Today everyone is commonly using year's numbers to talk about them, but were people in the past (mostly late medieval, early Renaissance) also using numbers in day to day talking or did it in different way?
In England it would be common to refer to x year of (current monarch name) reign, and we see this reflected in chronicles as well as specialist documents such as law reports.
I have to confess, what I don't know is how, say, an English and French merchant would agree a date with each other. My speculation is that they would then use common dates, but that these would be religious dates rather than day/month/year dates as we know them. Ie the agreement would be for goods to be delivered by "Michaelmas" , rather than "29 September".
edit Out of curiously, I have just double checked some of the letters monarchs sent each other in England in the Tudor period. Letters from the (then) Princess Elizabeth to Queen Mary, and from Elizabeth I to Mary QofS all use modern dating (ie 20 November 2022) near the heading