Images

An example of the assignat banknote for 400 livres, issued in 1792 during the French Revolution. From the National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian Institution. Image by Godot13.

A c. 1930 photograph showing the use of horses to thresh grain across a threshing floor.

A c. 1900 photograph showing Lebanese agriculturalists engaged in the ancient process of winnowing grain. (Matson Collection, Library of Congress)

A traditional flat threshing floor.

A panoramic view of Potosí, Bolivia, location of the richest silver mine in the Spanish empire during the 16th-18th centuries.

This artist's illustration shows Bantu farmers using slash-and-burn agriculture to clear arable land. Created by Amplitude Studios for the video game Humankind.

A hammered silver nose ornament from Mesoamerica. Colima or Mixtec, 12-14th century. (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)

A silver beaker in the form of a hunchback figure. Chimu civilization, Peru, 14-15th century. (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)

The 1685 Edict of Fontainebleau, aka Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1598), a document created during the reign of Louis XIV of France which permitted the persecution of French Protestants. (French National archive, Paris)

A c. 1700 portrait by Hyacinthe Rigaud of Louis XIV of France (r. 1643-1715). (Louvre Museum, Paris)