The money-weight economy in the Carpathian-Dniester area in the 9th-11th centuries (archaeological contributions)
The money-weight economy in the Carpathian-Dniester area in the 9th-11th centuries (archaeological contributions)

Summary/Abstract: The archaeological and numismatic finds highlight to a considerable extent the level of development of the Romanian me dieval communities of the end of the 1st millennium – the beginning of the 2nd millennium. Of special importance for assessing the economic condition of the region are hoards of tools and weapons, as well as monetary or mixed hoards. Their composition offers special possibilities for the reconstruction of the socio-economic, political and cultural realities of the period when they were hidden. One of the features of the European economy of the 9th-11th centuries was the use of money made from precious metals as a means of exchange. Coins, ingots, collars or silver jewelry served as money. The main factor was the weight of the objects, which was tested on small scales. This is confirmed by the discovery of segmented artefacts in the so-called cut silver hoards (silver objects divided into pieces of a certain weight) (Hacksilver). An economic system in which the function of money as an equivalent in trade transactions was performed by coins, ingots, collars, and jewelry made of precious metals, which were weighed during the exchange process, researchers call a money-weight economy (Gewichtsgeldwirtschaft). Archaeological sources allow us to trace the transition of Romanian communities from a natural economy of the autarkic household to the monetary economy of commodity-money relations, when silver acted as a medium of exchange. To the south and east of the Carpathians, artefacts related to commodity-money exchange (Islamic and/or Byzantine coins, ingots, silver collars, some of which were cut into pieces, weights and scales) were discovered in settlements, in hoards or as isolated finds at the sites of Bucov, Slon, Alcedar, Cunicea, Cureșnița, Echimăuți.

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