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Land price trends as markers of economic cycles? Inflation, debasement and exchange rates in the central Middle Ages

Can we write a meaningful history of land prices during the early and central Middle Ages? Ac-cording to a line of research inspired by economic anthropology, the answer would be no: land primarily served to construct networks of alliance and cannot be regarded as a mere commod-ity. Nevertheless, several classic studies have used price fluctuations as tools for periodisation – sometimes, in fact, as markers of profound social and economic changes. Yet this raises a fur-ther problem: scholars have not always attributed the same importance to monetary dynamics as factors capable of influencing prices. This article reviews the existing historiography on these issues with reference to northern and central Italy; its concluding remarks focus on a specific aspect of price analysis, namely exchange rates.

  • Keywords:
  • Middle Ages,
  • 11th-12th centuries,
  • northern and central Italy,
  • inflation,
  • land prices,
  • debasement,
  • exchange rates.,
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  • Content License: CC BY 4.0
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  • Publication Year: 2026
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Chapter Information

Chapter Title

Land price trends as markers of economic cycles? Inflation, debasement and exchange rates in the central Middle Ages

Authors

Language

English

DOI

10.36253/979-12-215-1076-8.26

Peer Reviewed

Publication Year

2026

Copyright Information

© 2026 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Bibliographic Information

Book Title

In Search of the High Middle Ages. Change and Continuity in 11th–12th-century Italy

Editors

Alberto Cotza, Giuseppe Petralia

Peer Reviewed

Number of Pages

560

Publication Year

2026

Copyright Information

© 2026 Author(s)

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CC BY 4.0

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CC0 1.0

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Firenze University Press

DOI

10.36253/979-12-215-1076-8

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979-12-215-1075-1

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979-12-215-1076-8

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Reti Medievali E-Book

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2704-6362

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2704-6079

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