ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to explore the relationship between the language used in gift records from northern Iberia and the transactions that they record, for the relationship was far from straightforward. The counter-gift – that is, something handed over to the donor after receipt of a gift – stands as a public acknowledgement that a gift has been made; it is a formal statement, a significant gesture, sometimes a present. The range of transactions found in northern Iberia runs from the purely commercial dealing in commodities to the gift for no consideration, passing through transfers to pay off debts, sales to get food, varieties of gift-exchange, gifts for countergifts and gifts for a small consideration. The range of transactions also shows how inappropriate it is to think of market economy and gift economies as alternatives. There survives a large corpus of charters recording transactions – mostly, but not exclusively, land transactions – from northern Iberia.
