Jordan Tabov, Kliment Vasilev and Asen Velchev
Tabov@math.bas.bg, asen_v@abv.bg
MATHEMATICAL MODELLING OF MONETARY MINTING IN MEDIAEVAL BULGARIA
Abstract. The article presents an approach to “measuring” the dynamics of monetary circulation in mediaeval Bulgaria, considering archaeological finds of both Bulgarian and foreign coins in our country. We construct appropriate functions, presenting the dynamics of monetary circulation during the 13th and the 14th centuries. We use а spreadsheet program such as Microsoft Excel to construct the functions and their graphs, which illustrate the latter one. As a data source we use a comprehensive historian’s article on archaeological finds of coins in Bulgaria. There are a lot of coin finds, dated during the 13th and the 14th centuries. Therefore the historians consider that during the 13th and the 14th centuries the trade in Bulgaria was well developed. This is obvious, but using mathematical methods one can go further. We use a principle, which historians apply and which can be formulated as follows: more coin finds to a period, more coins in circulation were during this period. We believe our methods can help the historical research by presenting all the data about coin finds on a single graph. Thus it becomes possible to specify the periods (decades) of economic growth and decline. Further the investigators of our past can combine the visual picture obtained by our method with other information and reasoning.
Keywords: monetary circulation, Microsoft Excel, volume function