Deflation and the Petty Coinage Problem in the LateMedieval Economy: The Case of Flanders, 1334–1484

Monetary historians have debated whether too many or too few petty coins, those most needed by the general populace, were struck in medieval Europe. But exactly how many were struck can be determined only for Flanders, where petty coinage usually accounted for 1 % or less of the bullion minted. These mint-output statistics are explained in part by the demand for high-denomination coins by most merchants who supplied bullion to the mints; but equally also by the relatively small need to replace stocks of petty coin. Severe petty-coin scarcity was not likely a chronic condition in medieval Flanders, but did occur in the deflationary mid-fifteenth century, instigating innovations in state monetary policy. 0 1988 Academic Press, Inc. One of the least-well-studied aspects of European monetary history is the role of petty coinage, especially in the medieval economy. In the current but scant literature on petty coinage, we find two contradictory views: that either too much or too little was struck. Thus Herman Van der Wee (1969, p. 375) has contended that frequently so many pett