500 MUNRO— THE COST OF LIVING [April 20, 



for so many fowls, eggs, ducks, hogs, oxen, etc., or so much beer, 

 wool, corn or other grain. But this practice had not wholly gone 

 out under Henry II., in spite of the statement of the author of the' 

 " Dialogus." In the Pipe Roll of 1181-82, for instance, there is the 

 record of the payment by Cheshire of forty cows in addition to their 

 money dues. On the whole, however, all through western Europe 

 payments in money were superseding payments in kind, and this was 

 due mainly to the increase in the amount of the circulating medium. 



Large numbers of coins were brought home from the East. In 

 the Scandinavian lands it is said that more than 25,000 Arabic coins 

 have been dug up in recent times. In the literature of the twelfth 

 century, Arabian gold is very frequently referred to and is contrasted 

 with the lighter-colored gold of the West. At the capture of Csesa- 

 rea in iioi (when the pepper was obtained) the Genoese secured 

 over 400,000 solidi of Poitou, and they received only one third of 

 the booty. The crusaders were always keen for gold. Whenever 

 they won a victory they sought anxiously for the precious metals ; 

 frequently they cut open the bodies of the slain enemies, because 

 they believed the latter had swallowed their coins ; sometimes they 

 made great heaps of the bodies and burned them in order to obtain 

 the gold which had been secreted. Many similar facts might be 

 cited which would illustrate the enrichment of the West by the coins 

 brought in from the East. 



Far more important, probably, was the coinage and use of the 

 precious metals which had previously been hoarded, especially in 

 ornaments and works of art. Until about the close of the eleventh 

 century, there had been comparatively little occasion for a large 

 stock of ready money, but when the crusaders made their prepara- 

 tions for their long expeditions they needed large sums of money, 

 both for their equipment and for their journey. Even the partici- 

 l)ants in the so-called Peasants' Crusade took enough luoney with 

 them to ])ay all the expenses for several months, when they marched 

 under the leadership of Walter the Penniless and Peter the Hermit. 

 Because of the demand for coins, the mints of the West were very 

 active in the twelfth century, lender Henry I. of England. 94 

 minters were busy. In 1125 all the <J4 were called up for ])unish- 



