The History oť the Right of Coinage in Moravia

In connection with the research in the field of currency relations in Moravia it was necessary to examine also some legal aspects of the problem, among which the most important is the rise and development of the right of coinage. This paper is a modest contribution to this part of the research trying to cover available knowledge of the problem and at the same time reshape some of the opinions shared by specialized literature so far. Already in the beginning it is necessary to say that the view of the paper is purely that of a law historian and the essay is written primarily to satisfy numismatic needs. Therefore the layout of the paper is law historian, not numismatic.

To come up with final conclusions on the problem is rather difficult, as Moravian history research is still at the beginning. Thus a number of problems from the feudal period of Moravian history have not been conlusively resolved so far despite the fact that the problems concerned are often of fundamental nature (including e.g. the position of Moravian crown lands, the state law position of Moravia after 1182 etc.), though it seems necessary to proceed from these facts in considering the right of coinage. For this reason the paper should be seen only as an opening essay to the several parts of which we will have to return in the future, perhaps reconsidering our current ideas under the influence of the conclusions of the general research in the field of the history of feudal Moravia.