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MONETARY HISTORY OF KIEV IN THE PRE-MONGOL PERIOD 407The great monetary wealth of Kiev from ca. 1100 to 1240 raises severalimportant questions. Not all can be explored here, but two important issuescan be broached. First, how do we explain the huge concentration of monetarywealth connected with Kiev in the century and a half before theMongol conquest? Did Kiev at this time import silver to balance its domesticand international trade? Or was the accumulation of monetary wealththe product of Kiev's political and religious position, i.e., was this wealthproduced by taxes, loot, gifts, the revenue from estates, contributions, andother sources not connected with Kiev's trade? Were precious metalsimported into Kiev to satisfy the demands of the city's jewelers and theirrich patrons?Second, what was the source of the silver used to cast hundreds ofingots? One is tempted to speculate that the paucity of deniers from Kievand a smaller number of dirhams than might be expected is explained by themelting down of these coins to provide the raw material for ingots. In addition,the casting of large numbers of silver ingots in Kiev and other southerncenters might represent, in part, an influx of new silver obtained from theNovgorod lands, silver which Novgorod had originally obtained from theBaltic in the form of ingots. 110 This alternative brings us back to the tradeissue, and suggests that Novgorod and the north of Rus' might have had tobalance their trade with Kiev by the payment of silver ingots. Specifically,silver and furs from northern Rus' may well have paid for imports of Kiev'smanufactured goods and Black Sea wine shipped via Kiev.These and related questions indicate that the monetary history of Kiev inthe century and a half before the Mongol conquest was complex indeed.Kiev at this time was a very wealthy city with an active external trade, adynamic domestic economy, and considerable political and ecclesiasticalpower. Kiev's monetary wealth reflects this period of prosperity, if onlyimperfectly.ConclusionThe analysis here of the five types of monetary wealth found in pre-MongolKiev indicates that three types of metallic wealth—Byzantine coins, WestEuropean deniers, and Rus' coins—had only a negligible role. These coinscan thus be discounted in the examination of Kiev's monetary history.Consequently, the real question is, what do the hoards of dirhams and findsof ingots tell us about this history?110Potin, Drevniaia Rus', pp. 83-92.