[1896] Reprints of Economic Classics Augustus M. Kelley Publishers NEW YORK 1967 First Edition 1895 (London: Wilsons & Milne, 29 Paternoster Row , 1895) Reprinted 1967 by AUGUSTUS M. KELLEY PUBLISHERS From Second Edition of 1896 Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number 67-20086 Printed in the United States of America by Sentry Press, New York, N.Y. 10019...

Being an Account of the Gold and Silver Moneys and Monetary Standards of Europe and America, together with an Examination of the effects of Currency and Exchange Phenomena on Commercial and National Progress and Well-being LATE BERKELEY FELLOW OF THE OWENS COLLEGE FELLOW OF THE ROYAL HISTORICAL AND ROYAL STATISTICAL SOCIETIES Second Edition New York : G.P. PUTNAM'S SONS London : WILSONS & MILNE 1896 TO RICHARD COPLEY CHRISTIE THIS BOOK IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED IN MEMORY OF A FRIENDSHIP

The purpose of this book is twofold—first and foremost, to illustrate a question of principle by the aid of historic test and application; secondly, to furnish for the use of historical students an elementary handbook of the currencies of the more important European states from the thirteenth century downwards. Little need be said as to this latter purpose. The total omission of the historic, reasoned, and consecutive study of currency history—the most important domain of practical economics—fro

The monetary history of Europe begins in the thirteenth century, and in the Italian peninsula. Its starting-point is the era of the reintroduction of gold into the coinages of the Western nations, and is definitely marked for us by the minting of the gold florin of Florence in 1252. For all practical purposes gold had gone out of use since the seventh century, and after the submersion of the Roman Empire; and the currencies of the nations of mediæval Europe rested on a silver basis entirely. The

The last decade of the fifteenth century witnessed the discovery of America, and therein the monetary salvation and resurrection of the Old World. The end of the second quarter of the seventeenth century in its turn witnessed the end of the first phase, and the most important, of the New World upon the destinies of Europe. Practically and historically the century and a half intervening between 1493 and 1660 may be treated as a single cycle with a single aspect. It was a time of unexampled increa

From the End of the First Cycle of American Influences to the Present Day, 1660-1894 Up to the close of the eighteenth century the production of silver shows a remarkable steadiness and uniformity—the decrease on the yield of the Potosi mines being compensated by the increased output of Mexican silver. In the condition of the output of gold, however, there is a perceptible alteration, due to the increasing imports of that metal from Brazil. The change in the relative production of the two metals

Throughout the history of independent Florence her gold coin type is always the florin. In its first beginning her monetary system had relation to that of the restored Empire. The silver fiorino of which the first mention occurs was equivalent to 12 denari, as in the Charlemagne system. Presumably this would be equal to some hypothecated soldo , and the multiple of it a hypothecated fiorino d'oro, gold florin (= 20 soldi), would be equal to the lira or libra, or unit of weight. This will explain

The Venetian monetary system of history employed a double basis or unit:— 1. The lira di piccioli , the principal system, and the one which endured through the whole life of the Republic, from the tenth century to the introduction of the decimal system in 1806. 2. The lira di grossi —an ideal system, i.e. money of accompt only, and of importance for a much less extensive period. It originated in the thirteenth century, and was abandoned by the end of the sixteenth. The "lira" of the first of the

The monetary system of Christian Spain dates from the Gothic invasions, and differs from that of Germany, Italy, and France in being derived in the first place from the Roman system without the intermediation of that of Charlemagne. Under the Goths the monetary basis was the Roman libra, subdivided thus— 1 libra = 8 onzas = 4608 grs. 1 onza = 8 ochavas = 576 grs. 1 ochava = 6 tomines = 72 grs. 1 tomin = 3 quilates or siliqua = 12 grs. The unit denomination was the sueldo de oro (gold sueldo) = 1

In its earliest known form the Netherlands monetary system reproduces those features of the Carlovingian system which reappear alike in Italy, France, and England. The ideal Flemish pound was divided into 20 schellingen, the schelling into 12 grooten. This was entirely an ideal system; the actual coins being, at first, the silver denarius, divided into obols. This ideal system of pounds, schellings, and groots survived in Flanders and the Southern Netherlands (now the kingdom of Belgium) long af

The German Mint system inherited from that of Charlemagne the common features noticed already in the case of Florence, the Netherlands, and other countries, namely, the division of the silver libra into 20 solidi ( schillingen ), and of the solidus into 12 denarii ( pfennige ), so that 240 denarii = 1 libra. The solidus occurs (theoretically or in accompt) in both gold and silver. The gold solidus of the German system originally weighed less than the Frankish, which was 72 to the libra, while th

THE MONETARY SYSTEM OF FRANCE The metric system on which the French Mint was worked throughout the period treated of in this work up to the Revolution was as follows:— An alternative subdivision of the ounce was as follows:— For the alloy or standard the mark was thus subdivided:— For gold mark = 24 carats each subdivided into 32 parts. For silver mark = 12 dens. each subdivided into 24 grms. In France fine gold was only refined to 23 26 ⁄ 32 carats, and fine silver 11 deniers 18 grs. In calcula