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0 pointsqwytw1y ago0 comments

> This isn't plausible

Why? Of course it wasn't accessible or particularly useful for the majority of people but it was central to the Byzantine economy/financial-system functioned. Soldiers were paid in gold (every 6 or 12 months so that simplified things) and taxes were also collected in gold whenever feasible.

Relying on gold as your primary currnecy of course wasn't ideal since the outcome was a partially demonetisation of the wider economy.

However while it was was basically entirely unavailable in Western Europe and there were almost no gold coins in circulation until the 13th or so it was much more widespread in the Eastern Mediterranean.

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thaumasiotes1y ago

> and taxes were also collected in gold whenever feasible

Well, for one thing, most people wouldn't be able to afford a single gold coin. You might collect taxes from a province in gold; you're not going to collect taxes from a person that way.

> the outcome was a partially demonetisation of the wider economy

This is also an odd claim; the number of denarii kept going up.

> it was central to [the way] the Byzantine economy/financial-system functioned.

Any time you have a system that doesn't involve something, that thing that isn't involved also isn't central to the functioning of the system. There is no way for such a rare coin to be central to the functioning of the system - if it disappeared entirely, the system would continue exactly as before, since almost nothing would have changed.

qwytwOP1y ago

> the number of denarii kept going up.

It wasn't even minted by the 300s. There were multiple attempts to replace it with a new stable silver coin but none were very successful.

> Well, for one thing, most people wouldn't be able to afford a single gold coin. You might collect taxes from a province in gold; you're not going to collect taxes from a person that way.

Well yes, that was a significant problem. Often there was no other choice than to collect taxes in-kind and then the tax collectors either had to find local uses for all that stuff or sell it for gold that could be sent to the central treasury in Constantinople.

By the 500s the Empire was mainly only minting gold and bronze coinage which of course was very problematic (as you said gold is much too expensive for most transactions while bronze has the opposite problem). There were no stable, widespread silvers coins that were continuously minted until the 800s or so (Miliaresion) and then its value collapsed again after a few centuries when they went back to debasing during a period of economic crisis.

> There is no way for such a rare coin to be central to the functioning of the system

Well.. I accept that this is your opinion. Regardless, that's simply not how the Roman/Byzantine Empire worked. Gold coinage (or using gold solidus as the primary unit of accounting) was absolutely integral to its functioning. (moreover it was also central to international trade)

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