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The Monetary Policy of Fourteenth-Century Florence.Carlo M. Cipolla

The fourteenth century was a tumultuous period in Florentine political history, and Carlo Cipolla argues that the decades from 1340 to 1380 were no less dramatic when studied in terms of Florentine monetary policy. He uses modern economic analysis to unravel the complexities of the monetary history of the city in just 92 pages. He skillfully guides the reader through the intricacies of bimetallism and explains why a fluctuating ratio of gold and silver had wide-reaching political and social, as well as economic, repercussions. The crisis of the 1340s produced deflationary pressures on the Florentine economy which were compounded by an unexpected shortage of silver which drove the price of gold down by nearly thirty percent. A fall in the value of the gold florin was deleterious to international commerce, a mainstay of Florence's economy, and was especially hurtful to those members of the major guilds whose fortunes were tied to a strong florin. A series of monetary policies designed to protect the florin forced the progressive devaluation of the silver grosso and quattrino. Thus, silver, the tender of day-to-day transactions, of workers' wages and shopkeepers' tills, was forced to absorb the pressure. The Black Death in 1347-48 broke the deflationary spiral and allowed prices and wages to increase to the relative advantage of minor guildsmen and the laborers of the popolo minuto. In the period from 1350-70 the economy contracted and stabilized, one sign of this being that the mint virtually ceased its activities. But high wages stimulated consumption, while the cost of money remained high and government borrowing together with speculation in the public debt was increasing. The long inactivity of the mint encouraged the influx of foreign coins of lesser intrinsic value. Denari from neighboring cities like Pisa flooded the Florentine market, forcing the eventual devaluation of Florentine coins and increasing speculation on the more valuable quattrino and grosso. The devaluation of the quattrino in 13 71 by eighteen percent ended the long period of monetary stability, as the florin shot up ten percent and prices