QUESTION TEXT: Numismatist: In medieval Spain, most gold coins…
QUESTION TYPE: Paradox
PARADOX: Merchants often insisted on Senegalese gold before they would talk about price.
ANALYSIS: This is a continuation of the previous question. We don’t know much about the commercial value of gold, or anything about merchants.
So we just need a plausible reason for why merchants would prefer Senegalese coins.
___________
- CORRECT. This shows that only Senegalese coins were trustworthy enough to be used as a basis for payment. (Presumably, once the amount was set, payment could take another form. Senegalese gold was just used to set prices with exactness)
- This information about silver deepens the mystery. If merchants often insisted on Senegalese gold, why were most transactions in silver?
- Could merchants determine the purity of coins? Merchants aren’t mints, so I’m not sure what this tells us.
- If merchants took payment in various kinds of gold, this doesn’t explain why they negotiated in Senegalese gold.
- So? Senegalese gold wasn’t refined, so it’s not clear why merchants would want it for jewelry.
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