The Evolution of Small Change
Thomas J. Sargent, François Velde
Western Europe was plagued with currency shortages from the 14th to the 19th century, at which time a “standard formula” had been devised to cure the problem. The authors document the evolution of monetary theory, policy experiments and minting technology over the course of six hundred years. In a companion paper, they use a cash-in-advance model of commodity money to provide an analytical framework for the problem of small change.
