ABSTRACT Diversity in money leaps at historians of early modern societies, whether they analyse account books, legal documents, travelogues and diaries, or try to make sense of a sum casually mentioned in a source from the period. The plurality of money objects contrasts with the homogeneous, singular currencies imposed by nation‐states in the 19th and 20th centuries. Surveying classic and recent scholarship, this article encourages historians to look beyond the apparent chaos and examine the underlying logics of plural currency systems. Following this approach requires exploring the monetary thinking of experts and ordinary users alike, and a close reading of historical accounts and other textual traces of economic life. It also requires an understanding of how money objects were made and scrutinised by contemporaries who worried about their worth, which can be obtained from the technical literature of the time and numismatic research. It appears that many early modern people were skilled in evaluating goods and services, turned metals, shells, paper, and cloth into money, and used several currencies at once. This fact makes money a culturally and socially rich topic for historians and a vantage point for studying economic life more broadly.
Sebastian Felten (Sat,) studied this question.