SC - fortified wines

[Decker, Terry D.]

Ras wrote:

I am unsure myself. I know that Master Adamantius' student, Puck, was 
researching the area of trade in the middle ages extensively a while back
but 
have not heard any results of that research lately. He was trying to find 
shipping manifests and other documents. Although his focus was on non-Middle

eastern traders, I am sure he covered all areas with equal interest. Puck, 
have you progressed in this area to a point where any basic conclusions can 
be drawn?

<snip>

al-Sayiid A'aql ibn Rashid al-Zib



As is most of my best research, this paricular vein stemmed from a
discussion with Ras and expanded radically due to a heated arguement with
him.  Strange how we sometimes do our best learning, isn't it?  Well, as for
my research, it has grown exponentially as most of my projects do (imagine a
puppy following a scent and getting distracted by a thousand others along
the way).  The original research was to try to prove via manifests or other
documentation that coffee made it into Europe in period and I have thus far
had no success there.  It exploded when Ras and I had our "spirited
discussion" over the emimnece of the Venetian Traders and the Hanseatic
league.  I have learned one helluva lot in other areas tracing this elusive
thread though.  I have found many references to spices being used literally
"in trade", eg, "hey Cedric, I'll trade ya a handfull of grains of paradise
and two sticks of cinammon for your Charlemagne rookie card...." but nothing
comes to mind that I could use to document spices used as currency.  That
doesn't of course mean they are not out there, just that I haven't gone off
looking for them.  Awe hell, I needed something else to do anyway, sleep is
highly over-rated.  Currently I'm digging my way through Pounds' _An
Economic History of Medieval Europe_ and, based on previous research and
what I'm getting from this particular work I would rather think you need to
refine your question.  Yes, currency did exist, has for millennia in the
form of coinage.  Was it common though?  Hmmm... not particularly, and here
we get into another of the great SCAdian arguements.  We're all supposed to
be Nobles in theory, so we would commonly have currency.  Would the
commonality commonly (yes, I'm working on a half cup of coffee here!) have
currency?  Not neccessarily.  Depends on where and when your talking, but
the odds of Odo the ploughman ever having a coin of his very own,
particularly in the Feudal era, are pretty long.  Think barter.  Spices were
used for barter/trade, yes.  So in that respect they were 'currency.'  Have
I found any evidence that in any given place and time spices had specific
defined value for use in trade such as metal and inked paper now do?  No I
have not.  Now I'm off to the IV caffeine drip. 

Feeling like the dog Lycos, Puck