Output details

Deflation - Devaluation - Rebellion: Geld Im Zeitalter Der Reformation

We propose this monograph for double-weighting on the grounds that it involved the use of primary sources which were especially extensive, and that as a result it advances a particularly complex argument. This concerns shortages of silver in central Europe at the end of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth centuries, their consequences in terms of deflation and discontent, and their relationship to the processes of Reformation.

The study provides a fundamentally new view on early Reformation Germany using a previously under-utilized set of primary and secondary sources. By choosing money as an angle point and drawing on an interdisciplinary approach, the origins, nature and social, as well as economic consequences of ‘bad’ money (i.e. devalued and debased currency) are studied. It is argued that a shortage of silver and ‘good’ money in the German lands around 1500 led to multiple imbalances in social, cultural and economic life, up to the numerous revolts and uprisings of the period. The religious ramifications of ‘bad’ money are also studied.