Money in Kind? Dealing with monteary and in-kind values in the pre-industrial era

Monetary exchange alone was hardly at the base of any pre-industrial economy. What dominated were different combinations of exchange which included goods for goods, credit relations and payment in coin, in kind, or in services. Furthermore, there was board and lodging as part of wages and contracts, or supplementation and subsistence of food and clothing via domestic labour, gardening, and agriculture, i. e. added value.

This poses a series of methodical challenges to historians interested in living standards, income, and costs in pre-industrial and, to a lesser degree, also in industrial societies. How can assets and transactions in kind be integrated in money-based calculations? What can be done to account for variations in the quality of certain goods? How should we deal with price information of questionable quality, with contemporary conversion rates and estimations on unclear bases? Which approaches are suitable to include goods and services – e. g. board and lodging – for which no information on their market value is preserved? How can we account for the common divergence between the devaluation of money and the stability or even rise in the price of goods? In short: How can non-monetary values, incomes and costs be included in our analyses under these circumstances?

Contributing to a common discussion on the handling of money, natural goods, and services in the pre-industrial societies, to identify problems and to develop possible solutions is the aim of this workshop organised by Michael Adelsberger (Vienna), Lena Liznersky (Speyer), Lienhard Thaler (Vienna) and Verena Weller (Mannheim/Genoa) and hosted by Klosterneuburg Abbey.

Programme

Day I: Thursday, 25 September 2025

12:45: Arrival & Welcome

13:00–14:00: Keynote I
Mark Bailey (University of East Anglia):
The transition from rents in kind and labour to cash rents in fourteenth-century England: a
general overview, and a case study of Brandon (Suffolk)

14:00–16:00: Session I
Chair: Verena Weller (University of Genoa/University of Mannheim)

14:00–14:45: Vid Žepič (University of Ljubljana):
Hoc sit clementia clara legis. In-kind repayment in the Law of Justinian and the Ius Commune

14:45–15.15: Coffee break

15:15–16:00: Klaus Lohrmann (University of Vienna):
Payment methods in the trade in goods and in the collection of fees by provincial authorities in
the 12th and early 13th century

16:00–18:00: Session II
Chair: Lienhard Thaler (University of Vienna)

16:00–16:45: Astrid Wendel-Hansen (Talinn University):
Alternative currencies and the everyday economy in the Swedish Baltic Empire (1600–1700)

16:45–17:15: Coffee break

17:15–18:00: Gabi Wüthrich (University of Zurich):
„Mittelpreistabellen“. A modern means for monetisation?

18:30: Conference Dinner

Day II: Friday, 26 September 2025

09:00–10:00: Anna Vierlinger (IMAREAL)/Herbert Krammer (ÖAW):
„Jenseitsökonomie“ and the digitization of a monastery’s account books – Exploring
Klosterneuburg Abbey’s economic archives

10:00–10:30: Coffee break

10:30–12:00: Session III
Chair: Lena Liznerski (University of Mannheim)

10:30–11:15: Erich Landsteiner (University of Vienna):
Sharing in kind? The puzzle of sharecropping in Lower Austrian viticulture (14th–16th centuries)

11:15–12:00: Florian Andretsch (University of Vienna):
How to convert eggs into real estate prices. Conventions of evaluating seigneural property
among Upper Austrian great landowners (16th to early 17th centuries)

12:00–13:00: Lunch

13:00–15:00: Session IV
Chair: Michael Adelsberger (University of Vienna)

13:00–13:45: Vincent Delabastita (Radboud University)/Greg Salter (London School of Economics):
In-kind wages and labour markets in medieval England

13:45–14:15: Coffee break

14:15–15:00: Riina Turunen (University of Jyväskylä):
Women’s work and wages in Finland, 1600–1920. The challenge of monetizing in-kind
compensation

15:00–16:00: Keynote II
Elise M. Dermineur (Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin/Stockholm University):
Reckoning Value: Money, Conversion, and the Moral Economies of the Preindustrial Past

16:00–16:30: General Discussion

Workshop Venue: Quartier 1114, Room: Sambucus Albrechtsbergergasse 1, 3400 Klosterneuburg

Please register with Lienhard Thaler (lienhard.thaler@univie.ac.at) by 21 September 2025