The History of Currency, 1252 to 1896 Part 33

Misnian gulden @ 31 groschen (= 78-2/3 kr.) Franconian gulden @ 20 batzen (= 80 kr.) Kammer-Gerichts gulden = 78 kr. 2-10/23 thalers.

In 1623 the Higher Circles adopted by their Mint determination the following system:--

Thaler = 90 kr.

Gold gulden = 1 fl. 44 kr.

Ducat = 2 fl. 20 "

In the smaller pieces the basis was the mark of fine silver = 16-florin = 10-2/3 thaler.

For example--

1/2-Batzen, 7 loth fine, 210 to the mark.

Kreutzer, 5 " 300 "

3-h.e.l.ler piece, 3-1/2 " 560 "

Pfennige, 3 " 720 "

To this system the Lower Circles acceded, in the same year 1623, after an ineffectual attempt to enforce the interim standard of 1596, which had set the Reichs thaler at 21 batzen or 84 kreutzers.

From this united action of the Upper and Lower Circles Saxony stood apart, following quite a different course. While elsewhere the thaler was raised, here they lowered it to its old equivalence of 24 groschen.

In actual practice, however, the step proved only half effective, as the depreciated thaler was persistently minted. There resulted accordingly, in Saxony, a double system of "good" and "bad" money, with a difference of something like 25 per cent. between them. To increase the confusion there was for a time a difference between the practice of Lower Saxony and Electoral Saxony. The former, Lower Saxony, had in 1610 adopted the following system:--

Reichs thaler = 28 groschen.

Reichs gulden thaler of 1559 = 24 "

Philipps thaler = 30-2/3 "

Silver groschen, = 234 to the mark, 14 loth, 4 grs. fine.

" schillingen, 306 "

(So that the mark of fine silver = 12 fl. 9 kr.)

Finding it impossible to maintain this system, they altered it in 1617, and finally in 1622 conformed with Higher Saxony, setting the Reichs thaler at 24 silver groschens.

As settled in this and the following year, the system of Electoral and Lower Saxony was as follows:--

Reichs thaler = 24 gulden groschen.

Gulden thaler of 1559 = 21 "

Philipps thaler and gold gulden = 30 "

Ducat = 36 "

Contemporaneously (1623), the Brandenburg system was as follows:--

Reichs thaler = 24 good groschen.

Gold gulden = 27 "

Ducat = 38 "

Through the remaining period of the Thirty Years' War very little is on record with regard to the German Mint system. The closing period of the strife was marked by such complaints as to excess of depreciated small specie as had prevailed in 1620, bringing with it a further enhancement of the price of the larger silver specie. In 1665, accordingly, the three Higher Circles, Franconia, Bavaria, and Swabia met together. They found on a trial that the mark of fine silver was selling commercially at from 14 florins 15 kreutzers to 14 florins 20 kreutzers, and that it was impossible to mint the larger silver specie unless the Reichs thaler were set at 96 kreutzers. This would raise the mark of fine silver to 14 florins 24 kreutzers. At the same time it was resolved to declare the ducat at 3 florins (mark of fine gold = 203 florins 49 kreutzers, 3-31/71 pfennige), the ratio being accordingly changed from 15 to 14-1/8.

In 1667 this scheme was provisionally adopted _in comitiis_. From this scheme Saxony and Brandenburg held off, maintaining that the advance of the Reichs thaler was not sufficient. They accordingly, in the same year, adopted the so-called _Zinnaische_ standard, setting the Reichs thaler at 1 florin 45 kreutzers (105 kreutzers), equal to 18 good groschens (mark of fine silver = 10-1/2 thalers, or 15 florins 45 kreutzers).

The enactment of this system gave rise to a new species of heavy silver coins:--

Guldener = 2/3 thaler.

" = 60 kr.

" = 16 good groschen.

" = 32 schillingen.

Two years later, 1669, the three Higher Circles determined, as a measure of protection to their gold, to alter the ratio, and for that purpose to reduce the thaler from 96 to 90 kreutzers again, while leaving the ducat = 3 florins, and the gold gulden = 2 florins 20 kreutzers.

The mark of fine silver was thus = 3 fl. 30 kr.

" gold " = 204 "

(Ratio = 15-1/9.)

The divisional coins were to be minted on a graduated and enhanced standard. Thus--

6-kr. and 4-kr. pieces (Batzen), at 13 fl. 55 kr. to the mark fine.

Groschen (3 kr.) at 14 fl. 10 " "

Kreutzer at 14 fl. 40 " "

Pfennige (3760 to the mark fine), at 15 fl. 43 " "

There were thus three contemporary systems in Germany in 1670--

1. Reichs thaler, at 90 kr., mark of fine silver at 13 fl. 30 kr.

2. " at 96 " " at 14 fl. 24 "

3. " at 105 " " at 15 fl. 45 "

The three Upper Circles, however, could not maintain their last enacted order. In spite of its enactment, the Reichs thaler rose again to 96 kreutzers, and the ducat to 3 florins 12 kreutzers.

The confusion and general harm which resulted has been referred to in the text (p. 199), and it is to be regarded simply as a stop-gap at any cost that the measure proposed by the Three Circles of fixing the thaler at 90 kreutzers was carried through the Reichstag of 1680.

From this system, however, the Emperor, with Bavaria and Salzburg, stood apart, putting the Reichs thaler at 96 kreutzers; and ten years later, 1690, Saxony, Brandenburg, and Brunswick and Luneburg established again a distinct system--the well-known Leipzig standard.

By this system the Reichs thaler was set at 120 kreutzers or 2 florins (mark of fine silver = 12 thalers 18 gulden).

In a few years this valuation of the thaler prevailed all over the Empire. Sweden acceded to it in 1690, with Bremen and Pomerania, Mainz, Treves, the Palatinate, and Frankfort, and three years later the Higher Circles followed suite. Contemporaneously the gold gulden was advanced to 2 florins 56 kreutzers.

Although the Emperor subsequently joined in the recognition of the Leipzig standard, it did not remain effective in actual practice, and while no further advance of the thaler was officially recognised, the lower denominations were again depreciated by the Mint compet.i.tion of the various states, 10-kreutzer pieces being minted on a standard of 20-1/3 to 21-1/3 gulden to the mark fine. In 1736 the question of a standard was again brought before the Reichstag; and on the 10th September 1738 it was resolved to adopt the Leipzig standard for the Empire, with the Reichs thaler = 2 florins, ducat = 4 florins, gold gulden = 3 florins; while, for the divisional coins, a basis of fine mark silver = 13-2/3 thaler was enacted.

This system, if it endured at all, did so only for a couple of years.

The outbreak of the war of the Austrian Succession brought with it a new period of conflicting depreciations, and at the close Austria took a decisive step. Without taking any measure to secure the co-operation of the Circles, or any part of the Empire, the Emperor Francis I. adopted the 20-gulden standard (the mark of fine silver = 13-1/3 Reichs thalers = 20 guldens). It was at once adopted in Hungary and Bohemia, the territories of Maria Theresa.

Frederick Augustus, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, was the first to adopt this Austrian standard, at Dresden in 1750, though with a very slight variation (putting the mark of fine silver at 13-3/8 Reichs thalers instead of 13-1/3). In 1753 Bavaria also acceded to the 20-gulden standard, after a brief attempt (1747-1753) at the erection of a 24-gulden standard, and in the following year the Austrian system was adopted by Brandenburg-Ans.p.a.ch, Bayreuth, Wurzburg, and Nurnberg.

The Convention of Vienna (21st September 1753) which formally established this Austrian or Convention standard (20-gulden system), prescribed as follows:--

1. Gold--

Mark of fine gold = 283 fl. 5 kr. 4-47/74 pf. Chief coin = Reichs ducat, 67 to the mark (Cologne mark), 23 kr. 8 grs. fine (= 67-67/71 to the mark of fine gold), to = 4 fl. 10 kr.; the Holland and other ducats then current in Germany being tariffed at 4 fl.

7-1/2 kr.

2. Silver--