since the service in return was never valued in monetary terms, even though the gift’s value was expressed in terms of money. When the medieval people carried out their land transactions, we know that the parties very often knew one another; either through near or removed relations, relatives through marriage or through people or institutions that they were acquainted with. This fact has, as I mentioned before, been interpreted by previous researchers as having a restricting effect on the existence of a commercial market. Although the earlier research is correct in that many on the medieval markets did in fact actually know the other party, researchers in recent years have found examples from all over Europe in which the valuation of land occurred on an impersonal level, and that land was paid for according to a stipulated price set by an independent person or authority.These impersonal incentives have been taken by researchers in the 21st Century (including myself) as the basis from which to once more study the medieval markets in order to gain an understanding about the areas within which one could say that the participants of the markets were not only influenced by personal bonds but also affected by more or less commercial market relations, in which the personal bond was set aside. The exchange has traditionally been regarded as a transaction form that is part of a non-commercial economy, but even with regard to this form of transaction, the European researchers have highlighted and called attention to the fact that the land that was exchanged was valued by an independent authority in the medieval society; in my case by the District Court. In Chapter Four, I analyse how the difference in connection with unequal land exchanges was expressed and how this difference was paid over time. I have come to the conclusion that the value of the exchange was always appraised, in both of the investigated regions, but that in Finnveden, one paid the difference much earlier in money. In Jämtland, one paid much longer with commodities. l e g a l a c q u i s i t i o n , l a n d m a r k e t s a n d m o n e t i s at i o n 276
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