The beginnings of striking bracteates in Bohemia

A whole range of internal and external factors conditioned the economic growth of 13th–century Central Europe. Mining, coinage, and the metal trade had a multiplying effect on the economy during the later middle ages. New settlers were interested increasingly in Bohemia and Hungary not only seeking free arable land but also due to the opening of new silver and gold mines. Foreign prospectors, mining entrepreneurs, and financiers took technical innovations in various fields of life with them, including the Law of Emphyteusis (adopted from Roman law), which made it possible to convert agricultural products into money through paying rent. The general dissemination of fixed money rent made it possible to transform payment-in-kind into a monetary system.