How Large was the Anglo-Saxon Currency?

Abstract

A ny attempt to assess, for the purposes of economic history, the English coinage of the eighth to eleventh centuries quickly runs into the difficulty of knowing how large a volume of currency was in use. Was the phase ofprosperity and growth in the time of Offa followed by a set-back under Ecgbeorht? Under Aethelred I of Wessex, was most of the coinage struck in the name of Burgred, and if so, why? Was the institution of mints by Edward the Elder in his new burks accompanied by an increase in the total output of currency? On what scale was coinage issued by the Vikings at York? by the Danes in East Anglia? Were there any significant changes in the volume of the currency from one to the next of the sexennial, later triennial, renovationes monetae in the late tenth and eleventh centuries, and, in particular, were there changes that could be correlated with the adjustments in the weight-standard of the penny that were made either upwards or downwards at almost each of the renovationes, or with changes in policy such as the decision in 99i to pay Danegeld on a national scale? What proportion of the country's stock of bullion was involved in warding off the threats of the Northmen? The possibility of an exact attribution, as to date and mint-place, of almost any Anglo-Saxon coin 1 makes these and many similar questions tantalizing; but no effort has yet been made to establish, even in the broadest possible terms, the scale of the currency, and no answer can be given even to the general question whether there was a secular tendency for the stock of silver in southern England to increase during the ninth to eleventh centuries because of a favourable balance of trade.2 Coins of Aethelred II are, of course, very much more plentiful today than