in medieval time & early modern world there were all kinds of currencies, numerous kinds of gold or silver coins: ducats, florins, pounds, and as time goes by even the value of same currency changed dramaticly. So for me it's very difficult to get an accurate concept about the real value and economic importance of medieval & early modern arms and armour, and gunpowder weapons.
So i'm looking for a book dealing with this particular topic, history of money in medieval and early modern world. better it treats most main currencis used by european powers, and discusses their value and development in detail. is there any recommands? Thanks!(Sorry for my English)

The scope of your question is vast! :eek:

You might start with this book, then follow the related books farther down the page:

Money and its Use in Medieval Europe - Peter Spufford

http://books.google.ca/books?id=MoyNhwhSVYAC&...mp;f=false


That will keep you busy for quite a while. Didn't think it would simple, did you? :lol:

Thank you very much Kel, I do expect some complexity , I'll certainly purchase this book and study it in detail.
But this title ls dealing with medieval time, what about renaissance and later time?

Professor Martha Carlin has some links on her homepage to online historical currency converters and databases of wages and prices going back to the late Middle Ages. https://pantherfile.uwm.edu/carlin/www/#Reference_Tools:_Economic

This may be a book more in-line with what you're looking for, I've not read it myself but it would seem to be well received by its readers on Amazon.com. I tried Google Books but there wasn't an entry for it. Its pretty cheap on Amazon.com though and if you are a student with a (dot)edu email address, you can get free Amazon Prime!

Here's its listing:
http://www.amazon.com/History-Money-Jack-Weat...amp;sr=1-1

Thank you guys all! That's why I love this site——ever kind-hearted friends. I'll study these books and find more resource through their bibiliography.

While you're waiting for the book, you could try reading this page to get a picture of the difficulty associated with assessing the relative value of money and goods in the age before fiat money (in the form of paper bills/banknotes) largely replaced coins made of precious metal. It says that it deals with 16th-century France but most of the points explained in the page actually apply to pretty much the whole of Europe in general.

http://www.lepg.org/money.htm

Of course. However, it should be noted that people would accept gold or silver bullion as acceptable means of payment, but not unprinted paper--and that's what matters. Myself, I prefer fiat money with negligible intrinsic value since it reminds people that the value of money lies not in its possession but in its use. That was apparently not a commonly-held opinion back in the Middle Ages, though....

This gives an excellent idea of relative value of all sorts of common items, including (basic) arms and armour.

http://www.learner.org/workshops/primarysourc...plies.html