The History of Currency, 1252 to 1896 Part 6

Spain.

The currency history of Spain up to the conquest of America is one long list of alterations in the coinage, and of pet.i.tions from merchants and various Cortes for or against changes in the rating of the coins. The _oro gran modulo_ was rated at 100 pesetas, under Alfonso XI. of Castile, 1312-50, and at 1000 under his successor, Peter the Cruel, 1350-69. The _oro dobla Castellana_ was rated at 60 pesetas under Henry II., 1369-74; at 40 under Henry the Crafty, 1390-1406; and at 100 under John II., 1406-54. In the case of this country the troubles in the fourteenth century arose from the proximity of France, the circulation of lower-rated French coins, and the consequent depletion of the treasure of the kingdom. In Aragon, for instance, the charter of Peter IV. in 1346 had ordered the coining of gold after the same weight and fineness as of the florin of Florence. It was found too high, and three years later he was obliged to cancel it by another proclamation, ordering his own gold coins to be made of the same weight and fineness as the _ecus_ of the French kings. The close of his reign and the early part of that of his successor witnessed acute crisis and distress, which led to Henry II.'s celebrated reduction of the coinage at the Cortes of Medina del Campo in 1371.

In 1391-93 another general proclamation was issued, ordering a reduction of the value of the monies and fixing new rules of exchange, and this was followed by one in 1398, prohibiting the circulation of foreign coins in Spain, except at bullion value. This latter was a common device, as will be seen in the case of our own country. It proved ineffectual to prevent the outflow of the metals, and when re-enacted in 1413 was found to be of as little avail. The Cortes of 1442 (Valladolid) complained bitterly, in a pet.i.tion, of the money drawn away from the realm by foreign merchants, and in the same year a fresh ordinance was issued to readjust the values of the native monies to the foreign coins.

In this schedule, _doblas de la Banda_ were rated at 100 _maravedis_, and the _florin d'oro d'Aragon_ at 65 _maravedis_. In 1473, only thirty or so years later, by the charter of Henry IV., issued at Segovia, these coins were rated at 300 and 200 _maravedis_ respectively. It was only with the advent of the Catholic sovereigns that the internal disorder and want of unity of the Spanish system was effectually remedied, in the very hour of that discovery of a new world which was to put upon Spain the vital function of distributing the new stores of precious metals (see account of Spanish monies, Appendix III.).

Germany.

The movements of the precious metals in Germany--which, as far as the ratio of the two metals is concerned, may be held to include the Netherlands up to 1552, when Flanders withdrew from the monetary system of the Holy Roman Empire--is a record of exactly the same process of natural and gradual appreciation of the _metal_ (i.e. depreciation of the weight and fineness of the _coin_) as in Spain, France, and England.

In the accompanying tables the movement of silver is ill.u.s.trated by means of the groschen, and that of gold by the Rhenish gulden. These coins, it need hardly be said, were not unit coins, nor sole prevailing.

They are chosen from the bewildering variety with which the numerous independent Mints of Germany have succeeded in perplexing posterity, as being of relatively greater repute and wider acceptance, and because it is a simply impossible task to combine all the denominations of these coins, in order to deduce an average.

Up to 1375 the German gold coin was minted in close imitation of the Florentine florin. The weight was 53 grs., as was that of the Florentine piece; and the lily and St. John, the guardian saint of Florence, were both employed in the two coins, the German piece being indeed issued at first under the denomination, _Florin d'or_.

From the above-named date, however, and onwards, each succeeding and various power altered type, weight, or alloy, with more or less arbitrariness, but always to the increasing of the confusion of the system as a whole. And it was to remedy this confusion, or to reduce it somewhat, that the monetary union of the four electoral princes of the Rhine was established (8th June 1386), under the lead of the three towns, Frankfort, Speyer, and Worms; under which the four princes, Frederick, Archbishop of Cologne, Carl, Archbishop of Treves, Adolf, Archbishop of Mainz, and Rupert, Count Palatine of the Rhine, agreed upon a common minting of gold gulden. According to the treaty, 66 such gulden were to be minted from the Cologne mark of gold, each of the alloy of 22 carats 6 grs. gold, and 1 carat 6 grs. silver. In 1402 this coinage was confirmed at Mainz by the Mint edict of Rupert II.[4]

Seven years later, 1409, the three spiritual electors, Frederick, Archbishop of Cologne, John, Archbishop of Mainz, and Werner, Archbishop of Treves, made a new and slightly different treaty, for the purpose of again reducing the alloy of the gulden from 22-1/2 to 22 carats.

At this rate the system was, in the same year, at Speyer, formally accepted for themselves by the Netherlands, and at Cologne also, in 1409, by the Empire generally.

The detailed and various changes which the independent princes and powers of Germany subsequently made, it is out of the question to follow. To instance only in brief. In 1419 Frederick of Brandenburg ordered the coining of gulden for his own states, at the rate of 64-1/2 to the Cologne mark, and of the fineness of 19 carats--a very considerable reduction in the metal value of the coin. In 1422, only three years later, Sigismund was coining gulden 66-1/2 to the mark and 22 carats 6 grs. fine--a value somewhat higher than that accepted for the empire in 1409. In 1428-29, accordingly, the Emperor Sigismund issued an imperial order, which was formally adopted by the Reichstag meeting at Eger (1437) and Nurnberg (1438), by which the Cologne mark was to be coined into 68 gulden and the fineness reduced to 19 carats.

Four years later, 1442, the Emperor Frederick IV. projected a further reform and reduction, proposing to coin 72 pieces of 19 carats fine, but this was not carried into effect, probably as exaggerating the average depreciation of the content of the coin (or appreciation of the metal).

The rate, therefore, established by Sigismund practically remained in force for a matter of sixty years.

In the diet of 1495-97 (at Worms), however, a further slight reduction in weight and fineness took place, 69-1/3 pieces being struck out of the Cologne mark, and the fineness lowered to 18 carats 10 grs.

On the whole, therefore, the movement of gold during these two centuries is remarkably sluggish in Germany, putting aside, i.e., the internal variations between state and state; and remarkably corresponding to, and confirmatory of, that in England. And in all probability the mean of the quant.i.ties in the two countries would aptly measure the perfectly natural or normal appreciation of gold (depreciation of the content of fine metal in the current gold coin) throughout the period.

The movement of silver during the same two hundred years, 1300-1500, is much more excited, but shows an average or mean appreciation that tallies remarkably with that of gold just described, as also with that of silver in England. The various denominations of silver coins which arose in Germany, in those years, make it a work of extreme difficulty even to attempt averages. In the accompanying tables, therefore, the groschen is taken as most fairly averaging and widely current in the empire. In its first form, the _Gros Tournois_, struck at Tours, in France, this coin contained 55-1/10 parts of a Cologne mark, and was of the fineness of 15 loth 6 grs. In 1296, when it was first adopted in Germany (in Bohemia, and Meissen), 63-1/2 pieces were struck from the mark, and the fineness had been reduced to 15 loth. Its subsequent variations, up to the time of the discovery of America, are detailed in the accompanying table and in Appendix No. V., the princ.i.p.al points in which are marked by the years 1341, 1378 (a notable attempt at reformation by Charles IV. and Wenceslaus), 1390, 1412, and 1444 (marking also an attempt at reformation by treaty between the Duke of Saxony and the Margrave of Meissen).

MOVEMENTS OF SILVER IN GERMANY, 1300-1500, AS ILl.u.s.tRATED BY THE GROSCHEN.

+----------+-----------+---------+--------------------+ | |The Cologne| Of Alloy| Equivalent Value | | | Mark | |(as expressed in the| | Date. |coined into| |20-Florin Standard).| | +-----------+---------+----------+---------+ | | Pieces. |Loth. Qr.|Kreutzers.|Pfennige.| +----------+-----------+---------+----------+---------+ | 1226 | 55-1/10 | 5 6 | 21 |0-216/551| | (Gros | | | | | | Tournois | | | | | |of France)| | | | | | 1296 | 63-1/2 | 15 0 | 17 |2-110/127| | 1309 | 63-1/2 | 14 0 | 16 |2-18/127 | | 1324 | 64-1/2 | 15 0 | 17 |1-33/48 | |(Meissen) | | | | | | 1341 | 78 | 10 0 | 9 |2-6/13 | | 1350 | 91 | 14 0 | 11 |2-14/91 | | 1364 | 74-1/2 | 9 0 | 9 |0-36/149 | | 1378 | 70 | 14 1 | 15 |1-1/14 | | 1380 | 72 | 13 0 | 13 |2-1/6 | | -- | 91 | 11 0 | 9 |0-24/91 | |(Meissen) | | | | | | 1390 | 85 | 10 0 | 8 |3-5/17 | | -- | 90 | 9 0 | 7 |2 | |(Meissen) | | | | | | 1407 | 72-40/131| 8 0 | 8 |1-57/296 | | 1412 | 82 | 4 0 | 3 |2-26/41 | | 1444 | 88 | 7 13 | 6 |2-43/132 | | -- | 160 | 16 0 | 7 |2 | | 1459 | 101 | 5 9 | 4 |0-34/101 | | 1470 | 100-20/307| 5 0 | 3 |2-507/512| | 1490 | 103 | 5 0 | 3 |2-58/103 | +----------+-----------+---------+----------+---------+

[Ill.u.s.tration: TABLE OF THE MOVEMENT OF GOLD & SILVER IN GERMANY 1300-1500.]

THE MOVEMENT OF GOLD IN GERMANY, 1300-1500, ILl.u.s.tRATED BY THE MOVEMENT OF THE GOLD GULDEN (RHEINISCHE GULDEN).

+-----------+------------+----------------+-----------------------------------+ | | Cologne | | Equivalent Value | | | Mark | Alloy. | (as expressed in the | | |coined into | | 20-Florin Standard). | | Date. | | | | | +------------+-------+--------+---------+-----------+-------------+ | | Pieces. |Carats.| Grains.| Florins.| Kreutzers.| Pfennige. | +-----------+------------+-------+--------+---------+-----------+-------------+ | 1252 | 44-3/8 | 24 | 0 | 6 | 22 |3-405/2911 | |(Florentine| | | | | | | | Florin). | | | | | | | | 1371 | 66 | 23 | 1 | 4 | 6 |2-434/781 | | 1386 | 66 | 22 | 6 | 4 | 1 |1-85/781 | | 1409 | 66 | 22 | 0 | 3 | 55 |3-517/781 | | 1419 | 64-1/2 | 19 | 0 | 3 | 28 |1-2851/3053 | | 1428 | 68 | 19 | 0 | 3 | 17 |3-18/1207 | | 1442 | 72 | 19 | 0 | 3 | 6 |3-14/213 | | 1477 | 69-1/3 | 18 | 10 | 3 | 3 |2-3104/15194 | +-----------+------------+-------+--------+---------+-----------+-------------+

FRANCE.

In France during this same period the ratio of gold to silver was changed in a single century more than a hundred and fifty times, and with a roughness that is quite inconceivable to the modern mind. To take a period of ten years for example:--

In 1303 the ratio was 10.26 " 1305 " 15.90 " 1308 " 14.46 " 1310 " 15.64 " 1311 " 19.55 " 1313 " 14.37

France presents the utmost difficulty to the student of metallic money during this earliest period, by reason of these violent and arbitrary alterations of the coinage. The extreme diversity of the coins, and the perpetual changing of the composition or alloy, make it almost impossible to estimate the fluctuations in the value of money in relation to goods, or gold in relation to silver. Apart from the international struggle for the precious metals, France was torn and ruined by the English invasions, and debas.e.m.e.nt after debas.e.m.e.nt of the coinage was resorted to as a means of raising money to continue the struggle. Such debas.e.m.e.nts mark the reign of Philip le Bel, 1285-1314, and of each succeeding king, from his days to the final ejection of the English invaders, and after. A single instance will serve to show their nature. In 1342 the mark of gold, which in a normal time just preceding was valued at 41 livres 13 sols, was proclaimed equal to 117 livres, and in 1360 the mark of silver, valued normally at 5 livres, rose to 102 livres.[5] It stands to reason that such abnormal movements must be neglected in any attempt to determine the course of such fluctuations in value of the metals, and the ratio of gold and silver, as arose naturally from the metallic and currency history of the time.

Eliminating, therefore, this element of forced and accidental debas.e.m.e.nts, due to political circ.u.mstance, the natural history, if it may be so styled, of the French coinage displays the same tendency to an appreciation of money metal which marks the history of the other European countries.

[Ill.u.s.tration: TABLE OF THE MOVEMENT OF GOLD & SILVER IN FRANCE, 1300-1500.]

TABLE OF THE MOVEMENTS OF THE COINAGE OF FRANCE, 1300-1500.[6]

+----------+--------------------+-------------------------------+ | | The Mark of Silver | The Mark of Gold | | | coined into | coined into | | Date. | | | | +-----------+--------+-----------+--------+----------+ | | Livres | Sols. | Livres | Sols. | Deniers. | | |(Tournois).| |(Tournois).| | | +----------+-----------+--------+-----------+--------+----------+ | 1309 | 2 | 19 | 44 | 0 | 0 | | (Philp | | | | | | | le Bel.)| | | | | | | 1315 | 2 | 14 | 45 | 0 | 0 | | 1343 | 3 | 4 | 43 | 6 | 8 | | 1350 | 5 | 5 | 53 | 18 | 9 | | 1361 | 5 | 0 | 60 | 0 | 0 | | 1381 | 5 | 8 | 60 | 10 | 0 | | 1422 | 7 | 0 | 76 | 5 | 0 | | 1427 | 8 | 0 | 72 | 0 | 0 | | 1429 | 7 | 0 | 77 | 10 | 0 | | 1446 | 7 | 10 | 88 | 2 | 6 | | 1456 | 8 | 10 | 100 | 0 | 0 | | 1473 | 10 | 0 | 110 | 0 | 0 | | 1475 | 10 | 0 | 118 | 10 | 0 | +----------+-----------+--------+-----------+--------+----------+

In this table each of the points or dates taken marks a period of return to good money after a period of debas.e.m.e.nt, and in the mind of the legislator such return to good money (_monnaie forte_) can only be construed as based on an estimated general or normal rate of monetary values, for each particular succeeding point of time. At every return to good money a proclamation was issued, expressing the determination of the administration to adhere to good money, as in the halcyon days of St. Louis, etc. etc., and fixing the rate at which the monies should be coined and current. By taking these points or dates of return to good money, therefore, we eliminate the arbitrary action of the Government in periods of debas.e.m.e.nt, and arrive at a net result showing the _natural_ movement of the metals.

The general trend of the table--or of the metals whose movements it portrays--is perceptible at a glance, and will, moreover, be found exactly similar to that of the cases of England and Germany below. On account of the arbitrary debas.e.m.e.nts by the Kings and of the numerous feudal coinages struck independently by the bishops and subsidiary lords, the question of the friction with which this process of metallic appreciation worked itself out cannot be so well ill.u.s.trated in the case of France as in that of England. But so much as this may be briefly indicated. In 1294 the scarcity of silver coinage was so great that a proclamation was put forth ordering silver to be brought to the Mint, and forbidding the export of the metals. In consequence of the futility of this ordinance, a further proclamation was issued in 1309, forbidding the circulation in France of English silver sterlings and gold florins of Florence, and crying down the exchange denomination of all other foreign coins. Similar proclamations were issued again and again--notably in 1328. But the complaints as to the depletion of the coin of the realm became much more serious in France after Edward III.

had inst.i.tuted his gold coin in 1344. There was henceforth a process of double friction--(1) as arising from the difference of the declared value of the French King's coin, as compared with foreign tariffs of coins; (2) as arising from the difference between the ratio of gold to silver in France and that prevailing in other countries.

[Sidenote: ALTERATION IN SILVER RATE]

In 1336 Philippe de Valois had fixed the ratio at 1:12, "the cause which moved us to this being that so our people who were in great privations and straits for money may more abundantly and quickly be filled again with money new and current." This was re-enacted in 1339, but proved quite inoperative to rule the market rate, and in 1346 Philippe found himself obliged to tolerate the advance which had been put upon the good monies in the market, by allowing provisionally the _chaise d'or_ to be current for 30 sols Tournois. Four years later the silver rate was altered by a proclamation conceived in these terms: "As the changers and merchants who are accustomed to bring bullion to our Mint have ceased, and do daily cease to do so, so that the working of our Mint is greatly impeded, to the great prejudice of our people if no remedy is applied, we therefore order that for each mark of silver brought to the Mint there shall be delivered out by the Mint another 8 sols Tournois in addition to the 112 sols Tournois fixed by law." The immediate consequence was a h.o.a.rding and disappearance of the gold coins, and in the following year, 1351, the tale of the _denier d'or aux fleurs de lis_ was altered from 50 to 54 to the mark.

There is here no question of an arbitrary debas.e.m.e.nt. It was simply an attempt to preserve the currency from the action of a changing market ratio, which led to the withdrawal now of the one, now of the other coins, and to the circulation meanwhile of foreign coins at a rate apparently disproportioned to the metallic content.[7] In 1361 evidence was given before the Mint authorities that "in payments the people do by abuse give foreign monies at a higher rate than they are worth, viz. the _moutons_ of Flanders and Brabant at a higher rate than the _franc d'or_, of which said _moutons_ the best specimens are worth 18 denars less than the said _franc d'or_; a silver piece called _chartain_ for 16 and even 18 denars, which is worth no more than 10," and so on. Two years later it was declared that the Mint at Tournay was on the point of stopping work, "the people having been accustomed for a long time to give a higher price for the mark of gold than in the case of other monies of this kingdom, and this by reason of the foreign merchants."

Towards the close of his reign Charles V., finding his kingdom filled with depreciated imported specie, while all the good native pieces had been drawn out of the land, sought and obtained from the Pope, 1372, a Bull of Excommunication against neighbour powers who should counterfeit his monies. It was not until 1391 that the proper defensive measure of a change of ratio was resorted to, and by that time the conditions of the Mint rates in surrounding nations had so altered as to render the change partially inoperative. In 1393, accordingly, there was a great lack of the smaller silver coin, which led to a proclamation by Charles VI. on the 2nd April of that year for encouraging the minting of _petiz deniers Tournois_. The same complaint was, however, re-echoed in 1395 and 1396, but, as it appears, quite futilely, for nine years after another proclamation had to be issued against the currency of foreign coins of Scotland, Navarre, the Rhenish and Netherland provinces, etc., "which have course in our kingdom for a greater value than they are worth, by which means our monies are arrested in their course and greatly withdrawn; the gold and silver _deniers a l'ecu_ which we have minted having been melted down."

[Sidenote: ACTION OF THE STATES-GENERAL IN 1420]

When the States-General met at Paris in 1420 the depreciated state of the coinage was laid before the a.s.sembly as of prime concernment, and it was by its advice that the proclamation of the following year was issued fixing the _ecu d'or_ at a tale of 66 to the mark and of the _gros d'argent_ at 86-1/4, "it being come to our knowledge that for some time past the money in our kingdom is so diminished and enfeebled that by this means the gold and silver which abounded is in very great measure drawn away and transported, and the traffic of strangers here almost ceased, and all necessaries of life put at a great height," etc. The result of this reformation of 1421 was that during some portion of the succeeding years of Charles VII.'s reign silver came from all parts in great abundance, although in 1436 complaints were again heard that money was not being coined and did not suffice for the public needs. At this point, however, the complaints apparently ceased, and it was not till twenty years later that the step was again taken of decrying and forbidding the circulation of foreign specie.

The ceasing of the disorders in the French money is attributed to the expulsion of the English invaders, but there can be little doubt that much more simple and natural laws were at work. From the reign of Louis XI. onwards these natural laws had freer play as against the disturbing influence of mere arbitrary debas.e.m.e.nts, and it is easier to a.n.a.lyse their influence.

[Sidenote: FRANCE IN 1488]

From his accession in 1461 onwards the monetary history of France displays many a.n.a.logies with that of the Netherlands (see Chapter II.).

Thus in 1470, finding the market rate of foreign coins driven above the home Mint rate by the licence of the people (i.e. by normal market action), Louis issued a tariff to regulate the exchange rate in which the prevailing prices of the foreign specie were tolerated as an interim for a period of three months. At the end of that time it was manifestly impossible to secure a permanent reduction, and in order to prevent the transport of specie it was found necessary, 4th January 1473, to raise the value of the home coin both gold and silver (see account of French monies in Appendix No. VI.). Still the export continued, and in 1475 the process of enhancement had to be repeated as a measure of defence for the gold specie. Thirteen years later similar precautions were taken for the silver specie by Charles VIII.'s proclamation of 24th April 1488.

This is the last defensive measure of the first period of the monetary history of France, and no further act is on record previous to the great change in the relative values of the precious metals which ensued upon the discovery of the New World.

THE RATIO BETWEEN GOLD AND SILVER IN EUROPE, 1300-1500.

+-----+------------------------+-------+--------+----------------+------+---------+-----+ |Date.| Italy. |France.|England.| Germany. |Spain.|Burgundy.|Date.| | +---------+-------+------+ | +-----+----------+ | | | | |Florence.|Venice.|Milan.| | | A. | B. | | | | +-----+---------+-------+------+-------+--------+-----+----------+------+---------+-----+ |1252 | 10.75 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |1252 | |1257 | .. | .. | .. | .. | 9.29 | .. | .. | .. | .. |1257 | |1284 | .. | 10.84 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |1284 | |1296 | 11.10 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |1296 | |1303 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | 12.1 |1303 | |1305 | 10.88 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |1305 | |1308 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |1308 | |1315 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |1315 | |1324 | 13.62 | 13.99 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |1324 | |1338 | .. | .. | .. | 12.61 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |1338 | |1343 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |1343 | |1344 | .. | .. | .. | .. | 12.59 | .. | .. | .. | .. |1344 | |1344 | .. | .. | .. | .. | 11.04 | .. | .. | .. | .. |1344 | |1345 | 11.04 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |1345 | |1346 | .. | .. | .. | 11.11 | 11.57 |11.33| .. | .. | .. |1346 | |1347 | 10.91 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |1347 | |1348 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | 12.1 |1348 | |1350 | .. | 14.44 |10.59 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |1350 | |1351 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | 12.3 | .. | .. |1351 | | | | | | | | | (Lubeck) | | | | |1353 | .. | .. | .. | .. | 11.15 | .. | .. | .. | .. |1353 | |1361 | .. | .. | .. | 12.0 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |1361 | |1365 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |11.37| .. | .. | .. |1365 | |1375 | 10.77 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | 12.4 | .. | .. |1375 | | | | | | | | | (Lubeck) | | | | |1379 | .. | 13.17 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |1379 | |1380 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |1380 | |1386 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | 10.76 | .. | .. |1386 | | | | | | | | | (Rhine | | | | | | | | | | | |Provinces)| | | | |1391 | .. | .. | .. | 10.74 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |1391 | |1399 | .. | 11.69 | .. | .. | .. | .. | 11.16 | .. | .. |1399 | | | | | | | | | (Rhine | | | | | | | | | | | |Provinces)| | | | |1400 | .. | .. |11.630| .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |1400 | |1402 | 10.58 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |1402 | |1406 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | 10.66 | .. | .. |1406 | | | | | | | | | (Rhine | | | | | | | | | | | |Provinces)| | | | |1411 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | 12.0 | .. | .. |1411 | | | | | | | | | (Lubeck) | | | | |1412 | .. | .. | .. | .. | 10.33 | .. | .. | .. | .. |1412 | |1417 | .. | 12.56 | .. | 10.67 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |1417 | |1421 | .. | .. | .. | 10.29 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |1421 | |1422 | 10.16 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |1422 | |1427 | .. | .. | .. | 9.00 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |1427 | |1429 | .. | 11.04 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |1429 | |1432 | .. | .. | .. | 10.87 | .. | .. | .. | 5.822| .. |1432 | |1435 | .. | .. | .. | 12.32 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |1435 | |1441 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |11.12| .. | .. | .. |1441 | |1443 | .. | 12.1 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |1443 | |1446 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |1446 | |1447 | .. | .. | .. | 11.44 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |1447 | |1450 | .. | .. |10.965| .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |1450 | |1455 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | 12.2 | .. | .. |1455 | | | | | | | | | (Lubeck) | | | | |1456 | .. | .. | .. | 11.77 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |1456 | |1460 | 9.33 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |1460 | |1462 | 9.37 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |1462 | |1464 | 11.42 | .. | .. | .. | 11.15 | .. | .. | 9.824| .. |1464 | |1471 | 10.58 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |1471 | |1472 | .. | 11.13 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |1472 | |1474 | .. | 10.97 | .. | 11.00 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |1474 | |1475 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |10.41 | .. |1475 | |1480 | 10.83 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |10.87 | .. |1480 | |1485 | 10.46 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |1485 | |1486 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |10.98 | .. |1486 | |1488 | .. | .. | .. | 11.83 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |1488 | |1495 | 10.46 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |1495 | |1497 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |10.01 | .. |1497 | |1500 | .. | .. |10.975| .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |1500 | |1506 | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. | .. |10.262| .. |1506 | +-----+---------+-------+------+-------+--------+-----+----------+------+---------+-----+

Germany--_A_, as determined by the purchase prices of the two metals in the Lubeck Mint. _B_, as determined by the Mint ordinances.

[Sidenote: ENGLAND: COINAGE OF 1344]

England.

Even before the adoption of a gold coinage by Edward III., England had felt the effect of loss by exchange, owing to the introduction of gold florins by means of the Flemish trade. In the Parliament of 1339, at Westminster, complaint was made of the want of coinage. It was proposed as a remedy--(1) that every merchant should bring in 40s. or more for every sack of wool that he should import, and (2) that it should be considered by the King and his council whether it might not be advantageous to permit _florins de ecu_ (of France), and florins of Florence (i.e. gold), and other good florins to be current with the _esterlings_ (i.e. the silver penny), "but only esterlings to be compulsory for under 40s. value." In less than four years good money was being carried out of the realm, and false money brought in at such a rate that Parliament was seriously perplexed. In its debate on the matter at Westminster, 1343, the result is thus stated: "All orders of persons in the realm had loss for a long time, on account of the florins which were delivered in payment in Flanders, bearing so high a value there as to occasion a loss of one-third on all merchandise imported thence." Certain goldsmiths of London were therefore ordered to be called in to advise and to refine one or two of each kind of florin, so as to rate the fine gold in them according to the true value. And it was proposed that of this fine gold one kind of money should be made in England and Flanders, provided the Flemings were willing, to be current in both countries at such an alloy and value as should be determined by the King and Council, and all other gold money to be taken at bullion value, and all silver money to be reckoned thereby ("other sufficient money to be received according to the value of the fine gold").

The result was the first practical issue of English gold. In 1344 an indenture was made between the King on the one part and George Kirkyn and Lotte Nicholyn of Florence, goldmasters and workers, on the other, for the coining of three monies of gold, one to be current at 6s., and to be equal in weight to 2 _pet.i.ts florins_ of Florence of good weight, 50 of these being coined out of the pound Tower of London.

In this indenture Edward copied the ratio prevailing in the French kingdom, viz. that of 12.61 to 1 between gold and silver. That ratio was considerably too high, and he quickly experienced the same effects which were felt by the French King from it. During his reign (1327-50) Philip of Valois coined more species of new money than all his predecessors put together, but owing to the adoption of this too high a ratio the country was gradually depleted of good money. In order to induce people to bring bullion to the Mint he offered to coin free of cost, but found nothing of avail until he followed the example of England and altered the ratio.