In the years covered by this volume, 1250-1450, the production patterns, in both the European precious and base metal industries, first established in the twelfth century, and described in volume two, continued to be played out. This now took place however in the context of a continuous process of increasingly acute resource depletion, which finally culminated in the terminal mining crisis of the 1450s. Even as European silver production declined, however, compensatory supplies of precious metals became for the first time available as a counter-cyclical production pattern came to characterise a newly emergent European gold industry which by 1450 had displaced African gold as the main source of supply to European mints. African gold increasingly was supplied to African and Asiatic markets. Vol. I: Asiatic Supremacy, 425-1125 Vol. 2: Afro-European Supremacy, 1125-1225 .

The second volume examines the rise to world dominance of silver and gold production, during the first great output long-cycle (1125-1225), in new locations in Europe and sub-Saharan Africa. It explores the organisation of the industry at this time, the reversal of the contemporary specie flow and the distribution of these precious metals throughout Europe and to lands beyond the bounds of that continent. It also describes the beginnings of autonomous European base metal - lead, copper, tin and mercury production, the organisation of the onewo industry, its levels of output and the distribution of these metals to new groups of European consumers. Vol. I: Asiatic Supremacy, 425-1125 Vol. 3: Continuing Afro-European Supremacy, 1250-1450 . (Franz Steiner 2001)

The first of four volumes, which examine non-ferrous precious and base metal mining, metallurgy and minting in the Middle Ages, encompasses the history of these activities during the years 425-1125. It describes the shift in the focus of world precious metal production from the Western Roman Empire -350), to the Sassanid and Byzantine Empires (350-650) and Central Asia (480-930). Central Asia dominated for almost half a millennium world precious and base metal production, before output collapsed and an industrial diaspora caused the foci of silver and gold production to shift to Europe and sub-Saharan Africa respectively (930-1125). Mining activity in Central Asia, 480-930 is examined in depth, as is also its impact on local society and the distribution of precious metals from there to China, India and South-east Asia, Asia Minor and, via the Trans-Pontine steppes, to Europe. It also explores the impact of this flow of Sassanid-Islamic silver and gold on European mining and monetary systems, when that trade was at its height (560-930) and the response of the Europeans to the great oSilver Famineo occasioned by the collapse of Central Asian production (930-1125). " es gibt nun eine neue Publikation, die alles zusammenfasst, was wir derzeit uber die Grundlagen der mittelalterlichen Munzpragung wissen, uber die Metallerzeugung und die Pragung. [a] eine Fundgrube an interessanten Hintergrundinformationen [a] Dieses Buch ist ein absolutes Muss fur jeden, der sich intensiv mit mittelalterlichen Munzen und der damit verbundenen Handelsgeschichte beschaftigen will" Munzen Revue Vol. 2: Afro-European Supremacy, 1125-1225 Vol. 3: Continuing Afro-European Supremacy, 1250-1450 . (Franz Steiner 2001)

Silver mining was a capitalist business long before the supposed origin of modern capitalism Hundreds of years before a sixteenth†‘century crisis in European agriculture led to the origins of capital, investment, and finance, the silver mining industry exhibited many of the features of modern capitalism. Silver mines were large†‘scale businesses that demanded large investments and steady cash flow, achieved by spreading that risk through fungible shares and creating legal structures to protect entrepreneurs from financial disaster. Jeannette Graulau argues that mining preceded agriculture as the first true capitalist enterprise of the modern world.

Reading Medieval Sources is an exciting new series which leads scholars and students into some of the most challenging and rewarding sources from the European Middle Ages, and introduces the most important approaches to understanding them. Written by an international team of twelve leading scholars, this volume Money and Coinage in the Middle Ages presents a set of fresh and insightful perspectives that demonstrate the rich potential of this source material to all scholars of medieval history and culture. It includes coverage of major developments in monetary history, set into their economic and political context, as well as innovative and interdisciplinary perspectives that address money and coinage in relation to archaeology, anthropology and medieval literature. Contributors are Nanouschka Myrberg Burström, Elizabeth Edwards, Gaspar Feliu, Anna Gannon, Richard Kelleher, Bill Maurer, Nick Mayhew, Rory Naismith, Philipp Robinson Rössner, Alessia Rovelli, Lucia Travaini, and Andrew Woods.