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eLITes and sILVer In MILan and ITs regIon In The nInTh CenTury

Ross BalzarettiUniversity of Nottingham

This paper investigates the relationship between elites and silver as it appears in a single collection of charters - the ninth-cen-tury texts preserved by Sant’Ambrogio in Milan - and how this

relationship might (and might not) illuminate the nature of the eco-nomic behaviour of elites in ninth-century Europe1. Despite the obvious limitations posed by studying a single group of charters, such a narrow focus does at least have the advantage of providing a precise, real and concrete context in which to explore some significant the-mes. Since Dopsch2, Pirenne and Marc Bloch3, debates about the nature of early medieval economies have compared the relative impor-tance of production, trade, exchange, markets, money, theft, plunder, tribute, treasure, gift, sale and especially land and its exploitation4. Debate has been recently reignited by the publication of Michael McCormick’s Origins of the European Economy: Communications and Com-merce, A.D. 300-900 (Cambridge, 2001) 5. With its focus on movement of people and things across Europe and beyond, this book draws on a wealth of recent archaeological research to reveal the considerable

1 R. Balzaretti, The Politics of Property in ninth-century Milan. Familial motives and monastic strategies in the village of Inzago, in Les transferts patrimoniaux en Europe occidentale VIII-Xe siècle, in Mélanges de l’École Française de Rome, Moyen Âge 111, 2, 1999, p. 747-770, summarises the nature of the collection. 2 A. Dopsch, The Economic and Social Foundations of European Civilization, London, 1937, p. 132-164, 327-383. 3 H. Pirenne, Mohammed and Charlemagne, London, 1939, especially p. 236-265 ; R. Hodges and D. Whitehouse, Mohammed, Charlemagne and the Origins of Europe. Archaeology and the Pirenne Thesis, London, 1983 ; M. Bloch, Feudal Society, volume 1, London, 1961, p. 59-69.4 C. Wickham, Framing the Early Middle Ages. Europe and the Mediterranean 400-800, Oxford, 2005, p. 259-302 (land), 693-824 (exchange). For a critical review of some aspects of this book see C. Hills, History and archaeology : the state of play in early medieval Europe, in Antiquity 81, 2007, p. 191-200.5 See Early Medieval Europe, 12, 2003, p. 259-323, Special Issue on Origins of the European Economy: a debate with Michael McCormick. See also my review in the Times Literary Supplement, Nov 1 2002, p. 32.

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complexity of the early medieval economy6. It is now undeniable that there were numerous sites of production across Europe and many market places at which a wide range of things were exchanged and traded, although relatively few such sites exist in Italy at the present time7. Archaeological research has revealed many sites barely recor-ded in written documents to have been important centres of « econo-mic » life, especially in the period before c.900. An excellent example is the rich Anglo-Saxon site of Flixborough (Lincolnshire, England), excavated by Christopher Loveluck and his team8. Flixborough has been characterised as a place of « feasting, hunting and conspicuous consumption » in the eighth century, « specialist artisans » in the early to mid ninth century, « diminished production » in the mid ninth to early tenth century, and a manorial centre with a «rural elite identity » in the tenth century9. A good Italian example is provided by Comac-chio10. The degree to which elites – especially kings – controlled pro-duction sites, trade and commerce remains controversial11, but it does

6 Although McCormick – like many archaeologists – has tended to downplay the importance of the ownership and exploitation of land when writing about the early medieval economy, and has been justifiably criticised for this, even by archaeologists who have done the same thing, for example, Richard Hodges in his review in Agricultural History Review 50, 2002, p. 285-286. Early medieval economies were certainly much less complex than Roman econo-mies: B. Ward-Perkins, The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization, Oxford, 2005, p. 104-121 and P. Fouracre, Cultural Conformity and Social Conservatism in Early Medieval Europe, in History Workshop Journal 33, 1992, p. 152-161.7 T. Pestell and K. Ulmschneider (ed.), Markets in early Medieval Europe: trading and ‘produc-tive’ sites, 650-850, Macclesfield, 2003. Interesting Italian sites include Commachio (McCor-mick, Origins, p. 631-633), Venice (McCormick, Origins, p. 254-60, 523-31, 761-777; Wick-ham, Framing, p. 690-691) and Torcello, all around the Adriatic lagoon. For Italian markets and exchange more generally see Wickham, Framing, p. 728-741; McCormick, Origins, p. 614-617, 630-636. 8 Excavations at Flixborough, 4 volumes. Volume 4, C. Loveluck (ed.), Rural Settlement, Lifestyles and Social Change in the Later First Millennium AD: Anglo-Saxon Flixborough in its wider context, Oxford, 2007, is particularly useful for non-archaeologists. There is a summary in C. Love-luck, A high-status Anglo-Saxon settlement at Flixborough, Lincolnshire, in Antiquity 72, 1998, p. 146-161, and Wickham, Framing, p. 341, 811. 9 Excavations at Flixborough, Volume 4, p. 148-157.10 See Gelichi in this volume. In 1953 Violante, under Pirenne’s influence, examined the « revival of commerce »; in the Po valley: C. Violante, La società Milanese nell’età precomunale, Bari, 1981, 2nd edn., p. 3-50. See also R. Balzaretti, Cities, emporia and monasteries: local economies in the Po Valley 700-875, in N. Christie and S. Loseby (ed.), Towns in Transition. Urban Evolution in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, Aldershot, 1996, p. 213-234.11 See, for example, J. R. Maddicott, Trade, industry and the wealth of King Alfred, in Past & Present 123, 1989, p. 3-51 and the ensuing debate about King’s Alfred’s exploitation of the economy between Maddicott, J. L. Nelson and R. Balzaretti, Debate: Trade, Industry and the Wealth of King Alfred, in Past & Present 135, 1992, p. 142-188. More recently see A. Haour, Rulers, Warriors, Traders, Clerics. The Central Sahel and the North Sea 800-1500, Oxford, 2007,

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seem likely that some early medieval aristocrats appreciated the eco-nomic complexity of their world, even when they lacked the means to control it successfully12,

What early medieval people understood by « wealth » and value is also much-debated. As many contributions in this book show the issue is far from straightforward13. The writings of Carolingian churchmen have provided much information about their attitudes to wealth and property14, but these attitudes may not necessarily have been shared by lay people even elite lay people. Linking the attitudes found in written texts with the material evidence is difficult. Frans Theuws has recently argued that archaeologists need to take more notice of the relationship between « forms of exchange and the imaginary world from which ‘value’ is derived in exchange » and John Moreland in the ensuing debate has drawn attention to « our assumptions about why certain objects were deemed valuable », in particular scholarly assump-tions about supply and demand and the inherent worth of prestige objects15. Getting to grips with the value of material things to early medieval people is important because objects form the bedrock of much archaeological thinking about this period as exemplified in McCormick’s work.

p. 57-61 summarising recent work on the nature of royal authority over emporia sites in north-western Europe, and R. Hodges, Towns and Trade in the Age of Charlemagne, London, 2000, p. 79-89, 93-106.12 Good surveys of the Carolingian economy include: J-P. Devroey, The Economy, in R. McKit-terick (ed.), The Early Middle Ages, Oxford, 2001, p. 97-129; M. Innes, Introduction to Early Medieval Western Europe, 300-900. the Sword, the Plough and the Book, Oxford, 2007, p. 446-456; Y. Morimoto, Aspects of the Early Medieval Peasant Economy as revealed in the Polyptygh of Prüm, in P. Linehan and J. L. Nelson (ed.), The Medieval World, London, 2001, p. 605-620; A. Verhulst, Economic organization, in R. McKitterick (ed.), The New Cambridge Medieval History, volume II, Cambridge, 1995, p. 481-509; A. Verhulst, The Carolingian Economy, Cambridge, 2002. 13 L. Foxhall, Olive Cultivation in Ancient Greece. Seeking the Ancient Economy, Oxford, 2007, p. 21-54 is an extremely interesting investigation of wealth in an overwhelmingly agricultural economy. Her remarks on how such societies arrive at values for things (p. 258-259) are very germane to early medieval contexts. As she says ‘social and political manoeuvrability depends on the scale at which others understand, engage with, and share to some extent the values attributed to specific objects’ (p. 259).14 Janet L. Nelson, Making ends meet: wealth and poverty in the Carolingian church, in Studies in Church History 24, 1987, p. 25-36; D. Ganz, The ideology of sharing: apostolic community and ecclesiastical community in the early middle ages, in W. Davies and P. Fouracre (ed.), Property and Power in the Early Middle Ages, Cambridge, 1995, p. 17-30.15 F. Theuws, Exchange, religion, identity and central places in the early middle ages and J. More-land, Objects, identities and cosmological authentication, in Archaeological Dialogues 10, 2004, p. 121-138 and 144-149.

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The value placed upon land is an equally or more important issue, which has been a recurring theme in the work of Wendy Davies for example16. Her research into charters in Wales, Brittany and northern Spain has conclusively shown that land, and the human relationships which developed around and about it, is the key to understanding the largely peasant-based economies of Europe in this period17. It is pos-sible that historians overemphasise the significance of land-holding because that is what many of our documents do. This is certainly the case with the Sant’Ambrogio charters which like similar collections from across Europe, tend to imply that land was the most important form of wealth because much less is recorded within them about other forms of wealth. As with most charter collections, transactions invol-ving the transfer of ownership and other rights over land make up the

16 W. Davies, An Early Welsh Microcosm. Studies in the Llandaff Charters, London, 1978, p. 50-54 (land values expressed in cows and in silver, with a concept of value present in eighth-century charters); Wales in the Early Middle Ages, Leicester, 1982, p. 47-55; Small Worlds. The Village Community in Early Medieval Brittany, London, 1988, especially p. 56-60 (values in ninth-century charters always given in money rather than goods, but prices recorded for land were surprisingly low, suggesting that reasons other than the com-mercial lay behind many sales); Ead, Acts of Giving. Individual, Community, and Church in Tenth-Century Christian Spain, Oxford, 2007, p. 214-221 (p. 220 « the relative value of stock and land does not match our modern expectations », stock being more valued); and particularly, Sale, price and valuation in Galicia and Castile-León in the tenth century, Early Medieval Europe 11, 2002, p. 149-174 (p. 173, « a change occurred from a world in which goods constituted the due price, and in which gold was the precious metal of greatest reference, to one in which silver was increasingly both mentioned and handed over as payment »).17 Equally evident in C. Wickham, The Mountains and the City. The Tuscan Appennines in the Early Middle Ages, Oxford, 1988, p. 40-89, Land and Power. Studies in Italian and Euro-pean Social History, 400-1200, London, 1994, p. 251-274 and Framing, p. 259-302 (aris-tocrats and land), 535-547 (peasants and land); M. Innes, State and Society in the Early Middle Ages: the middle Rhine valley, 400-1000, Cambridge, 2000, p. 40-50; B. H. Rosen-wein, To be the Neighbor of Saint Peter. The Social Meaning of Cluny’s Property, 909-1049, Ithaca and London, 1989; Les transferts patrimoniaux en Europe occidentale VIII-Xe siècle, in Mélan-ges de l’École Française de Rome, Moyen Âge 111, 2, 1999, especially F. Bougard, Actes privés et transferts patrimoniaux en Italie centro-septentrionale (vIIIe-xe siècle), p. 539-562; F. Bougard, L. Feller and R. Le Jan (ed.), Dots et douaires dans le haut moyen Âge, Rome, 2002, especially F. Bougard, Dot et douaire en Italie centro-septentrionale, viii-ix siècle, un parcours documentaire, p. 57-95); F. Bougard, C. La Rocca and R. Le Jan (ed.), Sauver son âme et se perpétuer. Transmission du patrimoine et mémoire au haut moyen âge (Rome, 2005); L. Feller and C. Wickham, Le marché de la terre au haut Moyen Âge (Rome, 2005), especially pp. 3-48, 625-642; L. Feller, A. Graman and F. Weber, La fortune de Karol. Marché de la terre et liens per-sonnels dans les Abruzzes au haut moyen âge (Rome, 2005), esp. 61-72, 96-105. There is a useful summary of work on Italy in L. Provero, Forty years of rural history for the Italian Middle Ages, in I. Alfonso (ed.), The Rural History of Medieval European Societies. Trends and Perspectives, Turnhout, 2007, p. 141-172.

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bulk of the Sant’Ambrogio collection18. For early medieval people land, obviously, was a form of wealth and power as well as a means of direct support19. But ownership and possession of land does not of itself represent wealth. Land needs to be managed and exploited in particular ways if it is to produce surplus and to produce this consis-tently year on year. If exploitation of large amounts of land – particu-larly when scattered over a diverse geographical area – was certainly an important aspect of elite membership yet, as Tim Reuter showed more than twenty years ago other forms of wealth – in particular those acquired by force - could easily be as important to the formation and maintenance of power relationships and elite status20. In Wales, although land was at the heart of power, « wealth was invariably conceptualized as moveable and portable, often as hidable21». Such forms of wealth – treasure, money and people – are also recorded in the Sant’Ambrogio charters, within transactions principally but not exclusively about land.

This paper deals with a single type of wealth, silver. It considers references to silver within Milanese charters and whether these refe-rences suggest that the people who had the silver could be said to have had an « economic » relationship with it. Silver is particularly interesting as it links different types of evidence from silver objects, such as finely worked liturgical vessels and other artefacts lovingly preserved by churches, to lumps of hack silver and pecked coins regularly dug up in excavations. Silver is mentioned in many written

18 For which see my forthcoming book The Lands of Saint Ambrose. Monks and Society in Early Medieval Milan. Also, A. M. Rapetti, Dalla curtis al dominatus loci: la proprietà fondiaria nel Milanese tra IX e XII secolo, in R. Comba and F. Panero (ed.), Aziende agrarie nel medievo. Forme della conduzione fondiaria nell’Italia nord-occidentale (secoli ix-xv), Cuneo, 2000, p. 13-57. For Gnignano, see C. Wickham, Early Medieval Italy, Basingstoke, 1981, p. 102-107. For Cologno Monzese, G. Rossetti, Società e istituzioni nel contado lombardo durante il medioevo. Cologno Monzese. Secoli VIII-X, Milan, 1968; C. Wickham, Rural Society in Carolingian Europe, in R. McKitterick (ed.), The New Cambridge Medieval History, vol. II, Cambridge, 1995, p. 510-537 at 523-526, and L. Feller, Dette, stratégies matrimoniale et institution d’heritier: sur l’elite paysanne lombarde au Ixe siècle, in Revue Historique, 646, 2, 2008, p. 339-368. I am most grateful to Laurent Feller for letting me see this very interesting paper in advance of pub-lication.19 W. Davies, Land and Power in Early Medieval Wales, in Past & Present, 81, 1978, p. 3-23 and Innes, State and Society, p. 68-93.20 T. Reuter, Plunder and Tribute in the Carolingian Empire, in Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, Fifth Series, 35, 1985, p. 75-94 which developed aspects of P. Grierson, Commerce in the Dark Ages: a Critique of the Evidence, in Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, Fifth Series, 9, 1959, p. 123-140.21 W. Davies, Wales in the Early Middle Ages, Leicester, 1982, p. 47, a remark surely applicable to all other parts of Europe.

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documents, including charters, usually as coin. We should neither assume that all early medieval societies valued silver equally nor that the values attributed to it were unchanging over time, hence the interest of examining its value in specific societies at specific points. As Peregrine Horden and Nicholas Purcell say, « change of value is to be seen even in the constantly precious metals, silver and gold. In their case, the main variable is the degree to which a particular society uses its stocks of precious metal for an abundant coinage, or for plate or other decorative and cultural functions22 ». Nevertheless there is plenty of evidence that silver was highly valued in many early medie-val societies. For example, Isidore of Seville, writing in the earlier seventh-century, ranked silver second after gold in his list of metals in the Etymologies: gold, silver, bronze, iron, lead, tin and electrum23. Silver, he wrote, « possesses this marvellous quality, that, although it is white, when it is rubbed against a body it leaves black lines ». Isi-dore, like most early medieval elite people, is likely to have had direct physical experience of silver and was not merely reproducing ancient book learning here24. Since Marc Bloch’s classic article on « Écono-mie-nature ou économie-argent » at least the relationship of elites with silver has been extensively studied25, as part of the rich wider historiography on early medieval elites26. Régine Le Jan, in her dis-

22 P. Horden and N. Purcell, The Corrupting Sea. A Study of Medierranean History, Oxford, 2000, p. 350. 23 Book XVI.xviii.14-xix: The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville, translated, with introduction and notes, by S. A. Barney, W. J. Lewis, J. A. Beach and O. Berghof, Cambridge, 2006, p. 330.24 Silver was worked at the palace workshops in Toledo during the seventh century and silversmiths (argentarii) are noticed in law codes. The Vitas Sanctorum Patrum Emeretensium refers to argentum copiosum arriving with traders at Merida and mentions the treasury of the church of St. Eulalia there. See F. Retamero, As Coins Go Home: Towns, Merchants, Bishops and Kings in Visigothic Hispania, in P. Heather (ed.), The Visigoths from the Migration period to the seventh century. An ethnographic perspective, Woodbridge, 1999, p. 271-305 at 272, and Wick-ham, Framing, p. 741-759 on the Visigothic economy as a whole. 25 M. Bloch, Économie-nature ou économie-argent: un pseudo-dilemme, in M. Bloch, Mélanges historiques, II, Paris, 1963, p. 868-877 [originally published 1933].26 R. Le Jan, Famille et pouvoir dans le monde franc (viie-xe siecle). Essai d’anthropologie sociale, Paris, 2003. Also important is M. Hardt, Gold und Herschaft: Die schätze europäischer Könige und Fürsten im ersten Jahrtausend, Berlin, 2004. On elites, R. Le Jan (ed.), L’historiographie des élites dans le haut Moyen Âge, Actes du colloque, Université de Marne-la-Vallée, 28 -29 novem-bre 2003, < http://lamop.univ-paris1.fr/lamop/LAMOP/elites/index.html>, including V. Loré, La storiografia sulle aristocrazie italiane nell’altomedioevo and S. Airlie, The Historiography of Elites in Gaul. Simon Gunn (Leicester) gave an interesting critical review of the concept ‘elite’ in his paper Elites, power and governance at « Urban Elites and The Shaping of the Urban Cultural Environment » (workshop), Centre for Urban Culture, University of Not-tingham, 16-18 June 2006, which has now appeared in S. Couperus, C. Smit and D. J. Wolf-

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cussion of aristocratic self-awareness (« Les nobles entre eux »), gave a prominent place to ownership of treasure as a marker of elite sta-tus27, treasure which might include gold, silver, clothing and precious fabrics, weapons, horses, dogs and falcons, books, liturgical and cult objects, and money28. An example is found in the will of the gasindius Taido, surviving the archive of the Bergamo bishops, which he made in 774: mobilibus vero rebus meis, hoc est scherpha mea, aurum et argentum, simul et vestes atque cavalli29. Possession of silver in late eighth-century Bergamo seems to have helped to confer elite status therefore. So we can presume that the more silver one had the higher up the pecking order one was likely to be. At the level of the village a few silver coins no doubt imparted to their peasant owner considerable local status as the fact that transactions involving small amounts of silver coins (denarii) were recorded in writing implies; but what peasants thought about silver is almost impossible to discover. Most silver recorded in charters necessarily belonged to the richer members of society. Dhuoda writing to her son William cautioned against such earthly possessions in conventional terms:

Earthly things, son, teach us about the heavenly. When you have earnestly striven for something in the world and you have obtained it, you will rejoice. This is natural. I advise you and beseech you that your seeking and your acquiring may be not only here, but also in the hereafter.30

fram (ed.), In Control of the City: Local Elites and the Dynamics of Urban Politics, 1800-1960, Leuven, 2007, p. 191-202.27 Le Jan, Famille et pouvoir, p. 60-71.28 S. Gelichi and C. La Rocca (ed.), Tesori. Forme di accumulazione della ricchezza nell’alto medioevo (secoli V-XI), Rome, 2004, including C. Wickham, Introduzione: tesori nascosti e tesori esposti, p. 9-18, F. Bougard, Tesori e mobilia italiani dell’alto medioevo, p. 69-122 and A. Rovelli, I tesori monetali, p. 241-256. Also useful is E. M. Tyler (ed.), Treasure in the Medieval West, York, 2000, especially the chapter by Reuter.29 M. Cortesi (ed.), Le pergamene degli archivi di Bergamo, a. 740-1000, Bergamo, 1988, p. 323-326. Most of Taido’s wealth, according to this document at least, was land. See S. Gasparri, I testamenti nell’Italian settentrionale fra viii e ix secolo, in Bougard, La Rocca and Le Jan (ed.), Sauver son âme et se perpétuer, p. 97-113 at 100-101 and C. La Rocca, Rituali di famiglia. Pratiche funerarie nell’Italian longobarda, in Sauver son âme et se perpétuer, p. 431-457 at 448-449.30 Docent, fili, terrena quae sunt coelestia. Tu cum pulsaveris in saeculo et adquisieris, gaudebis, sicut mos est; ortor te admoneo ut petitio vel adquisitio tua sit non solum hic, sed etiam in futuro, Dhuoda, Liber manualis, Book 2.2 (ed. and trans. M. Thiebaux, Cambridge, 1998, p. 74-75) and J. L. Nelson, Dhuoda, in P. Wormald and J. L. Nelson (ed.), Lay Intellectuals in the Carolingian World, Cambridge, 2007, p. 106-120.

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This was no doubt a common view on earthly wealth, but others must have relished their silver possessions and their money. As a form of wealth silver had various advantages for the rich and powerful. It was malleable (literally): one form (say coin) could be turned into another (say a reliquary) relatively easily. It was also both portable and storable. These qualities made it particularly attractive to certain sorts of elites: kings, queens and their aristocratic followers could take silver with them on their travels or they could stash it away during times of war. Silver could be useful to bishops and abbots who could, by selling off land in return for silver as coin or as bullion, commission precious liturgical objects with which to beautify their churches. Silver, as the basis of ninth-century currency, could at least in theory facilitate exchange and the possession of large amounts of silver coin was cer-tainly a clear sign of wealth31.

That there seems to have been a lot of silver about in early medie-val Europe is shown by the many silver luxury objects from the period which survive, and the coins, bullion, ingots and scrap which are found by archaeologists at sites across Europe32. The total amount of silver available in western Europe must of course have varied consi-derably from place to place and over time33, and, as is well known, the discovery and exploitation of new silver mines by the Ottonians at Goslar in the Harz Mountains increased the amount of silver coin in circulation in the later tenth century very considerably34. A wealth

31 For ninth-century coinage in general see P. Grierson and M. Blackburn, Medieval European Coinage, 1, The Early Middle Ages (5th-10th centuries), Cambridge, 1986, p. 190-325; M. Black-burn, Money and coinage, in McKitterick (ed.), New Cambridge Medieval History II, p. 538-589; A. Verhulst, Carolingian Economy, p. 117-125. For how money « works » see T. Crump, The Anthropology of Numbers, Cambridge, 1990, p. 92-102 and especially, W. Davies, Small Worlds, p. 56-60.32 P. Spufford, Money and Its Use in Medieval Europe, Cambridge, 1988 is still the best intro-duction, usefully supplemented by M. Martin, Wealth and treasure in the West, 4th-7th century, in L. Webster and M. Brown (ed.), The Transformation of the Roman World AD 400-900, Lon-don, 1997, p. 48-66. For an interesting site see Tjitsma (Netherlands) where good evidence exists of silver (and gold) working, especially in the period 850-950: C. Tulp, Tjitsman, Wijnaldum: An Early Medieval Production Site in the Netherlands, in Pestell and Ulmschneider (ed.), Markets in early Medieval Europe, p. 223-225. For ingots see S. E. Kruse, Ingots and weight units in Viking Age silver hoards, in World Archaeology 20, 1988, p. 285-301 and S. E. Kruse, Trade and Exchange across frontiers, in J. Graham-Campbell and G. Williams (ed.), Silver Econ-omy in the Viking Age, Walnut Creek, California, 2007, p. 163-176 which is very interesting on the interaction of metal-weight and coined-money economies. 33 M. Blackburn, « Productive » Sites and the Pattern of Coin Less in England, 600-1180, in T. Pestell and K. Ulmschneider (ed.), Markets in early Medieval Europe, p. 20-36 at p. 34.34 P. Spufford, Money and Its Use, p. 74-75. For the Carolingian mines at Melle in Poitou see P. Spufford, Money and Its Use p. 32-33 and S. Coupland, Charlemagne’s Coinage: Ideology and

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of physical evidence has led some to suggest - with some reason – that a ‘silver economy’ existed in Viking Age Scandinavia35. Silver was clearly a precious commodity and regarded especially highly in this northern world (cf. Sutton Hoo), appearing famously in poetry, where giving silver gifts is a prominent theme (but in Beowulf it was gold that took first place, ll. 2756-2771, l. 2759 « glittering gold spread across the ground36 »).Very large amounts of the metal appear in hoards of various sorts, both with and without coin. Extremely large amounts of silver were handed over to Vikings by Charles the Bald – 4000 lb in 866, 5000 lb in 877 – and other similar sums are recorded in the Annals of St. Bertin in the early 860s37. These tran-sactions took place in a context of gift and counter-gift at the highest political level. Many Viking sites have turned up evidence of luxury silver objects and of thousands of silver coins including Arab dirhams38. The situation in contemporary Italy was somewhat different as we will see.

In many parts of Europe silver was also used to buy land, even perhaps by Vikings in England39. James Campbell, in a famous article, showed how treasure – in the form of both silver and gold – was inti-mately linked with the selling of land40. He suggested that the « emo-tion for treasure » which existed in earlier Anglo-Saxon England gave way to an « emotion for land ». Large sums of silver were used to buy land: a gold and silver vessel weighing 5½ pounds used in this way in 823, several examples of heavy gold rings, and 500 solidi used by Abbot Haedda of Medeshampstead (Peterborough, Cambridgeshire) to buy

Economy, in J. Story (ed.), Charlemagne: Empire and Society, Manchester, 2005, p. 211-229. Also useful is M-C. Bailly-Maître, L’argent. Du minerai au pouvoir dans la France médiévale, Paris, 2002 and L’argent au Moyen Age : idéologie, finances, fiscalité, monnaie (Actes du XXVIIe congrès de la Société des Médiévistes de l’Enseignement Supérieur, Clermont-Ferrand, 30 mai-1er juin, 1997), Paris, 1998.35 J. Graham-Campbell and G. Williams (ed.), Silver Economy in the Viking Age, Walnut Creek, California, 2007. 36 S. Heaney, Beowulf. A New Translation, London, 1999, p. 87.37 J. L. Nelson, Charles the Bald, London and New York, 1992, p. 153, 186, 204-205 with references.38 M. Gaimster, Viking Economies: Evidence from the Silver Hoards, in Graham-Campbell and Williams (ed.), Silver Economy, p. 123-133; McCormick, Origins, p. 343-384 (Arab and Byz-antine coins found across Europe); R. K. Kovalev and A. C. Kaelin, Circulation of Arab Silver in Medieval Afro-Eurasia: Preliminary Observations, in History Compass 5, 2007, p. 560-580.39 S. E. Kruse, Trade and Exchange, p. 171.40 J. Campbell, The sale of land and the economics of power in early England: problems and possi-bilities, in Haskins Society Journal 1, 1989, p. 23-37, reprinted in his The Anglo-Saxon State, London and New York, 2000, p. 227-246.

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15 hides of land from King Æthelred of Mercia41. The amounts of silver recorded in north Italian charters of the same period tend to be smaller – perhaps indicative of more widespread use of coin here – but are still clear evidence of the ways in which elites used their wealth. In Italian charters of sale purchases were usually made with coin (not with land or goods as in eighth-century south Wales) and often the sums were small – a parcel of land bought with a few denarii for was a common transaction type in Italy. The example of the Ber-gamo charters is typical. Between 740 (date of the earliest document) and the year 900, only 45 charters have survived largely from the bishop’s archive42. Of these only 7 are sales of land purchased with money, the rest being gifts, precarial contracts, wills and so on. The sums of money used to buy land are small: 17 solidi in 785 (12 silver, 5 gold) 43; 43 silver solidi in 795;44 22 denarii in 842;45 11 denarii in 854;46 7 denarii in 860;47 24 denarii in 87948; and 240 denarii in 88649. Only twice is the size of the land bought recorded : in 860 7 denarii bought 0,5 tavole and 2 pedes of terra curtiva (in Borgo Canale just below the city walls) and in 886 240 denarii bought a farm of 3 iugera (in Luzzano, east of Bergamo, et si in suprascripto vico Logoriana plus de nostro inventum fuerist sub ipse vindicione et precium subiacead). Although from this material no consistent standard of value can therefore be discerned, in fact every case of this type is interesting for the insight it gives into notions of value per se. Much larger sums are recorded in other types of document relating to the activities of the rich. In 774 the will of Taido royal gasindius records a price of 50 gold solidi and

41 J. Campbell, The sale of land…, p. 232-233. However, the latter charter is a « shaky text » cf. J. Blair, The Church in Anglo-Saxon Society, Oxford, 2005, p. 163. 42 Cortesi, Le pergamene degli archivi di Bergamo, Bergamo, 1988, docs. 1-37 (p. 5-61), 193-200 (p. 323-338).43 Cortesi doc. 4, quinque solidos auro...duodecim solidos argento super illo pretio quod antea tultum habui per illa cartola infituciationis, qui sunt toti in simul solidi decem et septem. See A. Rovelli, Economia monetaria e monete nel dossier di Campione, in S. Gasparri and C. La Rocca (ed.), Carte di famiglia. Strategie, rappresentazione e memoria del gruppo familiare di Totone di Campione (721-877), Rome, 2005, p. 118-140 at 124-125.44 Cortesi doc. 5, pretio placito et deremisso sicut inter eosdem convenit in argento solidis numero quadragenta et tres per unumquemque solidum miliarensis sex (i.e. one miliarensis = one sixth of a solidus). cf. Rovelli, Economia monetaria e monete, p. 135.45 Cortesi doc. 13, in valente denarius vigenti et dui pro quibus suprscripto precio vendo.46 Cortesi doc. 16, argenteos figuratos denarios undecim et pro quibus suprascriptus denariis vindi-mus....47 Cortesi doc. 20, argenti denarios septem, fenito precio....48 Cortesi doc. 26, id est in argentum quid in valente per denarios solidos due....49 Cortesi doc. 30, precium argentum quod in valentem solidos viginti. Docs. 4, 5, 13, 16, 20, 26 and 30.

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that his mobilia included aurum et argentum. In the 880s and 890s signi-ficant amounts of gold are mentioned as penalties for breaking agree-ments in royal grants : 20 and 30 lbs in 883, 12 lbs in 895 and 20 lbs in 89850. Alessia Rovelli has argued that archaeological evidence sug-gests that the actual circulation of coin in Carolingian Italy was in reality minimal despite plenty of documentary references to it51. Indeed, very few Carolingian denarii have been found in situ nor in the few surviving Italian hoards52. She concludes, plausibly, that these denarii were not used for small transactions as they must have been too valuable to have been lost casually. However, the number of archaeological excavations in the vicinity of Milan that have dealt in detail with the ninth century has not been great, so this opinion remains provisional. And even though they may look small amounts to us now, they may in fact have been purchases of considerable value to those involved. Gold coins were minted, it would seem, at Bergamo in the period 774-78153.

The people involved in such transactions as those for Bergamo were often members of village elites where relatively small amounts of coin might have made a person much richer than his neighbours. With one exception all those who transacted in the above charters lived in villages rather than in Bergamo itself including Borgo Canale (near the walls of the town the modern Città alta), Gorlago, Luzzana... Four of the charters – 842, 854, 860, 879 – form part of a small dossier relating to land deals in and around Borgo Canale and show a group of people using money to buy land. Were these transactions « econo-mic »? Chris Wickham has defined commodity transactions as those « in which there is no personal relationship between the buyer and seller (or that relationship is set aside, or else hidden), and supply and

50 Cortesi, docs. 196, 197, 199 and 200. 51 A. Rovelli, Some Considerations on the Coinage of Lombard and Carolingian Italy, in I. L. Han-sen and C. Wickham (ed.), The Long Eighth Century, Leiden, 2000, p. 198-223, at p. 207; A. Rovelli, Economia monetaria e monete nel dossier di Campione ; A. Rovelli, Circolazione monetaria e formulari notarili nell’Italia altomedievale, in Bollettino dell’Istituto Storico Italiano 98, 1992, p. 109-144 at 133-144 for Po valley coinage, an analysis based largely on penalty clauses in charters. Compare Grierson and Blackburn, Medieval European Coinage I, p. 208-210, 215-216, 224-225, and 249-257 on the minting of coins in northern Italy in this period. 52 A. Rovelli, La funzione della moneta tra l’viii e il x secolo. Un’analisi della documentazione arche-ologica, in R. Francovich, and G. Noyé (ed.), La Storia dell’alto medioevo Italiano (vI-x secolo) alla luce dell’archeologia, Florence, 1994, p. 521-537 and Rovelli, Some Considerations, p. 208-209.53 Grierson and Blackburn, Medieval European Coinage I, p. 60, 210.

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demand are the main forces in price formation54 ». These Bergamo transactions do not seem to be «economic » in this narrow sense and the general point is worth bearing in mind in what follows.

silver in Milanese charters

No weights of silver are recorded in ninth-century Bergamo char-ters, only weights in gold, and these only as sanctions to royal diplomas issued elsewhere. By contrast, eleven Milanese charters of this period do record weights of silver. These have been plotted on a histogram (Fig. 1) and more detail is given for the same charters in Fig. 2.

Figure 1: Silver amounts (in pounds) recorded in Milanese charters 790-900

54 C. Wickham, Conclusions, in L. Feller and C. Wickham (ed.), Le marché de la terre au Moyen Âge, Rome, 2005, p. 625-641 at p. 628. Susan Kruse terms this « impersonal » or « neutral » exchange. For « social exchange » see the various works of B. H. Rosenwein and the (rather unconvincing) critique of F. Curta, Merovingian and Carolingian Gift Giving, Speculum 81, 2006, p. 671-699 with references.

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415

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hama.indd 415 02-07-2010 10:03:37

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416

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hama.indd 416 02-07-2010 10:03:37


417

In these eleven cases silver appears mostly in charters conceived as sales. Most documents refer to « price » (pretium, just as the Bergamo charters do) but, as a sum of silver is paired with an exact quantity of land in only one case in 835, it is impossible from this evidence to be certain what the participants understood by « price » and if there was a consistent standard of value for land in this area. In 835, 7 lb of silver bought 19 iugera of mixed use farm land in Gnignano, near Milan itself. We cannot say exactly what one pound of silver would buy, whether one pound of silver bought the same in 848 as it had in 807, nor can anything be said from this material about the supply of silver or the demand for it55. From a modern perspective these, like the Bergamo cases, were not « impersonal » economic transactions made in the context of a sys-tem dependent on supply and demand.

However, we can further pursue the economic behaviour of elites from this small sample if we look at the nature of the transactions more closely. First, who was involved in these transactions and can we say anything about their relationships with each other.

799 sale, redacted at Campione

At first glance there is no obvious relationship between Toto of Campione and Martinus of Mellano (probably Melano near Riva San Vitale). Martinus simply sold his house and property - all of it in Mel-lano - to Toto for 3 pounds of coined silver and that was that56. But the charter includes the usual cautious language of negotiation: Martin promises that he and his heirs will defend the property from others and that, if they do not, a penalty will be levied (of double the amount of land returned in better condition than when it was sold). This also applies if they try to renege on the deal. While this is a common for-mula in such documents we should not assume that the participants did not understand the formula to refer to something real. If we take literally that the 3 pounds of silver was supplied as denarii, Martin acquired 720 coins for his house and land but presumably now had nowhere to live, not to us a very effective transaction from his point of view! The likely explanation is that he and his family continued to live there but that Toto now owned the land and buildings rather than

55 A. Rovelli, Economia monetaria e monete nel dossier di Campione, p. 130-135 on the (in her view limited) silver supply in Italy.56 Document 35 in A. R. Natale, (ed.), Il Museo Diplomatico dell’Archivio di Stato di Milano, Milan, c.1970 = NAT 35, an original.

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Martin : their labour, produce and probably some money, provided the rent. Martin also sold with the house and its land all the associated documents: « for the same price I confirm as your property, the buyer, and your heirs, from this day, all my charters and documents (moni-menas meas vel scriptoras) ». This is an unusual statement in documents of this type and period in this area, and might suggest perhaps that the estate was valuable or particularly coherent, having been built up over time. Why else would it have its own dossier of documents? So, although this sale (cartola vinditionis) might appear « economic » – that Martin was trying to raise funds or to make a monetary profit and that Toto simply bought something he wanted for a price he could afford – it is in fact equally a « social » transaction, as might be expec-ted given that it is part of an important dossier documenting the activities of Toto and his family57.

807 (september) sale, redacted at Brescia

The 807 sale appears different58. The price paid is two and half times that paid in the 799 deal (1920 denarii), and yet the property listed seems far more extensive and is described in more detail59. Draco’s property, within the jurisdictions of Seprio and of Stazona, comprises a series of tenanted holdings (domo coltiles, tectoras, massari-tias) in five sites dotted about Seprio, two near Stazona and one in Florasse across the Po river. The long formula describing the property presents a very mixed landscape including coppiced woods, chestnut and beech trees, a list of movables including wooden and pottery vessels and other utensils, and some olive trees60. Also sold were the existing arrangements with the workers (tenants), male and female: how many we are not told, but presumably quite a few. But Draco only owned part of all this: he had shared his father’s inheritance with consobrinos vel consortes meos. Interestingly, Halcharius, the man buying this property, was an Aleman probably from Linzgau, apparently in the retinue of Pippin, King of Italy, and may well have brought his cash with him. The agreement was drawn up in Brescia and included among its seven witnesses, Peter a royal vassus (most probably of King Pippin) and Peter, archpriest of the Brescia church. This charter in

57 Gasparri and La Rocca (ed.), Carte di famiglia, p. 126, 331-333.58 NAT 40, an original. 59 Rovelli, Economia monetaria e monete nel dossier di Campione, p. 126.60 …Heramenta, et feramenta, vasas ligneas adque lapideas, vel omnes utensilas....

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fact forms the first in a small dossier associated with Halcharius and his brother Autcherius which eventually ended up in the Sant’Ambro-gio archive in the 840s61. As this is the first document in the sequence we cannot establish what the nature of the relationships between Draco and Halcharius may have been in 807. This could be an « eco-nomic » transaction therefore at this point, between two parties not in any personal relationship in which both were behaving economi-cally – Draco was raising money and Halcharius was buying what wan-ted for what he could afford.

810 (or c. 781-810) sale redacted in the oratorio of st. Vitalis in arogno

The next document complicates matters further for in it a single female servant was bought by Toto of Campione from Lupus for a pound of silver62. This time no equivalent in denarii is given (although as part of the text is now lost it might have been, and would have come out at 240 denarii). Whereas Draco sold numerous servants and a lot of properties for 8 pounds of silver, Lupus sold a single ancilla for 1 pound. We know nothing else about Lupus and cannot tell if he was related to Toto or a friend of his, so this transaction might have been between two people who were in an « economic » relation with each other: Lupus had a girl to sell and Toto was buying. Of course, from our modern western perspective we would expect the price of a person to be considerably higher than that for land.

From these three cases a few basic conclusions can begin to be drawn. Elite males (and apparently not women) had access to consi-derable sums of silver in the form, so it would appear, of coins. Although it is hard to discern any consistent standard of value, silver had considerable purchasing power: houses, land of all types, people, things. It is also apparently the case that those selling wanted silver: Martinus, Draco and Lupus must each have had their reasons, but these are not made clear in the texts we have. Nor can we know what they did with the silver once they got it. Further, as we are very depen-dent on the extent of surviving documentation to grasp how the peo-ple mentioned in charters interacted with each other it is possible that

61 R. Balzaretti, ‘Spoken narratives in ninth-century Milanese court cases’, in E. M. Tyler and R. Balzaretti (ed.), Narrative and History in the Early Medieval West, Turnhout, 2006, p. 11-37 at 17-26.62 NAT 43, an original. Gasparri and La Rocca (ed.), Carte di famiglia, p. 338-340.

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on the surface and taken in isolation each of these three transactions could be regarded as « economic » in the « impersonal » sense defined above. Yet because these cases are each part of larger dossiers of texts, their social aspects tend to have been prioritised by historians in recent years (including me). There is also the thorny question of the money supply in this area as we have seen. The rarity of coin hoards and stray finds in this area suggests that these pounds of silver may not be evidence of a functioning coin economy but rather of silver bullion or even treasure. However, it is important that the social status of those who had this silver was high and that they were often coming into the Milanese area from outside. Also worth noting is that the documents recording these transactions were not drawn up in Milan itself but in or near to the places where the property being purchased was.

814 bequest redacted at Wattingo (in the Valtellina)

The tantalising document drawn up on 3 March 814 provides one answer63. The charter – a sort of will – is dated by the reign in Italy of King Bernard, as of course Charlemagne had passed away on 28 January. This was a significant moment in the history of Milan and its churches. According to Einhard, as is well known, Charlemagne inten-ded to will part of his treasure of gold, silver and jewels, to the 21 metropolitan bishops of the empire, including the archbishop of Milan, at this time Odelpert64. Odelpert, like his predecessor Peter who had founded the monastery of Sant’Ambrogio in the late 780s, was a supporter of the monastic community. He had issued a grant in favour of Abbot Arigausus in 806, in which he required that the monks of monasterium nostri should sing the divine office day and night65. When King Pippin died at the early age of 33 on 8 July 810 some annals recorded that he was buried at Milan and although the authen-ticity of Pippin’s burial in the Sant’Ambrogio basilica is debated (the

63 NAT 45, an original. 64 Einhard, Vita Karoli, ch. 33, « the gold, silver, precious stones, and royal vestments ». M. Innes, Charlemagne’s Will: Piety, Politics and the Imperial Succession, in English Historical Review, 112, 1997, p. 833-855.65 NAT 38, an original (the only original Milanese archiepiscopal diploma to have survived from the ninth century). R. Balzaretti, Monasteries, towns and the countryside: reciprocal relation-ships in the archdiocese of Milan, 614-814, in G. P. Brogiolo, N. Gauthier, and N. Christie (ed.), Towns and their Territories between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, Leiden, 2000, p. 235-257 at 242.

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surviving stone is probably a late forgery) 66, it is clear that the previous archbishop of Milan, Thomas, had baptised Pippin’s sister Gisla there in 781 when Charlemagne and his queen Hildegard stayed in the city67. The Carolingian political elite at the turn of the ninth century were clearly deeply involved in setting up and maintaining this monas-tic community.

It seems that the fact that Rotfrend had a testament drawn up so soon after Charlemagne’s death is unlikely to be a coincidence. In his charter Rotfrend first provided a few properties in three places in the Valtellina for the oratory dedicated to San Quirico in Dervio. The Valtellina was of strategic importance to the Franks and properties there had been given by Charlemagne to the abbey of St. Denis. Then, a man called Punno is introduced into the text. He is given the option to buy these properties (for an unstated amount or pretium), but if he decides not to buy, then local churches will get the property (and say masses for the souls of Rotfrend and his parents). Punno is also given the option to buy Rotfrend’s property in Milan itself : et volo si Punno terredoriis meis in Mediolano emmere voluerit, volo ut ipse Punno deat duas liberas de argento Deusdedi abati de monasterio sancti Ambrosi, ubi eius sancto corpo requiesciit [... the property was] super ponte sancti Eustorgii. If Punno takes up this offer, the agreement has to be recorded in a valid charter of sale (cartola legidima wenditionem). But if Punno did not want to buy the property it was to go directly to the monastery for Rotfrend’s soul (those of his parents are not mentioned this time). Rotfrend also stated clearly that he wanted his workers to remain personally free and to retain their customary rights as instituted in anteriore iudicatum. The scribe terms the document: dispositio, ordinatio and absolutio.

What are we to make of this? Rotfrend was clearly a man of some wealth, as this was only part of his property (as he says). It is interesting that he had land in Milan itself, and a pity he does not tell us how he came by it (although given that it was close to the estate given by Archbishop Odelpert to Abbot Arigausus in 806 there may be some clue here), but the fact that his parents are mentioned in regard to the Valtellina property but not that in Milan, might mean that he bought his Milanese property rather than inherited it. The land in Milan is, by implication, worth 2 pounds of silver, which the mysterious Punno can presumably get his hands on. Thus, in this document the

66 According to the Reims manuscript of the Annales Laurissenses Minores King Pippin was buried in Milan - Pippinus rex Italiae…sepultus est Mediolanum (MGH, SS, 1, p. 121).67 Annales Regni Francorum s.a. 781.

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very same amount of silver could be used to buy land (in what was explicitly conceptualised as a sale) but then be given (apparently outright) to the monastery of Sant’Ambrogio, or more precisely to its abbot. It could also, of course, have remained unspent or « ungiven » if you like with Punno himself. The complexity of the possible options presented in this text gives insight into the multiple ways in which people could imagine transactions at this time. Either way it was Abbot Desiderius who benefited and that must have been Rotfrend’s intention. The latter point is important because this gift was the last one made to the monastery until 835. As can be seen from Fig. 1 the 820s represent a low point in the amount of silver recorded in these charters. Although this most probably reflects the fact that few char-ters have survived for this period, the absence of charters itself seems not to be chance as the 820s also represent a low point in the political fortunes of the political elite most associated with the monastery: King Bernard was killed in 818 and Archbishop Anselm of Milan, one of his supporters, was deposed by Louis the Pious and imprisoned in a monastery (possibly Sant’Ambrogio itself). It is this gap which points up the likelihood that Rotfrend was a political supporter of Pippin and Bernard.

826 sale redacted at scozzola (near sesto Calende)

This charter could be seen as the first deliberate acquisitive act by the monastic community of Sant’Ambrogio68. Sunderarius, priest and prepositus of the monastery, paid Arifret clericus and his brother Alfret of Mornago 10 ounces of silver for property (territoria) in Biandronno (near Varese). This farm and its land was part of their inheritance shared with other brothers from their father who in turn had acquired it from the brothers Rachipert and Walpert. A sanction clause was attached (the usual clause about repaying double if they broke the agreement) but added was a note that they retained no rights hence-forth in Biandronno (nihel nobis in suprascripto Blandaronno aliquid reservavimus). The latter seems to imply that part of the purpose of this transaction (and its written record) was to ensure that the monas-tery bought out this family entirely and prevented possible future challenges to its rights there. This was a possible use for money by the monastic elite therefore.

68 NAT 50, an original.

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835 sale redacted at Pavia

From the « economic » point of view this document is valuable, as it is one of the few in this sample to link a price with measured land69. Hunger paid the notary Paul 7 pounds of silver (= 1680 denarii at a rate of 240 per pound) for land in Gnignano, 19 iugera in extent (11 = farm, vines, chestnuts – sedminas, vites, camporas, pratellas et stalarias seo castenetellas; 8 = woodland and ploughed land – inter silvas et terras arvatus)70. In this charter the normal penalty clause for breaking the agreement includes the notion that the property has an established value: Paul agreed to repay double the value as could be established at that time and agreed that he would not get back any of his initial payment: sicut pro tempore fuerint melioratis aut valuerint sub estimationem, et nihil mihi ex ipso pretium aliquid redebere dixi. Perhaps this document does suggest that men such as these could conceive of property as a commodity with a value which could be determined by third parties, extimatores who surveyed property to determine its precise area.71 It is also important to note where this property was: Gnignano is a village midway between Milan and Pavia in the flat lands, unlike most of the places discussed so far which were in much hillier terrain. Measuring land in such a place was much easier and likely to produce a consis-tently reliable result. Measuring hilly ground was much harder and inevitably more impressionistic. Further, it would seem from other charters that there was considerable competition to own land in this village and in nearby villages, which would also encourage an unders-tanding of specific plots of land or whole estates as commodities72.

839 receptorio redacted at Milan

This document is a written record of the transfer of land to the monastery of Sant’Ambrogio in accordance with the provisions of

69 NAT 56, an original. 70 C. Wickham, Early Medieval Italy, p. 102-105 on Gnignano.71 Niermeyer, Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden, 1976, p. 382 gives « appraiser » and « taxateur ». The process of « estimation » is mentioned in Lothar I’s Cortelona capitulary of May 825, C. Azzara and P. Moro I capitolari italici, Rome, 1998, 132-133. See F. Bougard, La justice dans le royaume d’Italie de la fin du VIIIe siècle au début du XIe siècle, Rome, 1995, p. 151-152.72 Cf. « competitive generosity » in the context of social transacting: B. H. Rosenwein, Negotiating Space. Power, Restraint, and Privileges of Immunity in Early Medieval Europe, Manches-ter, 1999, p. 152-155 (on King Berengar I of Italy).

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Hunger is his will of 83673. Unfortunately what happened to the 3 pounds of silver mentioned in this text is unclear because of damage to the document.

848 (15 March) sale redacted at the monastery of sant’ambrogio

On 15 March Abbot Andreas of Sant’Ambrogio bought land in Gessate and Inzago from Gunzius (an Aleman) for 30 pounds of sil-ver.74 The land (with houses, workers and movables) measured 3 iugera and 100 tavole. Gunzius specified carefully how he had come by the land: by inheritance from his parents, by his own acquisition and by other kinds of transfer (sibe quod mihi ex parentum meorum successione obvenit vel pertinit aut pertinere debit, sibe de qualicumque meo acquisto, aut quoque genium mihi pertenuit…). This is a sale that was not just a sale for the participants. Gunzius gives up his property in terms which clearly mix our concepts of sale with gift: trado, confirmo, offero, vindo et dono he says. The standard penalty clause is especially interesting here as Gunzius agreed that if he or his heirs went back on the agree-ment the penalty to be paid would be 3 pounds of gold. Does this mean that 3 pounds of gold was thought to be double the value of 30 pounds of silver? Sanctions referring to gold are quite rare and it therefore is interesting that this charter was drawn up at the monastery itself (and varies in form somewhat from a ‘normal’ sale).

849 (august) sale (cartola vinditionis) redacted at Milan

Just over a year later Gumpertus, a cleric from Turate, paid Theo-dorus, a munetarius from Pavia, 12 pounds of silver for all the land he owned in Saronno and which he had inherited from his father (which he had in turn from his wife Giseltruda and her sister Pedornella per cartulam) 75. Once again the size of the property is not given. The fact that Theoderus was a moneyer is clear evidence that he could have put the silver to a specific use. It is also notable that the silver is men-tioned again in the witness list: Theoderus filio bone memorie Sigiperti in hanc cartolam vinditionis a me facta subscripsi, et suprascripto argento accepi. This is – if I remember correctly – a unique occurrence in these char-ters. We also learn from this that Theoderus had at least two vassals,

73 NAT 64, an original. 74 NAT 82, an original. 75 NAT 84, an original. Rovelli, Economia monetaria, p. 126 (2880 denarii).

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Madelbertus and Giselardus, implying that moneyers had considera-ble social status76.

855 (17 june) traditio et vestitura redacted at gorgonzola

On 17 June 855 Garibaldus of Criberiago paid Anselm of Inzago 6 pounds of silver for land in Inzago77. Once again the size of this property is not recorded. Garibald made this transaction jointly with his son Anselm and with the consent of their respective wives Tades-truda and Wadelberga. The land was the tenant houses they owned in Gessate. Garibald reveals that he had acquired the property by charter from Wago of Gessate and the heirs of his brother Rahunbert. The current tenant was Auderace who held by a livellus contract. In the lengthy (and slightly unusual) sanction within the text (aut si contra hanc cartulam per collibet argumentum oponente cabitolum agere…multa, quod est pena, vobis sociante fisco componamus…) the large sum of 10 pounds of gold and 50 pounds of silver is suggested as the penalty for breaking the agreement. Had the charter ended here – as it could easily have done – we might have thought that Garibald and Anselm were unconnected. However, Garibald was in fact Anselm’s father-in-law. Anselm had married Gottenia sometime before this current tran-saction and Garibald had given Anselm as a dowry property in Bili-ciago and cash, both gold and silver (scerfa auro et argento) 78. The transaction took place in Gorgonzola, and it was witnessed by Garibald and his family (including two nephews) and a gastald called Walderic (and three of his vassals, termed Franks and citizens (cives) of Milan). The fact of the marriage between Anselm and Garibald’s daughter and the precise language of sanction in this text shows clearly that this « sale » cannot be taken as evidence of an « economic » relationship between the two men at all.

864 (March) cartola vinditionis redacted at Mantello (Valtellina)

The final document records that in March 864 Godiprand, a Fran-kish vassal of the emperor (Louis II) sold to Gerulfus, ministerialis of

76 R. S. Lopez, An aristocracy of money in the early middle ages, in Speculum 28, 1953, p. 1-43 and Violante, La società Milanese, p. 58-61.77 NAT 93, an original.78 For scerpa (and variant spellings) meaning « cash » or « money » see Niermeyer, p. 944-945.

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the emperor property he had in the Valtellina (at Cesino) for 11 pounds of silver79. Gerulfus was the comparator (a rare usage in this collection) 80. Both these men are likely to have been connected in some way through their respective relationships with Louis II.

summary

The pounds of silver examined so far represent considerable accu-mulations of the metal either as real coins or as bullion or a mix of the two. Or they might represent a way of « counting » large numbers of pennies (although it is important to note that in none of these cases are solidi mentioned). A consideration of these eleven examples of weights of silver as recorded in charters indicates, on balance, that the view that the transactions recorded in these charters were more social than economic is correct. However, it is clear that such social transac-tions could have significant economic aspects. A significant percentage of the participants in these transactions were members of elites who transacted with each other. If we assume that the sums listed were real – that Gerulfus actually handed over 11 pounds of silver to Godiprand rather than that the 11 pounds was simply a means of pricing the land (which it seems not to have been given the apparent inconsistencies in the value of silver as I have pointed out) – then we might think about where this silver came from, why it was that the men who had it had it and indeed how much more of it they might have had which was not recorded in these charters.

Moving beyond pound weights of silver, there is much more infor-mation about precious metals in the charter collection as a whole. Sums of silver (and gold) are sometimes mentioned in penalty clauses (in 832, 20 silver solidi = 240 denarii; 848, 3 lb gold; 848, 200 silver solidi = 2400 denarii if either side breaks the bargain; 853, 20 solidi = 240 denarii; 855, 10 lb gold, 50 lb silver). In terms of conceptualization this suggests that not breaking agreements was something which car-ried a high value and that social obligation continued after the tran-saction had been « completed ». But the fact that these sanctions were expressed as quantities of precious metals rather than of land remains interesting. In part it suggests that wealth was more readily conceptua-

79 NAT 113, an original.80 Gerulfus appears again in April 867 : he provided that his properties in the Valtellina and in the area of Pombia (Novara) should be sold and the proceeds distributed to priests and to the poor. The sanction clause was 5 pounds of gold and 10 pounds of silver.

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lised as cash. Metals were moveable, and the men who had large sums of metal in these charters clearly moved around. Coined metal was clearly available at Milan and Pavia, where mints functioned throu-ghout the Carolingian period.81 Although relatively few Milanese and Pavian coins have been found in Lombardy itself (as Rovelli has stressed) in fact they have been found further afield, including Dores-tad where at least eight Pavian and nine Milanese coins of Charlema-gne’s monogram coinage have been found82. The Sant’Ambrogio charters refer to moneyers and goldsmiths as one might expect. For example, in 792 Arifusus, son of Aufusus, aurifex (+ Dominicus, Lobo and Bodo, aurifices) from Pavia83; 812, Petrus, aurifex as a witness84 ; 824, Arifusus, son of Aurifsus, aurifex (+ Petrus and Martinus, aurifices) again from Pavia85 ; 833, same Arifus again (but not termed aurifex)86 ; 839, Petripert and Dominicus, monetarii of Milan87 ; 847, Aribertus, son of Dominicus, monetarius of Milan88 ; 849, Theoderus, monetarius of Pavia89. There is also considerable reference to coins, all silver dena-rii in the ninth-century charters (Fig. 3).

81 See note 47 above and Rovelli, Economia monetaria, p. 135. 82 S. Coupland, Charlemagne’s Coinage: Ideology and Economy, p. 222-223. These coins had very high silver content, 97.5% (for one coin from Pavia) and 98% (for one from Milan). 83 NAT 32, an original, a donation by Walpert of Gnignano to Arifus of land in the vil-lage.84 NAT 44, an original, an exchange of land in Carpiano and Faino between Bruning, a Milanese negotians and Hernost, royal vassal. 85 NAT 49, an original, a donation by Leo of Siziano to Arifus of land in Gnignano. Violante, La società Milanese, p. 59 suggested that the Aurifusi were a family of metalworkers.86 NAT 54 and 55, both originals, respectively a sale by Vigilinda to Gunzo (vicedominus of the Milanese church) of a farm in Gnignano, and dontation by Gunzo to Hunger of Milan. 87 NAT 65, an original, a testamentum made by Teutpald of Gnignano of his property in the village.88 NAT 80, an original, a sale of land in Mendrisio and Melano by Luberinus to Andreas, abbot of Sant’Ambrogio. 89 NAT 84, an original, a sale of land in Saronno by Theoderus to Gumpertus clericus.

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decade date Coins Property bought or other arrange-ment

720s 721 3 gold solidi woman’s mundium725 12 gold solidi slave boy720s 3 gold solidi mundium

730s

735 2 gold solidi + 1 tremisses

female slave

740s 748 1 gold solidus loan, field as security770s 771 3 gold solidi mundium of aldia

774 50 gold solidi land (no size given, but exten-sive)

780s 789 120 silver denarii countergift790s 793 5 solidi = 60 denarii Land (no sizes)

796 90 denarii Loan in return for an annual amount of good wine

800s 803 120 denarii Land (no sizes)807 360 denarii 2 slave boys809 120 denarii (20

solidi penalty for breach)

Loan (pay back in kind)

830s 832 20 solidi = 240 denarii

Penalty in livellus agreement

833 40 solidi = 480 denarii

Land (no sizes)

833 1 manucias countergift840s 840 1 manucias countergift


Land (no size), first reference to monastic treasury (saculum)

848 12 denarii Annual rent 850s 852 30 solidi = 360

denariiLand (no size)

853 4 denarii Rent to Nonantola854 10 denarii Rent for woodland, Campione854 160 denarii Land, 67 tavole, Limonta857 2400 denarii Land (no size), Inzago858 40 solidi = 480

denariiLand, 0.5 iugera of vines, 3 iugera/4 perticas of coppice, Ges-sate


House + land (incl. vines and wine press), 5 perticas, Gessate

870s 875 56 solidi = 672 denarii

Pledge

875 5 solidi = 60 denarii Pledge (Andreas will only sell to Sant’Ambrogio for iusta pre-cium).

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Land (no size)

875 10 solidi Casa abitacionis and vines (no size) near Cologno

876 6 solidi = 72 denarii2 solidi = 24 denarii

Prato, 60 tavoleCampo, 20 tavole, in Cologno


Campo (no size), Bladino near Cologno

880s 882 7 solidi = 84 denarii Prato, 60 tavoleSedimen, 12 tavole

884 15 denarii Land (no size)885 12 denarii Part of annual render

890s 897 12 denarii Part of annual render

Figure 3: Coins mentioned in ninth-century Milanese charters

As can be seen from Table 1 there is little consistency between sums mentioned and size of property bought for example, but it is notable that from the 850s that sizes for land purchased with coin are much more frequently recorded than before. It is interesting that, in 857, land bought for 2400 denarii was recorded in this way rather than as 10 lbs of silver. This large sum is out of line with the remaining cases, as 360 denarii is the next highest amount. A particularly interesting case is a charter of 4 May 876, redacted at Milan, in which two young brothers Agilulf and Dragulf, of Cologno Monzese, represented by their guardian Peter, sold property to Bono of Pariana90. The brothers were starving: eo tempore isto necessitatis suorum famme et nutridatem perire. A group of boni homines led by Odelfretus missus of Amalricus, vice comes of Milan, went to value the brother’s property:

ambulaverunt intra casas abitacionis eorum in suprascripto vico Colonia, set nichil ibi invenerunt de movilibus rebus; et cum ibi nihil de movilia invenissent, accesse-runt et previderunt adque extimaverunt suprascripto prato esse per mensura justa tabolis iugialis sexagenta, et extimaverunt eum valere argentum dinarios solidos sex; et ipso campo est per mensura justa tabolis iugialis viginti, et extimaverunt eum valere argentum dinarios solidos duo91.

90 NAT 133, an original. 91 « They walked around their house at Cologno but found no movables there. As they found no movables they went to and looked over [their land] and they estimated the size of the meadow as 60 tavole, and they estimated its value as 6 solidi’s worth of silver denarii; and the field was measured at 20 tavole, and they valued it at 2 solidi’s worth of silver denarii. »

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This is interesting both for its explicit statement of value and because of the consistency of value expressed: 1 solidus bought 10 tavole of land.

Figure 4: Amounts of coin compared to amounts of silver (in pounds) recorded in Milanese charters 790-900

Fig. 4 compares pounds of silver recorded (and converted into coin equivalent) with amounts of coin referred to as coins (not as weight). Read alongside Fig. 1 it shows that weights when converted to coin equivalent far exceed the amounts of coin recorded with the exception of the 850s where coins easily outstrip silver by weight (because of the 2400 denarii in 857). What this means is difficult to tell given the fairly small numbers of charters involved but it may be significant that none of the seven transactions in the 850s using coin involved aristocrats but rather members of the lay gentry, clerics and monastic agents. The 10 denarii given as annual rent to the prepositus of Sant’Ambrogio’s church in Campione in 854 is likely to have repre-sented a large sum to Laurentius who gave it. As seen above, Alessia Rovelli has suggested that silver denarii were very unlikely to have been used for small everyday purchases. But income from annual rents such as these meant that members of the political elite had regular access to coin, and surely did actually have the sums of silver recorded in the charters discussed here. The large amounts of silver by weight found in the charters of the 840s could plausibly be explained by the pre-sence in the Milanese area of wealthy aristocrats from north of the Alps who were patronising the community of Sant’Ambrogio (and fleeing from the Carolingian wars).

One such aristocrat was Archbishop Angilbert II who donated the famous golden altar to the basilica church of Sant’Ambrogio in the

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late 830s or early 840s.92 This object crafted by Volvinus with its remar-kable gold and silver images of the lives of Christ and Ambrose and its 4379 gemstones made a clear statement of Angilbert’s wealth93. Of course it still survives so we know that he actually had real wealth in precious metals and a lot of it. How Angilbert came by this wealth we do not of course know: there is nothing in the Sant’Ambrogio charters about his own property (and the Episcopal archive is largely lost for this period). But the size of some of the sums of silver recorded in these charters at precisely this time and the reference to the monas-tery’s treasure (saculum) in a charter of 847 implies that silver was available in this region and indeed that some of the silver discussed above may have ended up in this famous object. However, the contem-porary inscription on the altar implies a cultural rather than an eco-nomic meaning:

This precious reliquary of pleasing design shines outwardly with glow and splendour of metal, and glitters with inlaid gems, but within it contains sacred bones more precious than any metal. The illustrious and noble prelate Angilberto rejoicing offered to the Lord this work in honour of S. Ambrogio who lies buried in this church, and he consecrated it in the time in which he was archbishop. Holy Father, look upon and benignly pity thy servant. By thy mercy, O God, may he achieve the supreme reward94.

So, here we have a case of wealth accumulation which was clearly not done for ‘economic’ reasons – nonetheless it was clearly rational in its own terms.

By way of conclusion I want briefly to develop an issue raised earlier: were transactions of an « economic » nature possible in this

92 NAT 58, March 835, a thirteenth-century authenticated copy. This is a problematic text, clearly interpolated after the event. Angilbert is normally believed to have been a Frank (see Balzaretti, Spoken Narratives, p. 20 with references). 93 C. Capponi (ed.), L’altare d’oro di Sant’Ambrogio, Milan, 1996; E. Gagetti, « Cernimus … in gemmis insignibusque lapidibus mira sculptoris arte … formatas imagines ». L’altare d’oro di Sant’Am-brogio e ilrimpiego glittico nell’alto medioevo, Archivio Storico Lombardo, ser. 12, VIII, 2002, p. 11-62; C. Hahn, Narrative on the Golden Altar of Sant’Ambrogio in Milan: Presentation and Recep-tion, in Dumbarton Oaks Papers 53, 1999, p. 67-187. As far as I can tell none of these authors speculates on where the metals for the altar came from.94 Hahn, Narrative on the Golden Altar, p. 182-183: Æmicat alma foris rutiloque decore venusta/Arca metallorum gemmis quae compta coruscat/thesauro tamen haec cuncto potiore metallo/Ossibus interius pollet donata sacratis. Ægregius quod praesul opus sub honore beati/Inclitus Ambrosii templo recubantis in isto/Optulit Angilbertus ovans/Dominoque dicavit/Tempore quo nitidae servabat cul-mina sedis. Aspice, summae pater, famulo miserere benigno/Te miserante Deus donum sublime reportet. For discussion see M. Ferrari, Le iscrizioni, in Capponi (ed.), L’altare d’oro di Sant’Ambrogio, p. 145-155 at 150.

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society? Could two parties who had no prior relationship with each other transact in a way which did not establish a lasting personal relationship between them? There are a few documents which seem interesting from this point of view which at first sight do seem to record transactions between two parties who were neither related nor in any other sort of existing relationship.

812 (april) commutatio between Bruning, negotians of Milan and hernost, king’s vassal

This is the earliest authentic exchange charter in this collection95. Although it clearly came into the archive because Hernost and his brother Hunger gave property to the monastery in 836 we must remember that at the time of the exchange it is unlikely that this out-come was planned. Bruning exchanged with Hernost a house (with its associated garden, marsh and rights to use of a well), some enclosed land and to other plots in Carpiano, for a farm, some vines and ches-tnuts (castenetellum), a field and some meadowland in nearby Faino. Each grouping of properties was measured at 1 jugera, 9 perticas and 16 tavole. Bruning had bought the house by a charter of sale from the heirs of Odone and had acquired the rest by inheritance. Hernost had acquired his land from Crestina and Ursus (presumably by purchase, but we are not told). The sanction clause provided for restitution in double if the agreement was broken but no money or silver amounts were mentioned. So, here is a transaction without any medium of account mentioned which recorded exact measurements – as was nor-mal in fact in exchange documents – apparently between two people who did not enter into other transactions on subsequent occasions.

823 (june) commutatio between hernost, vassal of the king and wal-pert and Teudepert of Carpiano

In this text the same Hernost exchanged some plough land in Carpiano – which he had purchased from the heirs of Odone (advenit ex comparatione) and which measured 1 jugerum and 2 perticas – for six similar land plots in Carpiano with the brothers Walpert and Teude-pert (of Carpiano), measured at 10 perticas and 9 tavole, considerably

95 NAT 44, an original redacted in Carpiano.

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less land96. The same penalty clause applies. Again, this looks like an exchange between two parties otherwise unknown to each other. However, in this charter other owners of the properties bounded which these ones are mentioned: they were Sant’Ambrogio, Ursus, Hernost himself, the monastero maiore and the king (terra regi). This is crucial information as it reveals that Hernost already had land there and that two significant monasteries owned there – Sant’Ambrogio and the monastero maggiore (in Milan)97. The reference to terra sancti Ambrosii demonstrates that not all its charters for this period have survived (or possibly that some transactions were not recorded in writing, but this is very unlikely). The fact of Hernost’s existing ownership is likely to mean that Walpert and Teudepert surely knew who he was even if they may not have met him in person.

846 (january) commutatio between Fastald, deacon in rho and Liu-toni of rho

The next document is an exchange (commutatio) between Fastald, a deacon from Rho and Liutioni of Rho. Fastald handed over some vines (petia de vinea) and some enclosed land with trees on it in Lucer-nate (near Saronno)98. In return, Liutoni exchanged four pieces of vine land and two fields in Rho. There were several other owners, including Sant’Ambrogio, which appeared to own most of the adja-cent land. The only land for which a measurement is given is the second field – exactly 30 tavole. Once again, although these two men on the surface appeared not to know each other or to be related, the reference to Sant’Ambrogio probably means other charters which recorded other transactions now lost once existed.

96 NAT 48, an original (damaged), redacted in the oratorio of St. Martin in Carpiano. In this document there is some confusion between commutare, dare and tradere on the part of the scribe but the facts of the transaction remain clear. 97 On the latter see E. Occhipinti, Appunti per la storia del Monastero Maggiore di Milan in età medioevale. Il problema della origini e la configurazione giuridico-patrimoniale, in Studi di Storia e Diplomatica di Milano 2, 1977, p. 47-96 and E. Occhipinti, Il contado milanese nel secolo XIII. L’amministrazione della propietà fondiaria del Monastero Maggiore, Bologna, 1982, p. 17-18.98 NAT 79, an original redacted in Rho.

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852 (november) divisio between adelburga of schianno and Baldric of Lemote

In November 852 a charter confirming a division of properties already made at the emperor’s court (ad urbem curte domni impera-toris, probably meaning Pavia) was made.99 In it properties given (dedit) by Adleburga, the widow of Adelgisus of Schianno (acting through her guardian the sculdasius Simpertus) to Baldric of Lemoti (an Aleman) were listed in detail (their sites, production – sometimes – and their workforce by name) – a sort of polyptych in miniature. She gave him twenty one tenanted farms scattered around Lake Como. Again, these people appear to have nothing to do with each other – but another document reveals that Baldric and Adelgisus both held land in Bissone, and this 852 text seems to be a document which helped to sort out Adelburga’s affairs after Adelgisus had died.

854 (February) sale between Lupus of auci and guiderisius of Cas-sago

In February 854 Lupus of Auci sold some land in Lierna (67 tavole in a place called Mandronio, near Lake Como) to Guiderissi of Cas-sago for 160 silver denarii fixed price100. The usual double penalty applied for breach of contract. Cinzio Violante cited this document in his La società Milanese nell’età precomunale (1981 edn., p. 124) because the 160 denarii paid represented in his view an excessive price for 67 tavole of land101. Violante argued – with some reason – that it was likely that the land being sold was especially valuable, maybe because it was a vineyard. More likely it was used to grow olives. However, as Violante pointed out and as has already been seen, there are few ninth-century documents in this area in which sums of cash are linked to precise amounts of land, so that arriving at a clear sense of the value of land is impossible. There is no apparent connection in this document with Sant’Ambrogio or any other church, except that the charter was drawn up by Rotpert, clericus and notary (but he only appears here). This charter in fact is part of the dossier relating to Sant’Ambrogio’s estate at Limonta, donated to the monastery by Lothar in 835, but it does seem to evidence independent owners buying and selling land without

99 NAT 88, an original. 100 NAT 92, an original redacted at Lecco. 101 C. Violante, La società Milanese nell’età precomunale, Bari, 1981, 2nd edn., p. 124.

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monastic (or other) interference.102 Yet, Violante was right to wonder about the amount of coin recorded here as it does seem high.

Conclusions

This investigation of the ways in which silver is recorded in Mila-nese charters of the ninth century in the context of the uses of silver across Europe at this time has raised a lot of questions about the nature of economic life in this area. Some of these are very hard to answer. Why, for example, did some land transactions involve silver (as coin or as pound weight) and others not? Were references to coin simply a way to agree a price using the solidus to assist in the reckoning process, as Rovelli has argued given that so few actual coins of the period survive? Or did the sums of silver recorded in charters actually exist? In my view, putting all the evidence together (and given the current state of archaeological knowledge of the Po valley in the ninth century), it seems likely that the sums recorded do represent real coins – after all the land recorded does represent real land and the people real people. For one thing the size of the sums recorded makes sense when related to the social status of the people recorded as having the silver: people (nearly always men) who had a lot of silver or many coins can be shown from other evidence to have been well off, whereas those with only a few pennies either appear only once in the documents or seem to have been relatively less well off. Clearly there is potential for circularity of argument here. It is not possible to know how wealth was conceptualised by the elites whose activities these charters record and so whether we can speak of « economic behaviour » let alone « economic rationality » remains problematic. The interesting charter of 876 in which the verb valere is used does demonstrate that these people did have concepts of value and that land could be valued in terms of its worth in silver coins. This concept is, of course, fundamental to the development of a market in land a phenomenon which has been increasingly studied in the last few years. Notions of rationality and economic behaviour have formed an impor-tant part of researches into the European land market103, and this is

102 R. Balzaretti, The Monastery of Sant’Ambrogio and Dispute Settlement in Early Medieval Milan, in Early Medieval Europe, 3 (1994), p. 1-18 at 5.103 C. Wickham, Comunità e clientele nella Toscana del XII secolo. Le origini del comune rurale nella Piana di Lucca, Rome, 1995, p. 21-37; C. Wickham, Land sales and land market in Tuscany in the eleventh century, in his Land and Power, p. 257-274; S. Cavaciocchi (ed.), Il mercato della

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rightly thought to be a phenomenon of the later medieval period. Cinzio Violante in 1953 located the beginnings of a more market-based society in Milan and its region at the turn of the year 1000 (as did Jarnut for Bergamo). His detailed analysis of tenth-century land prices (‘hard work’ as he put it!) 104, is subjected to criticism in my forthcoming book The Lands of St. Ambrose.

Figure 5 : amounts of coin compared to amounts of silver (in pounds) recorded in Milanese charters 900-999

Fig. 5 shows, at the least however, that there was apparently rather more money around in the Milanese area in the tenth century and silver was only rarely referred to by weight then despite a larger num-ber of surviving documents, which might suggest a more monetised, commercial economy and a more « rational » attitude towards money. But this was not the case in the ninth century. Unlike the Viking north, Italy in the ninth century cannot be said to have been a « silver eco-nomy ». Silver did exist, elites often had lots of it and they used it, sometimes, to buy land. At other times, however, they acquired land by exchange which did not - at least as recorded - involve money. The study of a precious metal as evidenced in charters does not, therefore, suggest that Carolingian elites were « economically rational » but tends to support interpretations which emphasise the social and poli-

terra. Secc. XIII-XVIII, Florence, 2004; L. Feller and C. Wickham (eds), Le marché de la terre au moyen âge, Rome, 2005; Feller, La fortune de Karol, p. 25-51; B. J. P. Van Bavel, The organi-zation and rise of land and lease markets in northwestern Europe and Italy, c. 1000-1800, in Conti-nuity and Change 23, 2008, p. 13-53.104 Violante, La società Milanese, p. 123-167 at 123.

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tical nature of land transactions. However, we should be careful of attributing motives to those transacting in charters in a teleological way – we know what happened in the end but they did not, so we should pay careful attention to their behaviours at each point without knowledge of future developments. If persons are « social bundles of rights and duties distributed between various relationships105 », and societies are « characterised by an internal divide between a short-term transactional order, in which impersonal, competitive individualistic behaviour is the norm, and a long-term order in which the stakes are the reproduction of the moral values of the society106 », the economic complexity of early medieval cultures which look partly like own and partly unlike our own should not be surprising.

105 C. M. Hann (ed.), Property relations. Renewing the anthropological tradition, Cambridge, 1998, p. 229.106 Hann, Property relations, p. 32-33.

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Elites and silver in Milan and its region in the ninth century

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Transcript of Elites and silver in Milan and its region in the ninth century