ABSTRACT
The elites played an important role in the history of coinage and the rise of a money economy in the Middle Ages. The significance of the elites was related to the organization of minting, administration, and regulation of monetary regimes, and their part in the process of use, acceptance, and adaption of monetary institutions in medieval society is difficult to overstate. Still, praise for monetary policies, the effectiveness of cash or coins as emblems of identity, are unheard of in Scandinavian sources from the period under investigation. Instead, complaints about monetary matters appear in a number of circumstances and are always formulated by members of the elites. The reason behind this fact is presumably related to literacy among the elites but also a close connection between monetization and members of the elites. Some aspects of trust and distrust toward money in the period c. 1050–1250 is discussed within this chapter, focusing on the monetary aspects as dynamic processes providing challenges and opportunities and how these are dealt with in practice. In a society where monetization became an established part of society (not to be confused with a money economy) the monetary reality was often more complex than had been acknowledged so far.
