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Focusing on the significance of Russian precious-metal production, this work delves into the Central and South America specie crisis from 1670 to 1760 and its impact on European producers. Through a detailed examination, it challenges existing biases and highlights Russia's role in the international economy of the eighteenth century. This reissue serves as a valuable resource for students and researchers interested in the intricacies of Russian economic history.

In the years covered by this volume, 1250–1450, the production patterns, in both the European precious and base metal industries, first established in the twelfth century, and described in volume two, continued to be played out. This now took place however in the context of a continuous process of increasingly acute resource depletion, which finally culminated in the terminal mining crisis of the 1450s. Even as European silver production declined, however, compensatory supplies of precious metals became for the first time available as a counter-cyclical production pattern came to characterise a newly emergent European gold industry which by 1450 had displaced African gold as the main source of supply to European mints. African gold increasingly was supplied to African and Asiatic markets. Vol. I: Asiatic Supremacy, 425–1125 Vol. 2: Afro-European Supremacy, 1125–1225

The second volume examines the rise to world dominance of silver and gold production, during the first great output long-cycle (1125–1225), in new locations in Europe and sub-Saharan Africa. It explores the organisation of the industry at this time, the reversal of the contemporary specie flow and the distribution of these precious metals throughout Europe and to lands beyond the bounds of that continent. It also describes the beginnings of autonomous European base metal – lead, copper, tin and mercury production, the organisation of the “new” industry, its levels of output and the distribution of these metals to new groups of European consumers. Vol. I: Asiatic Supremacy, 425–1125 Vol. 3: Continuing Afro-European Supremacy, 1250–1450

The first of four volumes examines non-ferrous precious and base metal mining, metallurgy, and minting in the Middle Ages, covering the years 425–1125. It details the transition of precious metal production from the Western Roman Empire (–350) to the Sassanid and Byzantine Empires (350–650) and Central Asia (480–930). For nearly five centuries, Central Asia was the center of world precious metal production until a collapse led to a shift in silver and gold production to Europe and sub-Saharan Africa (930–1125). The text delves into mining activities in Central Asia during 480–930, exploring its societal impacts and the distribution of precious metals to China, India, Southeast Asia, Asia Minor, and Europe via the Trans-Pontine steppes. It also discusses the effects of Sassanid-Islamic silver and gold on European mining and monetary systems at the peak of trade (560–930) and how Europeans responded to the "Silver Famine" caused by the decline in Central Asian production (930–1125). This publication serves as a comprehensive resource on medieval coinage, metallurgy, and minting, making it essential for anyone deeply interested in medieval coins and their trade history.