Chapter Alternate currencies, bills of exchange and warfare in Trecento Italy

Overview & Synopsis

The connection between war and cash payments (gold/silver) has long been a staple of military history: a largely self-contained field that has stood apart from monetary history. The present essay examines the use of alternate currencies to compensate soldiers for war in trecento Italy during the era of costly mercenaries (“the age of the companies of adventures”) and the so-called bullion crisis. The paper investigates the recourse to in kind payments (horses, grain, utensils, ceremonial armor, cloth, land) and to bills of exchange, letters of payment and paper instruments. The use of paper is noteworthy, counterintuitive and the worthy of further research that includes consideration of the use of notarial documents, apodisse and bollette, in payments to soldiers. The broad aim of the paper is to bring together more closely study of the economy of war with monetary history and economic history more generally.