Disintegration of monetary system of medieval Serbia

Abstract

The subject matter of this paper is the process of gradual disintegration of monetary system of medieval Serbia during the second half of the 14th and the first half of the 15th century. This period is characterized by an appearance of frequent usurpations of the ruling right to mint coinage by local landlords and the attempts of the rulers from Lazarević and Branković families to restore unified monetary system. Common debasements and restorations of silver coinage provoked economic instability and induced frequent turning backwards to the custom of using weighted silver instead of silver coins as commodity monetary standard. The aim of this paper is to explain the reasons for those phenomena. We apply qualitative, historical, empirical analysis where we consider money minting right holders and their decisions to debase and restore the value of silver dinars. We found that gradual disintegration of monetary system of medieval Serbian State continued until the fall of Serbian Despotate as a consequence of political instability following dissolution of medieval Serbian Empire and economic and financial exhaustion of Serbia by Ottoman suzerains.

Keywords

• the right to mint coinage
• commodity monetary standards
• silver dinar debasements and restorations
• Serbian Despotate
• Ottoman Suzerainty