Are there any historical examples of market currencies not being interfered with by government at all? Any good articles written on this subject?
"It is my impression that, during the Middle Ages in feudal Europe, sound money was fairly prevalent. Merchant trade was largely self-regulating which meant that any individual sovereign would have faced a huge hurdle in trying to manipulate money. There were some powerful monarchs - including the Pope - but nobody really had control of Europe, as a whole. Good luck debasing money over a territory which you do not control.
Clayton -"
Actually, inflations were far from uncommon in the old times and the tool of choice to finance wars, besides debts and taxes, which were rarely easy to get. A king would rule over his land, where his coins could be imposed on the population - a prime target for inflation. The more skilled rulers could even inflate in territories they did not control (see Frederick the Great and the Seven Year War).
Mises Wiki | Economic Resources and Books (search engine)
jmorris84: Twas simply the wrong Google language :P
Here's a simplified URL: http://books.google.com/books?id=ihcOAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover
The Byzantine nomisma was remarkable for its stability: for over two centuries and a half it carried exactly the same weight in gold and could always purchase the same quantity of flour except, of course, during serious famines. It was finally debased in 1077 by Michael VII Ducas, nicknamed Parapinaces ("minus one quarter") for reasons that are very easy to understand.
One of the first measures taken by Alexius I Comnenos when he took power in 1081 was to return the nomisma to its old content in gold.
Mind that this monetary politics was all aimed at increasing tax revenues: ever since the days of Leo the Wise there were only two ways to pay taxes in the Empire. By military service or by gold coins. That's why Byzantium, even in its darkest hours, always seemed to possess an amount of gold to bribe enemies or hire mercenaries that no Frankish Emperor or Muslim Sultan could even dream of.