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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;EWC3, post: 3112431, member: 93416&quot;]As I said, I am no expert of these matters - just offering some opinions and clues that came my way that might interest others</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>You are correct to suggest there were many others involved. The best paper I read on this was by Andrew Watson (EHR 1967 &quot;Back to Gold, and Silver&quot;). He had data suggesting a vast amount of European silver went to North Africa as fake square dirhems made in Spain and perhaps France. This seemed to me to be on the mark - since these coins - called millares - are very common even today. Watson&#039;s clear and direct work on this matter stopped abruptly in 1967 straight after this paper, and I wrote him to ask why. He told me that immediately after publication he was contacted by a senior university guy (the dean?) who told him the Ford Foundation were giving him a big grant to study Islamic agriculture instead. (I feel there are jokes in that to do with Diocletian, and Lewis Carroll, but I will leave that to others to figure)</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Most certainly. There have been a good number of Brexit type scenarios in British history, but probably the most violent was to do with the peasant&#039;s revolt 1381. As I read that, well, the bottom line story seems pretty simple - Edward III took out huge loans to cover his attempted conquest of France, loans from Florentine Bankers. He failed to pay up, and they sent the bailiffs in to collect, so to speak. Poll tax etc etc were a kind of &quot;austerity&quot; measure, and did not go down well at all. If we look at the push towards big silver and gold in England and elsewhere, it does seem to be Florentines rather than Venetians who turn up at the scene</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Yes - this is well documented. I have very occasionally seem soldinos turning up as English finds - but personally - not so often. Have not checked the portable antiquities scheme to see how common this really was - but that would be the place to start. Galley halfpence are linked to a shortage of official small silver, and part of this very story of the growth of consumer debt, as I see it.</p><p><br /></p><p>One place Venice was definitely involved in export was to do with ducats of course. They turn up quite a lot as far away as India. I mention this because years back a fine young American numismatist Benjamin Bell visited me. As I recall he wanted to study the flow of gold to India from Venice - but his supervisor at UCL diverted his attention to the jewellery copies of these things instead, interpreted through the thinking of Michael Taussig, Annette Weiner and Franz Boas. I leave it to anyone interested to google these people to get a flavour.</p><p><br /></p><p>When I expressed surprise that these people figured so prominently in shaping a numismatic study, Benjamin was delightfully frank. He said he just would not get the degree unless he highlighted their work. (Wither scholarship? I thought). Sadly I since discovered Benjamin died much too early - perhaps some knew him in US collector circles?</p><p><br /></p><p>Rob[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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