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408 THOMAS S. NOONANAmong monetary historians there are several approaches to the depositingof hoards of coins and metal ingots as well as large numbers of separatefinds. Perhaps the best known approach views such hoards as a product ofactive trade: lacking anything like banks, merchants and others connectedwith trade supposedly buried their working capital and/or profits for safekeeping.An alternative approach sees hoarding as the consequence of disturbedconditions: during troubled times people allegedly hid their wealth inthe ground. Finally, a quite different approach holds that hoarding was asign of a backward or less developed economy. In regions with a highlydeveloped economy, metallic wealth ostensibly circulated; it was buriedonly in those areas where it could not be employed profitably.I do not believe any one approach is valid for all parts of western Eurasiaat all times during the medieval era. In fact, all three approaches canilluminate aspects of Kiev's monetary history in the pre-Mongol era. Writtenevidence as well as a constantly growing accumulation of archaeologicaldata leave no doubt that Kiev had a very active foreign and domestictrade during the century and a half before the Mongol conquest. 111 Themassive amount of silver expressed in ingots, the vast majority of whichwere cast during the twelfth and first half of the thirteenth century, isunquestionably connected with that trade. However, Kiev's craftsmen alsorequired silver for their uses, and the city's secular and ecclesiastical rulerssought after tangible, worldly wealth. Thus, the monetary wealth unearthedin Kiev and vicinity is far more than an indicator of the city's lively commerce.At the same time, the large number of rich treasure hoards as well asingots deposited in Kiev between the 1170s and 1240 clearly reflects theimpact of the Mongol conquest. Were it not for the Mongols, much of thistangible wealth would have been buried at another time and/or place. Butthere would have been no concentration of great wealth in Kiev to hidefrom Batu's forces if Kiev had not been a major political, economic, andreligious center.Finally, it is striking that Kiev's craft production experienced its "takeoff"during the eleventh century. 112 The amount of metallic, silver wealth'" This commerce was discussed in my paper "The Flourishing of Kiev's International andDomestic Trade, ca. 1100- 1240," presented at the Third Conference on the Ukrainian Economy,October 1985; the conference papers are being published by the Ukrainian Research Instituteof Harvard University.112The development of Kiev's craft production during the eleventh century was discussed inmy paper on "The Transformation of Kiev into a Major European Commercial and IndustrialCenter During the Pre-Mongol Era," presented at the convention of the American Associationfor the Advancement of Slavic Studies, November 1986.