This chapter introduces the third theme of the volume: the sources of Viking wealth. It presents a theoretical and methodological framework for ‘fingerprinting’ early medieval silver by archaeometric methods. A combined approach, integrating elemental (especially gold and bismuth) and lead isotope analysis, is advanced. The methods involved, including state-of-the-art laser ablation ICP-MS, are introduced, and the limitations of the approach clearly laid out. These methods are then used to evaluate the diffusion of silver produced at the mine of Melle (Aquitaine, France): a major source of silver coinage in the Frankish kingdoms, which the Vikings acquired through their raids in Aquitaine during the ninth century.

It, as stated, was used in China along with iron—an early instance of bimetallism—and it figured in the first Hebrew coins. It was the sole Roman coinage down to 269 B.C. and it has lingered on to a comparatively recent date in the backward European currencies. It even survives as a part of the token coinage of the present. Tin has not been a favourite material for money; the richness of the Cornish mines accounts for its use by some British kings. Silver holds a more prominent place than any of the preceding metals. Down to the close of the 18th century it was the chief form of money, and often looked on as forming the necessary standard substance. It was the principal Greek money material, and was introduced at Rome in 269 B.C. The currencies of medieval Europe had silver as their leading constituent; while down almost to the present day Eastern countries seemed to prefer silver to gold. The pre-eminence of gold as money is now beyond dispute; there, is, however, some difficulty in discovering its earliest employment. It is, perhaps, to be found in “the pictures of the ancient Egyptians weighing in scales heaps of rings of gold and silver.” According to W. It was the principal Greek money material, and was introduced at Rome in 269  B.C. The currencies of medieval Europe had silver as their leading constituent; while down almost to the present day Eastern countries seemed to prefer silver to gold. The pre-eminence of gold as money is now beyond dispute; there, is, however, some difficulty in discovering its earliest employment. It is, perhaps, to be found in “the pictures of the ancient Egyptians weighing in scales heaps of rings of gold and silver.” According to W. Ridgeway’s ingenious theory gold comes into use as a currency in due equation to the older cattle-unit, the ox. Production and Consumption of the Precious Metals in their Economic Aspects .—In considering various monetary questions it is essential to have some acquaintance with the economic   ​ aspects of the production of gold and silver. The first point to which attention may be directed is the field over which production extends. At one time or other these two metals have been found in every continent. Asia Minor in early times possessed its goldfields, or rather auriferous sands. Ceylon also undoubtedly contained gold-mines. China and India both produced silver to a considerable extent. The Persian kings from the time of Darius levied tribute on all their provinces—in gold from India, in silver from the remaining districts, the larger part of which was stored up in the royal treasuries. This tendency of despotic rulers to accumulate treasure had all through ancient history important effects on the economic structure of society. At present it is quite natural to assume that the materials of money are distributed by means of international trade, and tend to keep at an equal level all the world over—an assumption which is in general well grounded, though an important exception exists. Ancient history presents a widely different set of forces in operation. The course of distribution of these fresh masses of the precious metals deserves some notice. The flow of the new supplies was first towards Spain and Portugal, whence they passed to the larger commercial centres of the other European countries, the effect being that prices were raised in and about the chief towns, while the value of money in the country districts remained unaltered. The additions to the supply of both gold and silver during the two centuries 1600–1800 continued to be very considerable; but, if Adam Smith’s view be correct, the full effect on prices was produced by 1640, and the increased amount of money was from that time counterbalanced by the wider extension of trade. (1) The additional supply was almost entirely of gold , thus tending to produce a distinction between the two principal monetary metals and an alteration in the currency of bimetallic countries. Under this influence France, from being a silver-using, became a gold-using country. (2) The contemporaneous development of the continental railway systems, and the partial adoption of free trade, with the consequent facilities for freer circulation of commodities, led to the course of distribution   ​ being different from that of The disturbances resulting from the combined effect of the new silver and the diminution in the annual output of gold which began about 1870 and continued for nearly twenty years were the cause of much controversy and led to the propounding of novel monetary theories. Bimetallism came into prominence; and the modes of relieving trade depression caused by the fall in prices were keenly discussed. Before any monetary adjustment took place the situation again changed in consequence of a renewal of the Australian gold production, soon followed by the great gold discoveries in South Africa. Turning to the gold currency, we find some gold pennies issued in 1257, probably in imitation of the issue of the Italian cities, which were due to the opening of eastern trade and the example of the Greek Empire, which had always retained its gold currency. The regular series of English gold coins begins in 1343, when Edward III. ordered the coinage of florins—the title is significant—at 50 to the Tower pound. The “noble” soon followed. The “sovereign” was first issued in 1489. But gold was treated as a commercial money, to be used as subsidiary to the standard silver.   ​ intended to meet by the subsequent economic development. The proposal for a joint standard formed by using a unit in which the two metals are combined has the advantage of escaping the risk of failure to maintain the ratio, for it makes the employment of both silver and gold essential. Its influence in causing stability is also likely to be greater; but it is open to the danger that a shortage of one metal would not be compensated by the abundance of the other.

A recurrent and indeed persistent problem in European economic history – a veritable deus ex machina -- from medieval to modern times, is Europe’s supposed ‘balance of payments’ problem in trade with the ‘East’. This supposed problem has often been couched in Mercantilist overtones: namely, that export of supposedly large volumes of precious metals, especially, silver to conduct trade with, first the Levant, and then with the rest of Asia meant a serious drainage of wealth from western Europe. This seems to be particularly true in the debate about the late-medieval ‘Great Depression’ in which some contend that this balance of payments ‘deficit’ led to monetary contraction, deflation, and then economic depression. This paper, while not denying periodic problems of monetary contraction and indeed deflation, provides a non-Mercantilist perspective on not just European but global trade from the fourteenth to early eighteenth centuries. It offers the following related theses: (1) That late-medieval monetary contraction was far more related to falling outputs of mined silver and to reductions in the income-velocity of coined money and the related problem of hoarding, the roots of which were the growth of international warfare from the 1290s, significantly financed by coinage debasements; and together they provided serious barriers to the international flow of specie and bullion, and indeed to the emergence of bullionist philosophies, which are the very core of Mercantilism. (2) Tha

Early medieval coin; silver sceat, North no.176, of king Aldfrith of Northumbria 685-704, presumably struck at York. See also Grierson-Blackburn Medieval European Coinage vol. 1, pp. 166 and 182 for previous attributions. Diameter 11.92mm, thickness 1.76mm, weight 1.11g.North 1963 ('English Hammered Coinage' Spink) notes that this coin was "Formerly attributed to Aldfrith of Northumbria (685-704). However the style of the animal is entirely different from that of similar coins in the Northumbrian series. It has been suggested that this coin may have been struck by Ealdfrith, king of Lindsey, c

A hammered silver coin of uncertain date and denomination. The remaining detail on this coins suggests that it is of a mainland European currency and probably dates from the late medieval to early post-medieval periods. The coin, which has been folded, measures 17.5mm in diameter, 0.2mm thick and weighs 0.82g.