This volume examines the monetary history of a large empire located at the crossroads of intercontinental trade from the fourteenth century until the end of World War I. It covers all regions of the empire from the Balkans through Anatolia, Syria, Egypt and the Gulf to the Maghrib. The implications of monetary developments for social and political history are also discussed throughout the volume. This is an important and pathbreaking book by one of the most distinguished economic historians in the field.

List of maps, graphs and tables; List of illustrations; Preface; Acknowledgments; Note on transliteration; 1. Introduction; 2. Trade and money at the origins; 3. Interventionism and debasements as policy; 4. The emerging monetary system; 5. Credit and finance; 6. Money and empire; 7. The price revolution in the Near East revisited; 8. Debasement and disintegration; 9. In the absence of domestic currency; 10. The new Kurus; 11. Linkages with the periphery; 12. The great debasement; 13. From bimetallism to the "limping gold standard"; 14. Conclusions; Appendices; Bibliography; Index.