Why and How Did Silver Dominate across Eurasia Late-13th through Mid-14th Century? Historical Backgrounds of the Silver Bars Unearthed from Orheiul Vechi

New numismatics findings, in association with existing knowledge on coins in medieval Central and West Asia, strengthen the hypothesis that a large quantity of silver ingots of Chinese origin reached the western half of Eurasia, as far as London, around 1280, 1300 and 1350. The three peaks of silver issuance in London coincide with the establishment or resumption of sending tributes from the appanages, touxia 投下, in proper China allotted to western Mongolian Khanates. Numismatics evidences from Transoxania and Iran show that after the1270s silvers of high fineness substituted coins of billon and silver-coated copper. The forms and weights of 65 silver bars unearthed from the remains (1340-1360) at Orheiul Vechi, Moldavia, strongly suggest that the tributes of silver from the appanages in China surely reached the fortress of the Kipchap Khanate. The Mongolian regime did not seriously affect the lower level markets, but its empire-wide tribute transfers with a unified system of measurement happened to build a commensurability in distant exchanges, and subsequently invited a series of global transformations of entire exchange systems in later period.