Suspended in 2025/26
EH214 Half Unit
Money and Finance: From the Middle Ages to the Eighteenth Century
This information is for the 2025/26 session.
Course Convenor
Prof Oliver Volckart
Availability
This course is available on the Erasmus Reciprocal Programme of Study and Exchange Programme for Students from University of California, Berkeley. This course is freely available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. It does not require permission. This course is freely available to General Course students. It does not require permission.
This course is available as an outside option to students on non-Economic History programmes where regulations permit and to General Course students
Requisites
Mutually exclusive courses:
This course cannot be taken with EH204 at any time on the same degree programme.
Course content
The course provides an overview of the main developments in monetary and financial history from 800 to the eighteenth century, taking the students from the simple beginnings of medieval European monetary history to the emergence of the complex financial arrangements characterising the modern world. Historical developments in major European and non-European countries (England, Spain, Italy, France, Germany) will be discussed and compared. The course is designed to introduce students to the main concepts of money and finance (commodity money, inflation and deflation, financial development, financial integration, monetary policy etc.).
Teaching
10 hours of lectures and 10 hours of classes in the Autumn Term.
This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn Term.
Formative assessment
The students will produce one formative essay. The exercise will help them practice academic writing (structuring and presenting arguments, providing explanations, referencing etc.); a skill helpful for the exam of this course that will take place in the January exam period. The class presentation has a formative character, too. Students will practice presenting complex arguments to their peers and answering questions from the audience.
Indicative reading
1. Barrett, W. (1990): World Bullion Flows, 1450-1800, in: Tracy, J.D., ed., The Rise of Merchant Empires: Long-Distance Trade in the Early Modern World 1350-1750, Cambridge (Cambridge University Press), pp. 224-254.
2. Volckart, O. (2018). Money and its Technologies: The Principles of Minting in the Middle Ages, in: Naismith, R., ed., A Cultural History of Money in The Medieval Age, London (Bloomsbury Academic), pp. 15-35.
3. Spufford, P. (1991): Money and its Use in Medieval Europe, Cambridge et al. (Cambridge University Press).
Assessment
Exam (100%), duration: 120 Minutes in the January exam period
Key facts
Department: Economic History
Course Study Period: Autumn Term
Unit value: Half unit
FHEQ Level: Level 5
CEFR Level: Null
Total students 2024/25: 11
Average class size 2024/25: 3
Capped 2024/25: NoCourse selection videos
Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.