ABSTRACT
The notion of an economy dependent upon payments in kind was put forward for the first time in 1864 by Bruno Hildebrand, and it has flourished exceedingly. The exchange of one commodity for another by means of something other than gold or silver does not by that fact escape the rubric of a money economy. In other words, one should beware of arguing that there is no money except metallic money. Metallic money, inherited by the middle Ages from the Mediterranean civilisations, never ceased to be a familiar feature, however; but there were different modes of use which should be more precisely described. M. Dopsch showed not long ago how the settlement of a due in coin was sometimes only a second-best. The lord would resign himself to accepting this method of payment. All this, taken in company with other evidence, goes to show that in aristocratic circles the 'closed economy' was.
