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> In fact, money was widespread and used on a daily basis at all levels of the population. I don’t know how they came to that conclusion. Cutting scrap in equa
by legulere 5y ago
> In fact, money was widespread and used on a daily basis at all levels of the population.
I don’t know how they came to that conclusion. Cutting scrap in equal weight pieces pointing to use can be argued about. But how does daily use follow from that?
- samatman 5y agoI agree, it doesn't automatically follow and it's unlikely on the face of it. A shepherd, for one example, is unlikely to transact on a daily basis, in fact he or she might not see another human being for weeks during summer transhumance. A merchant, on the other hand, would handle cash dozens of times a day. The inference that even a shepherd would sell sheep for cash, and use it to acquire the supplies his family needed, is intriguing, but needs to be demonstrated: probably not with grave goods, since we wouldn't expect a peasant to necessarily be buried with something as fungibly valuable as cash (though I wouldn't rule it out! We don't know how far back paying the oarsman's toll goes!), but finding the right corpse would go far.