. Jevons, 1875, p. 68.

  12. Menias, 1969, p. 18.

  13. See Friedman, 1992, p. 135, and also Bordo and White, 1991, which argues that Britain's greater financial credibility permitted the British to carry on the war with a high volume of debt finance, while France's poor reputation forced reliance on taxation.

  14. Wilkie, 1994, p. 3.

  15. Cannan, 1919, p. xliv.

  16. Ibid., p. 5.

  17. See Friedman, 1992, p. 59.

  18. Ricardo, 1809, p. 5.

  19. The succeeding details of Ricardo's life are from Heilbroner, 1953, Chapter IV, pp. 67-95.

  20. Ibid., p. 79.

  21. Ibid., p. 80.

  22. Ibid., p. 80.

  23. Cannan, 1919, p. 3.

  24. Ibid., p. x1ii.

  25. Ibid., p. xxii.

  26. Davies, 1995, p. 300.

  27. Ibid., p. 300.

  28. Cannan, 1919, p. xxii.

  29. Ibid., p. 6.

  30. Ricardo, 1809, p. 23.

  31. Carman, 1919, p. 11.

  32. Ibid., p. 16.

  33. Ibid., p. 21.

  34. Ibid., p. 17.

  35. Ricardo, 1811b, p. 38.

  36. Cannan, 1919, p. 10.

  37. Green, 1993, p. 22.

  38. Carman, 1919, p. 32.

  39. Ibid., p. 33.

  40. Ibid., p. 34.

  41. Neal, 1998, p. 55.

  42. Jevons, 1875, pp. 231-232; for a full account of Jevons and his contributions to economic thought, see Bernstein, 1996, pp. 190-192.

  43. Cannan, 1919, p. 47.

  44. Ibid., p. 48.

  45. Ibid., p. 53.

  46. Ibid., pp. 52-53.

  47. Ricardo, 1811b, p. 6.

  48. Cannan, 1919, p. 69.

  49. Ibid., text of resolutions, Resolution #14.

  50. Ibid., Resolution #16.

  51. Feaveryear, 1963, pp. 186-187.

  52. Ibid., p. 213.

  53. Davies, 1995, p. 302.

  54. Feaveryear, 1963, p. 190, and Davies, 1995, p. 303.

  55. Green, 1993, p. 23.

  CHAPTER 14 THE NEW MISTRESS AND THE CURSED DISCOVERY