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 A history of monetary systems:a record o 
 
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A HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 MONETARY SYSTEMS: 
 
 A RECORD OF ACTUAL EXPERIMENTS IN MONEY MADE BY VARIOUS STATES 
 
 OF THE ANCIENT AND MODERN WORLD, AS DRAWN FROM THEIR 
 
 STATUTES, CUSTOMS, TREATIES, MINING REGULATIONS 
 
 JURISPRUDENCE, HISTORY, ARCHAEOLOGY, COINS. 
 
 NUMMULARY SYSTEMS, AND OTHER 
 
 SOURCES OF INFORMATION. 
 
 BY 
 
 ALEXANDER DEL MAR-, -M.E. , a.- -^ .. 
 
 Author of "A History of the Precious Metals^' "A History of 
 
 Money in Ancient States" ''Money and Civilization" " The 
 
 Scierife of Money," "Monetary Crimes" etc. 
 
 ( 
 
 NEW YQRK 
 THE CAMBRIDGE ENCYCLOPEDIA COMPANY 
 ^62 Reade Street 
 1901 
 
'^ 
 
 "D35V, 
 
 COPYRIGHT BY 
 ALEXANDER DEL MAR 
 
PUBLISHERS' ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 The present work, in substantially the same form, was pub- 
 lished in England in 1895 at fifteen shillings sterling. Its 
 great importance and timeliness, and the prompt welcome 
 it received from English critics, makes no excuse necessary 
 for an American edition at a much lower price; one within 
 the reach of every student of Finance. 
 
 To bring the work within the necessary compass, certain 
 portions, which were chiefly of interest to antiquarians, have 
 been omitted, while other portions have been elaborated for 
 the benefit of American readers. The work of revision has 
 been performed entirely by the author himself. 
 
 While this revision has been going on, a splendid quarto 
 edition of the original work, translated into French, has 
 been published in Paris, and has met with highly apprecia- 
 tive reviews, both in France and other Continental States. 
 
 For the benefit of the younger generation in the United 
 States, a brief sketch of Mr. Del Mar's public services may 
 not be out of place. 
 
 Alexander Del Mar was born in the city of New York, 
 August 9, 1836. After graduating at the Polytechnic, he 
 was educated as a Civil and Mining Engineer. In 1857 he 
 formed the design of writing a history of the Precious 
 Metals. This led to his study of Money. In 1862 he pub- 
 
4 PUBLISHERS ADVERTISEMKNT. 
 
 lished "Gold Money and Paper Money," and in 1865 
 "Essays on the Treasury." In this year he was appointed 
 Director of the Bureau of Statistics, at that time a Board of 
 Trade, with executive functions, among others the Super- 
 vision of the Commissioners of Mines, Commerce, Immigra- 
 tion, etc. In 1866 he was appointed the American delegate 
 to the International Congress which met at Turin, Italy. 
 In 1872 (Greeley campaign) he was nominated by Mr. 
 Greeley's friends for Secretary of the Treasury. In the 
 same year he represented the United States at the Inter- 
 national Congress in St. Petersburg, Russia. 
 
 In 1876 he was appointed Mining Commissioner to the 
 United States Monetary Commission; 1878, Clerk to the 
 Committee on Naval Expenditures, House of Representa- 
 tives; 1870, he published his "History of the Precious 
 Metals" the labor of twenty-two years; 1881, he published 
 "A History of Money in Ancient States;" 1885, "Money 
 and Civilization, or a History of Money in Modern States;" 
 1889, "The Science of Money;" 1895, his crowning work, 
 "A History of Monetary Systems in Various States," 1898, 
 "The Science of Money," 2d ed. ; 1899, "A History of 
 Monetary Crimes;" 1900, "The Science of Money," 3d ed. ; 
 1900, " A History of Money in America; " 1901, " A History 
 of Monetary Systems," 3d ed. ; besides several archaeological 
 treatises of great interest. All of these are voluminous works. 
 Mr. Del Mar is Ukewise the author of more than than a 
 hundred pamphlets and other minor publications chiefly on 
 politico-economical topics. 
 
 For the past twenty years, Mr. Del Mar has given practi- 
 cally his whole time to original research in the great libraries 
 and coin collections of Europe on the subject of the history 
 of Money and Finance. The present volume embodies the 
 results of some of his labors. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The author concluded a former work on Money in 
 these words: — "That which has engaged the attention 
 without harmonizing the convictions of such master 
 minds as Aristotle, Plato, Tycho Brahe, Copernicus, 
 Locke, Newton, Smith, Bastiat, and Mill, is surely a 
 study which none can afford to approach with rashness, 
 nor to leave with complacency. Money is pei'haps the 
 mightiest engine to which man can lend an intelligent 
 guidance. Unheard, unfelt, unseen, it has the power 
 to so distribute the burdens, gratifications, and oppor- 
 tunities of life that each individual shall enjoy that share 
 of them to which his merits or good fortune may fairly 
 entitle him, or, contrariwise, to dispense them with so 
 partial a hand as to violate every principle of justice, 
 and perpetuate a succession of social slaveries to the 
 end of time." I begin the present work in the same 
 spirit with which I closed the former one, that is to say, 
 without bias concerning any system of money, and 
 only anxious to examine and profit by the experience 
 of the past. 
 
 The scope of the work includes a recension of my 
 former chapters on Rome, a continuation of the Roman 
 history from the monetary system of Augustus to the 
 downfall of the Empire, and an examination of the 
 Merovingian and Carlovingian systems, the Moslem 
 systems, the systems of Britain from the earliest times 
 to the reign of Edward III., and the systems of Saxony, 
 Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Germany, and, the Ar- 
 gentine Republic. 
 
 As the monetary conflicts of to-day turn mostly upon 
 questions concerning the relative value of gold and 
 silver, the origin, nature, tendency, and influences of 
 
6 PREFACE 
 
 this Ratio and its amenability to legal control, I have 
 taken especial pains to trace its historical development 
 in all ages of which any coinage or other numismatic 
 remains exist. In carrying out this design a mass of 
 information has been brought together which can 
 scarcely fail to be of service in future monetary dis- 
 cussionso 
 
 The origin and progress of Private Coinage has also 
 been an object of attention. Private coinage, or, as 
 it is now euphemized, "free" coinage, namely, the 
 license granted to private individuals to coin the precious 
 metals without limit, or to compel the State to make 
 coins for them and to confer upon such coins the legal 
 functions of money, coupled with license to export and 
 melt down the coins, was unknown to the ancient world. 
 In the great states of antiquity money was a pillar of the 
 constitution. In the republics of Greece and Rome it 
 was a social instrument, designed, limited, stamped, 
 issued, and made current by the State, — in short, in- 
 vented, owned, and regulated by the State. It is now 
 generally admitted that the so-called gentes coins of 
 Rome were not of private fabrication, but issued by 
 the State, and stamped with the gens mark of the State 
 moneyers. There appears to have been no private coin- 
 age in Europe before the issuance of Mahomet's Koran 
 and its scornful repudiation of the Roman religion and 
 political system. The baronial and ecclesiastical mints of 
 the middle ages, when not authorized by the German Em- 
 pire, or by the princes of the Western States, were 
 baronial or ecclesiastical only in name; they were really 
 "robbers' dens," and were so termed in the official 
 proclamations of the time. Their trade of private coin- 
 age was both surreptitious and unlawful, and was often 
 expiated with the lives of the proprietors. The Plantag- 
 enet kings broke up some thousands of them. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 After the fall of the Roman Empire in 1204 the prerog- 
 ative of the coinage was exercised for a brief period 
 by the emperors of Germany, but soon afterward fell to 
 the various independent states that rose upon the ruins 
 of the old Empire. In a process commenced by the 
 procureur-g^n^ral under Philip IV., against the Comte 
 de Nevers, for melting down the coins of the realm, it 
 was held that this was a royal prerogative which be- 
 longed to the king alone, and which in case of neces- 
 sity he might employ, not indeed for his private 
 advantage, but in defense of the State. The prerogative 
 was, however, much more fully and completely laid 
 down by Sir Matthew Hale in the celebrated case of 
 the Mixed Moneys. Its unwilling surrender by the 
 Crown took place under the Stuarts. Events have dem- 
 onstrated that the Act is wholly inconsistent with the 
 safety of the State, and that it demands revision. 
 
 If in view of the existing monetary conflict, the reader 
 should be led to inquire whether this is a "monome- 
 tallic" or "bimetallic" work, the answer is. It is neither. 
 These terms, and many others employed in the mone- 
 tary literature of to-day, the author regards as misleading. 
 They involve doctrines which are fallacious, and de- 
 feat a correct comprehension of this difficult subject, 
 by promoting the discussion of false issues, or the 
 adoption of make-shift or mischievous measures. Mon- 
 ometallism and bimetallism both imply that money 
 consists of a metal or metals, and that this is what meas- 
 ures value. The implication is erroneous; the theorj- 
 is physically impossible. Value is not a thing, nor an 
 attribute of things; it is a relation, a numerical relation, 
 which appears in exchange.* Such a relation cannot 
 be accurately measured without the use of numbers, 
 limited by law, and embodied in a set of concrete sym- 
 *Bastiat, "Harmonies of Polit. Econ.'' 
 
8 PREFACE 
 
 bols, suitable for transference from hand to hand. It 
 is this set of symbols which, by metonym, is called 
 money. In the Greek and Roman republics it was 
 called (with a far more correct apprehension of its 
 character) nomisma and nummus, because the law 
 (nomos) was alone competent to create it. The num- 
 ber of the symbols may be limited, but rudely; the 
 limit may even — though equitably it should not — be 
 left to the chances of conquest or mining discoveries, 
 still, repeated experiments prove that it is the number 
 of the symbols that definitively measures value, not the 
 quantity or quality or merit of the materials of which 
 they may be composed. A ready proof that it is the 
 numbers and not material of money which measures 
 value is this: If the sum or integer of the symbols is 
 altered, so will be the expression of value (the price) 
 of all things; whereas the material may be altered, e. 
 g. from gold to silver, or from both to inconvertible 
 paper, without at all affecting the expression of value 
 — provided that the combined denominations or sum 
 and legal function of the symbols remain unchanged. 
 These principles of money — namely, that Money is 
 a Measure, and must be of necessity an Institute of 
 Law, that the Unit of money is All Money within a 
 given legal jurisdiction, that the practical Essence of 
 money is Limitation, and that coins and notes alike are 
 Symbols of money — are fully discussed and illustrated 
 in my "Science of Money." It is true that at the pres- 
 ent time their operation is greatly obscured by the license 
 and abuse of Private Coinage, but even through this 
 bewildering medium they can still be discerned. It is 
 out of the confusion created by this practice, it is from 
 the fallacy of mistaking metal (which, apart from num- 
 bers, cannot measure value any more accurately than 
 barter can) for money (which, apart from metal, can 
 
PREFACE 9 
 
 and does accurately measure value) that all contentions 
 on the subject have arisen ; nay, more, this confusion 
 is to-day imperiling the peace of the world. The 
 wheels of Industry are at this moment clogged, and 
 what clogs them chiefly is that gross, that sensual, that 
 materialistic conception which mistakes a piece of metal 
 for the measure of an ideal relation, a measure that re- 
 sides not at all in the metal, but in the numerical rela- 
 tion of the piece to the set of pieces to which it is legally 
 related, whether of metal, or paper, or both combined. 
 In short, it is this misconception which is responsible 
 for the Demonetization of Silver in the Western world, 
 and the consequences traceable to that event. 
 
 While such are the views of the author, he must do 
 himself the justice to say that he has not laid his histor- 
 ical works under contribution to support them, nor has 
 he any. currency scheme to propose. To entertain, 
 rightly or wrongly, a distinct conception of money, 
 and the manner in which its function is mechanically 
 fulfilled, is one thing; to apply such conception to a 
 given condition of affairs is another. This may only 
 be done by the statesman, who is not satisfied to inquire 
 what is correct, but must also know what is practicable 
 and what is prudent. The political circumstances of 
 each state have usually molded, and must continue to 
 mold, its monetary system ; and rash are those teachers 
 who haye sought or who yet seek to change it for any 
 other reason or upon any other grounds. 
 
 These views indicate in another way the scope of 
 the present work; it is not confined to gold money, nor 
 silver money, nor paper money; it embraces all money, 
 and it seeks, by analyzing the various experiments that 
 have been made with this subtle instrument, to derive 
 from them whatever light they may be able to throw 
 upon the questions that vex us to-day. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page' 
 
 Preface 5 
 
 BiBLIOGRAPY II 
 
 I. Rome 17 
 
 II. The Sacred Character of Gold .... 66 
 
 III. Pounds, Shillings and Pence 94 
 
 IV. Gothic Moneys 113 
 
 V. Moslem Moneys 125 
 
 VI. Early English Moneys 149 
 
 VII. Moneys of the Heptarchy 165 
 
 VIII, Anglo-Norman Moneys . 187 
 
 IX. Early Plant agenet Moneys 198 
 
 X. Later Plantagenet Moneys 223 
 
 XI. Evolution of the Coinage Preroga- 
 tive 245 
 
 XII. Saxony and Scandinavia 254 
 
 XIII. The Netherlands 307 
 
 XIV. Germany 341 
 
 XV. Private Coinage 386 
 
 XVI. Statistics of the Ratio 393 
 
 XVII. Bank Suspensions since the era of 
 
 Private Coinage 402 
 
 XVIII. Existing Monetary Systems 412 
 
 Index 43 1 
 
BIBLIOGEAPHY. 
 
 The following list of books is to be read in connection with the lists pub- 
 lished in the author's previous works on the Precious Metals and 
 Money. 
 
 Al-Makkari (Ahmed, ibn Mohammed): Selections from his History of 
 
 the Mohametan dynasties. Translated from Arabic to English by 
 
 Pascual de Gayangos. London, 1S40-43. 2 vols., 4to. 
 Anderson (James): History of Commerce. London, 1787. 4vols.,4to. 
 Arrian (Flavins): The Anabasis of Alexander, literally translated by 
 
 E. J. Chinnock. London, 1884. Svo. 
 Voyage round the Euxine Sea. Translated by W. Falconer. 
 
 Oxford, 1805. 4to. 
 Voyage of Nearchus and Perplius of the Erythrean Sea. Greek 
 
 and English, translated by W. Vincent. Oxford, 1809. 410. 
 AviLA (Gil Gonsalez de): Spanish Numismatic Work. 
 Babelon (Ernest): Description historique et chronologique des 
 
 monnaies de la Republique Romaine, vulgairement appelees monnaies 
 
 consulaires. Paris, 1885. 2 tom. Svo. 
 Bailly (M. a.): Histoire Financiere de la France, depuis I'origine de 
 
 la Monarchie jusq'i la fin de 1786, par M. A. Bailly, Inspecteur 
 
 g^u^rale des Finances. Paris, 1830 8vo. 
 ■ Les Finances de France, par M . A. Bailly. Paris. Svo. Written 
 
 on the plan of Sinclair's History of the British Revenue, and possibly 
 
 its model. 
 Bergmann (Dr. E. von): Die Nominate der Munzreform des chalifen 
 
 Abdulmelik. Ak. der Wissenschaften v. Wien, May, 1870. Sitzungs 
 
 berichte. Philosoph. histor classe. 
 BijEus (Jacobus): La France Metallique. Paris, 1636. Fol. 
 
 Numismata Iraperatorum Romanorum. 
 
 BiE (Jacques de): See IBiiEVs. 
 
 BiRCHEROD (Thomas Broderus): Specimen Antiquae Rei Mouetariae 
 
 Danarura, etc. Hafniae, 1701. 4to. 
 BlacAs (Louis C. P. Casimir, due de) : Histoire de la Monnaie Romaine 
 
 par Th. Mommsen, traduic. Paris, 1865. Svo. 
 Blancius (Franciscus) : See Le Blanc. 
 BoisARD (Jean) : Traits des Monnoyes. Paris, 1714. 2 vols., izmo. 
 
 A useful and excellent work with a good index. 
 Brandis (Johanus) : Das Munz Mass und Gewichtswesen in Vord- 
 
 erasien bis auf Alexander den grossen. Berlin, 1866. Svo. 
 Brerewood (Edward) : . DePonderibus et Pretiis VeterumNummoram. 
 
 London, 1614. 4to. A useful little tract, with a chapter on the 
 
 Ratio. 
 Brugsch (Heinrich) : On the relative value of gold and silver in ancient 
 
 times; an article in the Deutsche Rundschau, a periodical published 
 
 at Berlin, 1874, etc. Svo. 
 BuRSiAN (Conrad) : j Jahresbericht uber die Fortschritte de classischen 
 
 Alterthumswissenschaft. Berlin. Svo In Progress, 
 Byel (M. Gabriellis) : De Monetis. The author was a licentiate of 
 
 Spires, who died in 1495. 
 
1 2 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Cambridge Essavs: pp. 267 — 269. 
 
 Camden (William) : Remains. Art. "Money," p. 241. 
 Britannia. Original edition in Latin, London, 1586. 8vo. Eng- 
 lish translation by P. Holland. London, 1610. 
 Cardan: Trattato d'i numeri e misure. 1555 to 1560. 
 Carli: Treatise on money. 1760. (A?^ Italiana Scrittori.) 
 Cartailhac (Emile) : (See Revue d'Anthropologie.) 
 Carte: History of England. Fol. 
 
 Castro Y Cavallero : Spanish Numismatic Work. (See Gakcia.) 
 Cavallero: ( i'^^ Garcia. ) 
 
 CocHETAUx: The Connection of Monetary Systems. Pamphlet. Brus- 
 sels, 1884. 8vo. 
 Cohen (Henri): Description bistorique des Monnaies frappees sous 
 
 I'empire Romaine. Paris, 1880. 8 vols., 8vo. 
 Coign ard: Essai sur les Monnois, ou Reflexions sur le Rapport entre 
 
 I'argentet le denrees. Paris, 1746. 
 CoLQUHOUN (Patrick) : Roman Law. 4 vols., 8vo. London, 1849-60. 
 CoMiNES, or CoMMiNES (Philip de) : Memoires. (On the leathern coins 
 
 of John, see vol. i., p. 507.) 
 Copernicus: Treatise on Money. Translated by Wolowski. Paris, 
 
 brochure, 1868. 
 CusTODi (P.): (See Italiani Scrittori.) 
 D'AVANT (Poey): Monnaie Feodale. Paris, 1875. 4to. 
 De Vienne: Origines delalivred'Argent, by Colonel Maurice deVienne. 
 
 Paris, 1887. 8vo. Brochure. 
 Da VIES (C. M.): History of Holland. London, 1842. 3 vols., 8vo. 
 
 (For pasteboard dalers of Leyden.) 
 De LuzAC (Jean): La Richesse de la Hollande. London, 1778. 2 vols., 
 
 8vo. 
 DuERK (Julius): Die Reisen des Kaisers Hadrian. See Abhand. des 
 
 Archaeol. der Univer. Wien, 1883. 
 Du Halde (Father Jean Baptiste, Jesuit) : History of China. Trans. 
 
 into Eng. London, 1736. 4 vols., 8 vo. 
 DuREAU DE LA Malle (A. J. C. A.) : Economie politique des Romaines. 
 
 Paris, 1840. 2 tom., 8vo. 
 DuTOT : Finances and Commerce of France. 1739. 8vo. Eng. Trans. 
 Egypte: La Reforme Monetaire en Egypte. Le Caire, 1885. 4to. A 
 
 collection of interesting financial essays. 
 England, Present State of. (Mentions 2d. and 3d. sterlings.) 
 Faucher (Leon): Precious Metals. Trans, by Thomas Hankey, jun.. 
 
 Governor of the Bank. Eng. London, 1852. 8vo. 
 Fichte (J. G. ) : The Science of Rights. Trans, by A. E. Kroeger, of 
 
 St. Louis. Phila. (Lippincott), i86g. 8vo, pp. 504. 
 FiLMBR (Sir Robert) : Discourse on Usury. London, 1678. i2mo. 
 Finlay (George, LL.D.) : Roman and Byzantine Money, in his Hist, of 
 
 Greece, etc. London, 1877. 7 vols., 8vo. 
 Finlay (George, LL.D.) : Greece under the Romans. Edinburgh, 2nd 
 
 edit., 1857. 8vo. 
 Fleetwood (Bishop William) : Chronicon Preciosum. London, 1707, 
 
 8vo. 
 Freheri (Marquardi) : De Re Monetaria Veterum Romanornm. Lub- 
 
 duni, 1605, 4to. 
 De Constantini Imperatoris Byzantmi Numismate, etc. Paris, 
 
 1604. 4to. A reply to Scaliger. 
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 de varies naciones, comparadas y reducidas i, las que corren en estos 
 
 reynos de Castilla. Madrid, 1731. 4to, 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY I3 
 
 Gent.'s Magazine, i^sG, p. 465, and 1812, p. 331. Dr. Samuel Peggeon 
 
 the laku, or Ijcchus. 
 GiBBjN (Edward) : Decline and Fall of the Rom. Emp. London, 1781. 
 
 2nd ed , 6 vols., 4to. 
 
 Miscellaneous Works. London, 1815. 3vols.,4to. 
 
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 1895. 8vo. 
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 Gr^ecarum Thesaurus Antiquitatum. Lugduni Batavorum, 1699. 12 
 
 vols., fol. 
 Great Britain: An Account of the Constitution and Present State of 
 
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 (^ahich see). 
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 8vo. Lib. IL, cap. xii., Michael Ephesius says, and after him Gro- 
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 to be itself the least subject to change.' '' 
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 Benj. E. C. Guerard. Paris, 1884. 4to. This work is one of the 
 
 Collection des documents inedits sur I'Histoire de France. Its full 
 
 title is "Polyptique de I'Abb^ Irminon, on Denombrement des 
 
 Manses, des Serfs, et des Revenues de I'Abbaye de S.iint Germain 
 
 des Pres, sous le regne de Charlemagne." The annotations or 
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 etc. Rabanum, 1655. 4to. 
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 4to. 
 
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 Paris, 1870. 4to. 
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 1865 -g. 3 vols., 4to. (The best work on the subject of Spanish 
 
 moneys yet met with. ) 
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 Hemi.vburgh: (See Walterus). 
 
 Heminford: ( i>^ Walterus). 
 
 HoTMAN (Francois). Sometimes Hotimani and Hottoman: De re 
 
 numaria. Paris, 1585. 2 parts, 8vo. 
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 1802. 8vo. 
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 money, Da Justin was imprisoned by the king of Prussia. 
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14 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 A Guide to the Study of English Coins, by the late William Hen- 
 
 frey. New and revised edition by C. F. Keary. London, 1885. 8vo. 
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 degraded, nor altered the value of their coins! 
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 don, 1821. 4to. 
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 Nationale. Paris, 1 891. 3Vols.,4to. 
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 of the Silver Coins. Loudon, 1695. 8vo. 
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 ■ A Relation of the Missions of Paraguay. Eng. trans, from the 
 
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 Documenti annessi alle osservazioni sopra il prezzo legale delle 
 
 monete. An appendix to the former work. 
 ■ Delle Monete commercio. See also Italiani Scrittori. 
 
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 pais publi^e sous la direction de M. Nisard. Paris, 1851. Large 
 
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BIBLIOGRAPHY IS 
 
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 i., p. 68. 
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 1736. 4to. Translated into English. 
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HISTORY OF 
 
 MONETARY SYSTEMS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ROME. 
 
 Supposed silver coins of Servius TuUius — "Romano" coins — a. u. 369, 
 the Nummulary system — a. u. 437, Scrupulura system of gold and 
 silver "Roma" coins — a. u. 485, Centralization of silver coinage 
 and change of ratio — A. u. 537-47, System of the Lex Flaminia— 
 A. u. 663, The Social War; coins of the Italiotes; concession of 
 citizenship; centralization of money at Rome — a, u. 675, System of 
 Sylla — Systems of Julius Caesar — Augustus — Caligula — Attempted 
 revival of the Republic — Galba— Otho — Caracalla — Aurelian — 
 Diocletian — Constantine^Arcadius and Honorius — The Byzantine 
 systems down to the Fall of Constantinople in A. d. 1204 — The 
 Western Systems — Clovis — Pepin — Charlemagne. 
 
 Since the writing of my "History of Money in An- 
 cient States" many hoards of Roman coins have been 
 discovered, and many important numismatic works have 
 been published and discussed. These throw so much 
 new light on the Roman monetary systems that the 
 subject needs revision. The present chapter is an 
 essay in this direction. 
 
 I must begin by assigning a lower value to the mon- 
 etary evidences contained in Pliny's "Natural History" 
 than was done in my former work. Pliny was far from 
 being well-informed on the subject of Roman money. 
 He wrote hundreds of years after the establishment of 
 those earlier rnonetary systems of Rome, whose metallic 
 
 17 
 
1 8 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 remains have been preserved by the earth to the modern 
 world, but of which no collections appear to have existed 
 in his time. His observations on the subject are 
 gathered rather from grammatical than historical works, 
 of which, owing to the proscriptions of Augustus, but 
 few were extant in Pliny's time. When to these diffi- 
 culties, which interposed themselves between the Ro- 
 man encyclopedist and the knowledge which he 
 attempted to acquire and preserve, are added the diffi- 
 culties of an ecclesiastical and imperial censorship, 
 deeply interested in conserving the religion, history, 
 and chronology invented and bequeathed to it by Divus 
 Augustus, the wonder is, not that Pliny missed, but that 
 he secured so much on this subject as is to be found in 
 his work. Hence, I have treated his observations with 
 almost reverential deference, and have only put them 
 aside where they are contradicted by the numismatic 
 remains or other archgeological testimonies. 
 
 It has long since been demonstrated that the eccle- 
 siastical and political history of Archaic Rome is fabu- 
 lous. To this must now be added its early monetary 
 history. That, too, is fabulous. It is quite possible 
 that the earliest money of Rome was the ace grave, or 
 heavy copper brick, held as a "reserve," but "repre- 
 sented" in the circulation by leather notes.' It is also 
 possible that this was followed by the ace signatum and 
 afterwards by silver coins. According to Charisius, 
 
 I Ace is thus spelled by the earlier numismatists, and is preferable to 
 As. It comes from the Sanscrit ayas, meaning totality. The Romans 
 used the word to designate any congeries (Gaston L. Feuardent, in 
 'Am. Jour, of Numism.itics, " 1878.) The Tarentines gave the same 
 meanmg to this word and employed it in similar ways, but spelled it 
 Eis. The same word, bearing the same meaning, found its way from 
 India across the steppes of Russia to the Baltic, where it is still found in 
 the lesor Jes of the Netherlands (see chapter xiii.) The leather notes 
 of archaic Rome are mentioned by Seneca: "Coriura forma publica per- 
 cussum." Consult my "Hist. Money in Ancient States" for further 
 information on this subject. Some authors trace the les to Janus, whose 
 face was stamped on the coins. 
 
ROME 
 
 19 
 
 Varro wrote: "Nummum argenteutn conflatum primum 
 a Servio Tullio dicunt; is quatuor scrupulis major fuit 
 quam nunc est.'" "It is said that silver money was 
 first made (conflatum means, literally, melted or cast) 
 by Servius Tullius. It was moi-e valuable (or heavier) 
 by four scrupulums than it is now." Varro wrote dur- 
 ing the Augustan age, when the denarius contained 
 about 60 English grains of silver; but as he was a book- 
 worm, who gathered his knowledge chiefly from an- 
 cient authors, these circumstances go for nothing. The 
 silver coins, alluded to by his authorities as of the pres- 
 ent time, "now," were probably the denarii of A. u. 
 437, mentioned by Pliny (xxxiii., 13), which weighed 
 ySf grains, or five grains more than Pliny's inexact 
 "six to the ounce" weight. At that period a scrupulum 
 (as we shall presently see) meant a tenth of anything; 
 so that Varro's statement merely amounts to this, that 
 the most ancient silver coins of Rome were worth four- 
 tenths more than the new ones, namely, those issued 
 after the decline of the nummulary system.^ The Due 
 de Luynes had a number of very ancient Roman silver 
 coins in his cabinet, which, relying upon this text, he 
 attributed to the reign of Servius Tullius; but numis- 
 matists, while admitting their genuineness, are not dis- 
 posed to credit them with such great antiquity. Nay, 
 even the existence of Servius Tullius has been disputed. 
 Upon a review of all the evidences connected with this 
 difficult matter, it seems that the Romans struck silver 
 coins at a much earlier date than is commonly believed, 
 that is to say, before A. u. 437, indeed, before the num- 
 mulary systems, which preceded that of A. u. 437. The 
 order of systems was, therefore, as follows: — i. Ace 
 
 1 The grammarian Charisius, A. D. 400. Institutionum Grammaticse, 
 cited by Scaliger, "De Re Nummaria," ed. 1616, p. 42. Queipo, ii , 17. 
 
 2 Queipo, table lix., gives the weights of some of these heavy denarii. 
 
20 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 grave, wWi leather notes; 2. Ace signatum; 3. Silver 
 (and copper) system mentioned by Varro, the silver 
 coins (denarii) weighing each about 118 grains, many 
 specimens of these coins being still extant; 4. A.u. 369, 
 nummulary system; 5. A. u. 437, gold, silver, and 
 copper system, the silver denarius weighing 78^ grains. 
 
 When these last-named coins became the principal 
 circulating medium of the Roman State, some of the 
 more ancient denarii mentioned by Varro's authorities, 
 and rescued from subterranean hoards, may have again 
 crept into circulation when they were valued at i-^ 
 denarii each; because, although they contained 50 per 
 cent more silver than the current denarii, they were an- 
 tiquated, and fit only for recoinage, which involved the 
 loss of a tenth or twelfth for seigniorage. This hypothe- 
 sis disposes 01 the passage preserved by Varro and Chari- 
 sius. It was probably taken from Timseus, and simply 
 meant that ten of the ancient silver coins passed current 
 for fourteen new denarii.' Similar valuations are to be 
 found in all ages and countries, many of them in the 
 coinages of the present day. 
 
 With regard to the Janus-faced circular copper coins, 
 which Lenormant ascribes to the period of the Gaulish 
 invasion, A. u. 369, or u. c. 384, it is to be observed 
 that although these pieces are now regarded as aces, 
 they may have been nummi,afterwards called sesterces, 
 or pieces of 2^ aces, the figure " i" upon them signify- 
 ing one nummus instead of one ace, as has been com- 
 monly supposed. That these coins were connected with 
 the nummulary system of the Republic there can hardly 
 be a doubt. 
 
 Both the examples of the Greek Republics and the 
 
 I With regard to the practice of seigniorage on Roman coins, Neibuhr 
 denies, while Boeckh affirms it. The coins prove that the latter is right • 
 but neither of these eminent savants seemed anxious to discuss the 
 
 subject. 
 
ROME 2 1 
 
 writings of Plato and other philosophers had taught 
 the Romans the advantages of a limited and exclusive 
 system of money issued by the State, and having little 
 or no worth other than what it derived from its useful- 
 ness and efficiency in measuring the value of commod- 
 ities and services. The proof that the Romans were 
 familiar with such a system of money appears in the 
 writings of Paulus, the jurisconsult, who enunciated its 
 principles long after the system had ceased to exist. 
 Had no such system ever existed in Rome, Paulus would 
 have had no warrant in the Roman law for the mone- 
 tary principles he laid down. As felted paper was 
 unknown, the symbols of this system could most con- 
 veniently be made of copper. Therefore, the means 
 necessary to secure and maintain such a money were 
 for the State to monopolize the copper mines, restrict 
 the commerce in copper, strike copper pieces of high 
 artistic merit, in order to defeat counterfeiting, stamp 
 them with the mark of the State, render them the sole 
 legal tenders for the payment of domestic contracts, 
 taxes, fines, and debts, limit their emission until their 
 value (from universal demand for them and their com- 
 parative scarcity) rose to more than that of the metal of 
 which they were composed, and maintain such res- 
 triction and over-valuation as the permanent policy of 
 the State. For foreign trade or diplomacy a supply of 
 gold and silver, coined and uncoined, could be kept 
 in the .treasury. 
 
 There are ample evidences that means of this char- 
 acter were, in fact, employed by the Roman Republic; 
 and, therefore, that such was the system of money it 
 adopted. The copper mines were monopolized by the 
 Roman State, the commerce in copper was regulated, 
 the bronze nummi were issued by the State, which 
 
22 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 Strictly monopolized their fabrication, the designs were 
 of great beauty, the pieces were stamped "S. C," or 
 ex senatus consuUo; they were for many years the sole 
 legal tenders for payment of contracts, taxes, fines, and 
 debts ; their emission was limited, until the value of the 
 pieces I'ose to about five times that of the metal they 
 contained,' and they steadily and for a lengthy period 
 retained this high over-valuation. The equivalent of 
 four aces signata to the nummus probably marks the 
 period when the nummUs was worth four times its 
 weight of copper, for the ace signatum was merely so 
 much metal to the Romans of this period, though it may 
 have had a superior value to the Etruscan and other 
 surrounding nations. The equivalent of two and a half 
 aces signata to the nummus probably marks a further 
 decline in the value of the latter. When the nummu- 
 lary system broke down entirely, the nummi, which had 
 successively been worth 5, 4 and i\ aces each, fell to 
 the value of i ace, and wei'e thenceforth themselves 
 known as aces. The decadence of this system, that is 
 to say, the precise period when the nummus fell to the 
 value of an ace, is uncertain. If we permit ourselves to 
 be guided by Livy, it was when, the soldiers' stipend 
 ("there being no silver coined at that time") being paid 
 in bronze coins, the immense quantity required for the 
 army was conveyed to it in wagons; in other words, in 
 the year a.u. 402. The introduction, 0/ rather the re- 
 introduction, of silver coins into the monetary system 
 of Rome must, therefore, with the greatest pi-obalaility, 
 be dated between a. u. 402 and a. u. 437.^ 
 
 Livy (vii., 16; xxvii., 10) mentions a tax called aurum 
 
 1 "History of Money in Ancient States," 257. 
 
 2 Livy, iv. , 60. A similar coinage of silver took place in China in 
 1845, where a somewhat similar system of bronze numeraries had existed 
 and who'e, by the way, it still exists (H. M. A., 43).- At the present 
 time (1895) silver is being again coined in China for soldiers' pay. 
 
ROME 23 
 
 vicesimarium, enacted A. u. 397 — an expression which 
 implies the use of gold money in Rome at that early 
 date, or, what is more likely, at a still earlier one. 
 This implication derives corroboration from what we 
 shall presently have to say concerning the "Romano" 
 coins. 
 
 Lenormant (i., 316) holds that"it has been established 
 by Mommsen beyond all question that, with perhaps 
 one exception, there exist no gold coins of the Republic 
 but such as were struck by its military generals in the 
 field, or at least elsewhere than in Rome." The excep- 
 tion relates to the aureus of Cn. Lentulus, and even 
 this, it is claimed, was not struck under his civil 
 authority as monetary triumvir, but as urban quaestor, 
 specially commissioned to provide for the expenses of 
 a war. This opinion is based rather upon a theory 
 than a fact. The theory is that the Roman coins of 
 the Republic were struck by virtue of the imperium,that 
 is to say, a military rather than a State prerogative. 
 The answer to this theory is that there was and could 
 have been no prerogative of the imperium other than 
 that derived from the State. 
 
 What was the imperium? Supreme military com- 
 mand; the right to do whatever was deemed essential to 
 achieve military success. This right sprang from the 
 people. In the most ancient times it was conferred by 
 the Comitia upon the king after they had elected him, 
 and by virtue of his office.' When the monarchy was 
 overthrown the people annually elected two supreme 
 coordinate magistrates, into whose hands were com- 
 mitted all the powers of the State, including the impe- 
 rium. These were acquired and exercised by virtue 
 of their office. For this reason the consuls were some- 
 
 I Niebuhr, i., 288; Carr, "Roman Ant.," 108. 
 
24 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 times called imperatores.' When a general in the field 
 had obtained a notable victory, it was customary for the 
 troops to hail him by this proud title; but it could not 
 be retained after the triumph or the return of the vic- 
 torious commander to the city. There it fell, of course, 
 to the consuls by virtue of their office.'"' It follows that 
 after the Comitia, the powers of the imperium were de- 
 rived from the consuls, and were subject to modifica- 
 tion or revocation by them. No doubt many of the 
 Roman commanders, during the period of the Repub- 
 lic, struck coins in the field in order to melt down and 
 divide the spoils or pay the troops, but such coinages 
 were, legally, as completely under control of the State 
 as though they had been made in Rome. Indeed, with- 
 out such legal control and supervision it would have 
 been impossible for generals in the field to adjust their 
 gold coinages with such nicety to the weights of the 
 silver coins and the ratios of value established by the 
 State from time to time between the precious metals, 
 as appear from a due consideration of the coinage sys- 
 tems of this era. Moreover, at the period alluded to by 
 Mommsen, the State had but recently emerged from 
 the use of a bronze currency system, whose efficiency 
 and value had depended largely upon the limitation of 
 its issues by the State, which was, therefore, not likely 
 to have parted with this supernal prerogative. This 
 system had broken down, not from any inherent defect 
 or impracticability, but owing to the circumstances of 
 a war which took place upon Roman soil and threatened 
 the very existence of the Republic. Finally, if there 
 was a department of the government which, more than 
 any other, enjoyed the pi-erogative of coining gold, it 
 was the pontificate rather than the imperium, for in the 
 I Adams, "Roman Ant.," 91, and authorities cited. 2 Adams, 382 
 
ROME 25 
 
 ancient times gold was always held to be a sacred 
 metal, and upon it was stamped, not so much the em- 
 blems of war as of religion. But that the Roman coins 
 were struck by pontifical authority does not appear 
 to have been suspected by the learned Prussian. 
 
 When Mommsen's imperium argument is applied to 
 the affairs of the Empire, it flies in the face of the most 
 illustrious witness whose testimony has been preserved 
 to us from antiquity. Says Tacitus: "Besides the 
 honors already granted Blaesus, Tiberius ordered that 
 the legions should salute him by the titles of imperator, 
 according to the ancient custom of the Roman armies 
 in the pride of victory, flushed with the generous ardor 
 of warlike spirits. In the time of the Republic this 
 was a frequent custom, insomuch that several at the 
 same time, without pre-eminence or distinction, enjoyed 
 that military honor. It was often allowed by Augus- 
 tus, and now by Tiberius for the last time. With him 
 the practice ceased altogether.'" From this passage we 
 Isarn that during the empire the title of imperator, and 
 with it necessarily such prerogatives as belonged to the 
 imperium, were granted by the order, permission, or 
 clemency of the sovereign-pontiffs, and that Tiberius 
 granted it for the last time. These replies to the argu- 
 ment of the Prussian savant are strengthened by the 
 legends upon the "Romano" coins presently to be 
 mentioned. 
 
 The earliest-Roman silver coins which are still extant 
 in any number belong to two series, stamped respec- 
 tively "Romano" and " Roma." Numismatists generally 
 attribute both of these series to the mints of Capua 
 and other cities of Campania, which were then included 
 in Magna Graecia. They date the "Romano" coins 
 from A, u. 412 to 543, and the "Roma" coins from 
 
 I Tacitus, "Annals," iv., 74. 
 
26 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 A. u. 437 to 543. Before giving their reasons for these 
 attributions and dates, I must be permitted to say that 
 several circumstances induce me to regard the "Ro- 
 mano" coins as of an era previous to the Roman num- 
 mulary system ; in other words, that the silver coins of 
 the "Romano" series are embraced in the heavier and 
 earlier denarii alluded to by Varro. (i.) Many of 
 them weigh half as much again as the "Roma" coins, 
 and, for this and other similar reasons, could hardly 
 have belonged to the same system. Babelon saw this 
 objection, and attempted to avoid its force by suppos- 
 ing the "Romano" denarii to be Greek di-drachmas, 
 but our chapter on Greek moneys proves that the ex- 
 planation is defective. The "Romano" coins are not 
 heavy enough for di-drachmas of that period, even 
 when the latter are of the lightest weight yet found. 
 [2.) Although the internal dissensions of the Samnites 
 led to the interference of the Romans so early as a. u. 
 412, then under the consuls M. Valerius Corvus and 
 A. Cornelius Cossus, yet this interference did not for 
 many years result in any such conquests, on the part of 
 the latter, as would have warranted them in stamping 
 money in the field, or anywhere else, for circulation in 
 Campania; whilst the legend "Romano" forbids the 
 hypothesis that they were stamped for circulation else- 
 where than in Rome. Their Grecian type may be 
 simply due to the employment of Greek die-sinkers in 
 Rome. 
 
 For these reasons the "Romano" silver coins are 
 regarded as older than the "Roma" series; this view 
 including all the "Romano" coins, whether of gold, 
 electrum, silver or bronze. 
 
 The reasons advanced by numismatists for calling 
 both of these series Capuan or Campanian coins are 
 
ROME 27 
 
 briefly as follows: — (i.) The types of the coins are 
 Greek, not Roman. They follow the coins of Mace- 
 don; some of them follow thetj'pes of previous Capuan 
 coinages; some are stamped "Capua" in the Oscan 
 letter. (2.) The word "Romano," as employed on 
 the coins, is a Greek rather than a Roman form. (3.) 
 The type of some of the Capuan coins (for example, 
 the casqued Minerva) is apparently copied from the 
 coins of Andoleon, king of Pseonia (in Macedon), about 
 A. u. 470. However, these last are rather late "Roma" 
 coins, about which there is no dispute. 
 
 It is quite possible that during the wars of the Ro- 
 mans with the Samnites and other nations in Italy, their 
 generals struck some "Roma" coins in the field; but 
 unless we are prepared to throw both Livy and Pliny 
 overboard, it must be admitted that such coins were 
 also struck in Rome, and that all of them, whether in 
 Rome or elsewhere, were struck under the coinage 
 prerogative of the Roman State — a prerogative which, 
 from the birth to the downfall of their government, the 
 Romans never willingly let slip from their hands. 
 
 In A.u. 437 a notable addition was made to the mone- 
 tary system of Rome by the issuance of a "Roma" gold 
 coin, called the "scrupulum," which was valued at 
 twenty aces, and others of forty and sixty aces — not 
 sesterces, as has been hitherto supposed.' Assuming 
 that the denarius of this period contained 78! grains 
 fine silver and the relation of silver to gold was nine 
 for one, then the scrupulum coins should contain about 
 seventeen and one half grains of gold, which, as is 
 shown in the table below, was the fact. 
 
 It should, however, first be explained that in Greece 
 and Rome the scrupulum (not the scripulum, for which 
 it has often been mistaken) was the name of a pawn or 
 
 I Moramsen, M. R., i., 226, cited by Lenormant, i., 162. 
 
28 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 draughtsman, and that the game of draughts was an- 
 ciently played with nine and afterwards with ten men. 
 Hence the scrupulum at first meant the ninth, and after- 
 wards the tenth part, or multiple, of anything. So also 
 an insect with ten feet was called scrupipidae, and a 
 measure of land ten feet long and ten feet wide, con- 
 taining a hundred square feet, was called a scrupulum. 
 At a still later date the game of draughts was played, 
 as it is still played, with twelve men, but these numbers 
 were unknown to the game at the period under review. 
 Hence, in Rome, during the fifth century of the city, a 
 scrupulum meant, not a weight, but the ninth of any- 
 thing; and in the case of money it meant the ninth of 
 the gold aureus. This is shown in the following table: 
 
 Roman coinage system about A. V. ^-ij or b. c. 316.. Ratio of silver to 
 gold, qfor I. 
 2% bronze aces = i bronze sesterce. 
 
 4 sesterces = i silver denarius, 78^ Eng. grains. 
 
 2 denarii = i gold scrupulum, 17.5 grains, stamped "XX." 
 
 18 denarii = i gold aureus, 157.5 grains. 
 
 5 aurei ^ i libra of account, containing 787. 5 grains fine gold 
 
 Hence 900 aces = i libra. 
 
 The gold and silver coins were of substantially fine 
 metal. Type of gold coin : obverse, the head of Rom- 
 ulus or Mars, accompanied by numerals, denoting the 
 tale value; reverse, an eagle, with the legend " Roma. " 
 Type of silver coins: obverse, female head with winged 
 helmet; reverse, a biga and the legend "Roma." 
 
 Pliny (xxxiii., 13) says that the libra was equal to 
 "DCCCC," or 900 sesterces, meaning aces, to the 
 value of which the bronze sesterces meanwhile fell. 
 
 From this table of equivalents it will be observed that 
 the scrupulum was not a scripulum weight, nor the libra 
 a pound weight; but that the former was simply one- 
 ninth of the aureus coin, and the latter five aurei. 
 
 The scrupulum coins in the British Museum marked 
 
ROME 29 
 
 "LX," meaning sixty aces, contain from 52 to 52.7 
 grains of gold, the theoretical weight being 52! grains. 
 Those marked "XL" contain 34.4 to 34.5 grains, the 
 theoretical weight being 35.106 grains; those marked 
 "XX" contain 17.210 17.4 grains, the theoretical weight 
 being 17.5 grains. The denarii contain from 66.5 to 
 79.9 grains. The lightest of these denarii evidently 
 belong to later systems. 
 
 With regard to the "libra" of account. Gibbon says 
 that, besides the libra weight, the Romans used a libra 
 of account, which they called pondo: "Outre la livre 
 pond^rale des Romains, ils avoient une livre de comte, 
 qu'ils appelloient pondo."* An example in point is 
 shown below. The pound of account was also called 
 the "libra sestercia," or the " sestercium ;" that is to say, 
 a thousand bronze sesterces, whether composed of gold, 
 silver or copper coins. Pliny, Ammianus MarcelHnus, 
 and the Theodosian Code all assure us that there were 
 five aurei to the "pound" of account during the Em- 
 pire. 
 
 Gibbon supposed that the Romans commenced coin- 
 ing gold at 40 aurei to the libra weight, afterwards 
 (citing Snellius and Agricola) at 42, and gradually more, 
 until, in the time of Caracalla, the number reached 48 
 (109.38 grains each); "the drachma or denier" always 
 weighing half as much, and valued at -j^ of the aureus, 
 a ratio of 12^. But the numismatic discoveries of the 
 present century prove this to be all wrong. The aureus 
 of A. u. 437 was struck 33^ to the pound weight; the 
 denier was not always half the weight of the aureus ; 
 the ratio was never I2i; there were not always 25 
 deniers to the aureus. As these errors are only a few, 
 amongst a vast number on the same subject, that ap- 
 I Misc. Works, ed. 1815, iii. , 437. 
 
30 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 pear in the usual works of reference, they are only 
 noticed here on account of the eminence of the author, 
 and the almost universal acceptance of the great literary 
 masterpiece to which his essay on "Roman Money" 
 formed a preliminary study. 
 
 In A. u. 485 a small silver coin was struck in Rome, 
 the fourth of a denarius,, called a sesterce. At the same 
 time there appeared a new coinage of aces, of which 10 
 went to a denarius, of about 73 grains. These coins 
 are shown in the following table of equivalents:^ 
 
 Roman coinage system under the consuls Ogulnius and Fabius, a. u. 485 
 or ■&. c. 268.^ Ratio of silver to gold, 10 for I. 
 2^ bronze aces= i silver sesterce, 18.229 grains. 
 
 4 sesterces = i silver denarius, 72.9167 grains. 
 20 denarii = i gold aureus, 145.833 grains. 
 
 5 aurei = i libra of acct., containing 729 1-6 grains fine gold. 
 
 Hence 1,000 aces = i libra. 
 
 The gold and silver coins were of substantially pure 
 metal. Coins struck in Rome. 
 
 It is in reference to this period that Budajus (lib. 4) 
 says that the pondo of account consisted of 100 denarii, 
 or 400 sesterces (or 1000 aces). The system was purely 
 decimal: for example, 10 aces^i denarius; 2odenarii = 
 I aureus; 5 aurei, or 1000 aces=i libra. This cir- 
 cumstance has a significance which does not belong to 
 the present subject, but which the curious reader may 
 pursue in my ."Middle Ages Revisited," index word 
 "Ten." Mommsen holds that in A.u. 485 Rome limited 
 the Latin colonies to the coinage of bronze, and thence- 
 forth monopolized for herself the coinage of silver. 
 
 Between the era of this system and the year a. u. 
 535, when a treatj- relative to the exchange of prisoners 
 made during the first was renewed during the second 
 
 1 Ernest Babelon ("Monnais de la Republique," i., xxii.) dates the 
 earliest silver sesterce in A. u. 485 (486). It disappeared in 537, reap- 
 peared in 665, and iinally disappeared in 711. 
 
 2 Pliny, xxxiii. , 13; Livy,Ep. xv. 
 
ROME 3 1 
 
 Punic war, the libra of account appears to have been 
 raised from 5 to lo aurei. There are several testi- 
 monies which support this opinion. Plutarch, who 
 alludes to this treaty in his life of Fabius Maximus, fixes 
 the ransom of the prisoners at 250 drachmas or denarii. 
 Livy (xxii., 23), in alluding to the same transaction, 
 computes it at two and a half pounds of money — "ar- 
 genti pondo bina et selibras." This allows 250 denarii 
 to the libra of account. As the denarius of that period 
 weighed about 70 English grains and the aureus about 
 160 grains, and the ratio was 10 for i, it follows that 
 there were 10 aurei to the libra, as appears in the next 
 table. Other testimonies rise from the use of the phrases 
 "libra sestercia" and "sestertium," meaning a thou- 
 sand sesterces or 2,500 aces to the libra, which could 
 only be the case if the libra was raised to 10 aurei. 
 
 Roman coinage system during the second Punic war^ a. u. 535 or b. c. 218, 
 Ratio of Silver to gold 10, for i. 
 10 bronze aces ^ i silver denarius, 70 grains. 
 25 denarii = i gold aureus, 160 grains. 
 
 10 aurei = i libra of account. 
 
 Hence 2,500 aces ■= i libra. 
 
 The gold and silver were of substantially pure metal. 
 These coins were struck in Rome. 
 
 However, this valuation of the libra did not stand 
 long. Before the conclusion pf the war the libra appears 
 to have been again valued at 5 aurei, as shown in the 
 following table of equivalents: 
 
 Roman coinage system urider the consuls Claudius and Livius, a. U. 547, 
 a. c. 206.^ Ratio of silver to gold, 10 for i. 
 16 bronze aces = i silver denarius, 63 grains. 
 
 6% denarii ^= i quarter aureus, 39.375 grains. 
 25 denarii = i gold aureus, 157. 5 grains. 
 
 5 aurei = i libra, 787.5 grains. 
 
 Hence 2000 aces = 1 libra. 
 I Pliny, xxxiii., 13. Babelon, p. xv., dates this coinage from the Lex 
 Flaminius or Lex Fabius, a. u. 537, the year o£ the battle of Trasiraenus, 
 when Q. Fabius Maximus was dictator and C. Servilius and C. Flaminius 
 were consols. A discrepancy like this one, of ten years, and a further 
 discrepancy of five years, appears in many instances between the Augus- 
 tan and Christian chronology. See "Middle Ages Revisited," Appendix, 
 on "Ludi Saaculares." 
 
32 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 The gold and silver coins were substantially of fine 
 metal. These coins were struck in Rome. About 
 A. u. 525 the Roman authorities had established branch 
 mints, and authorized the striking of coins for the 
 Republic in the provincial cities of Italy, Cis-Alpine, 
 Gaul, and Illyria; but this did not include the right to 
 strike the denarius.' In paying the troops a denarius 
 was always reckoned at 10 aces. 
 
 One result of the Social war (a. u. 664-6), which was 
 caused b}' the demand of the rural Italians to share the 
 privileges of citizenship with the Romans, was that 
 the Roman provincial mints in Italy, with the excep- 
 tion of those in Sicily, were all closed, and the work 
 of coinage was removed to Rome. Before this, how- 
 ever, the insurgents issued coins stamped Italia, but as 
 the coins were suppressed with the insurrection, they 
 hardly claim a place in the present brief review. Among 
 the Italiote coins were the aurei of Minius leus, weigh- 
 ing 13 1 4 grains.^ 
 
 The period of the Lex Papiria, cited by Pliny, which 
 the older commentators assigned to a. u. 587, has been 
 gradually lowered, until, in the most recent numismatic 
 works, it has been assigned to a. u. 663, when, by the 
 Lex Julia, the rights of Roman citizenship were at 
 length conceded to all freeborn Italians. It is now 
 called the law of Julia and Plautia-Papiria. The orig- 
 inal authority for this lowered date is Niebuhr, who 
 has been followed by Mommsen, Lenormant and Babe- 
 Ion. The principal changes which took place in the 
 Roman monetary law at this period will be found em- 
 bodied in the system of Sylla. 
 
 1 Mommsen, "Rechtsfrage," 18; Lenormant, ii., 234. 
 
 2 Friedlander and Burgon give the weight of the aureus of Minius 
 leus at 131^ English grains. 
 
ROME 33 
 
 Roman coinage system under Sylla, a. u, 675, or b. c. 78 Ratio of 
 silver to gold, gfor i, 
 
 4 bronze aces = i silver sesterce, 13 grains. 
 
 4 sesterces = i silver denarius, of about 60.6 grains. 
 12^ denarii = 1 gold half -aureus. ^ 
 
 25 denarii = i gold aureus, of about 168.3 grains. 
 
 5 aurei = i libra of account. 
 
 Hence 2000 aces = i libra. 
 
 The gold and silver pieces were of substantially 
 fine metal. Type of gold coins: MANLIA with biga, 
 or L. SYLLA ; on reverse, figure on horseback. Type 
 of silver coins: obverse, head of Ceres, with small 
 head of Taurus; reverse, altar and sacrifice — apparently 
 a concession to the Bacchic cult of Italy. 
 
 The gold coins of this series, which are very rare, 
 are believed to have been struck in Asia. The weights 
 of four examples in the British Museum are 169.3,167.7, 
 167.3 and 167.2 grains, the theoretical weight being 
 168.3 grains. The silver coins of the same ■series are 
 serrated on their edges, and weigh from 55 to 61^ 
 grains each, the theoretical weight being 60.6 grains. 
 Sylla struck no bronze or copper coins, nor were any 
 struck between his time and the year when Augustus 
 celebrated the Ludi Sasculares, and when M. Sangui- 
 nius and P. Licinius Stoto filled the position of mone- 
 tary triumvirs. 
 
 In his earlier coinages Julius Cassar struck aurei of 
 142 and afterwards (in u. A. 694)^ of 13 ingrains, spec- 
 imens of which are still extant. The ratio of silver to 
 gold in these coinages was probably 10 for i. In the 
 coinages of A. u. 708 this ratio was definitively — 
 and, as it turned out, permanently — fixed at 12 for i. 
 
 1 "No smaller gold pieces in use at this period" (Humphreys, 303). 
 
 2 Letronne, p. 73. 
 
34 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 Roman coinage system under Julius Ccesar , A. u. 708, or B c. 45. Ratio 
 of silver to gold, 12 for I 
 4 bronze aces = 1 silver sesterce, 15 grains. 
 
 4 sesterces! = i silver denarius, about 60 grains. 
 25 denarii = i gold aureus, 125 grains. 
 
 5 aurei = i libra of account. 
 
 Hence 2000 aces = i libra. 
 
 The gold and silver pieces were substantially fine 
 metal. Letronne (p. 84) says that down to Vespasian 
 the aurei were 0.991 to 0.998 fine'. Caesar was the 
 first to stamp the image of a living person (his own) on 
 a Roman coin (Lenormant, ii., 332). 
 
 No language is more positive than that of Mommsen 
 and Lenormant in laying down the following institute: 
 that Rome never permitted her vassals to strike gold. 
 "La Republique se reservait exclusivement la fabrica- 
 tion de la monnaie de ce metal, sans la permeltre a ses 
 vassaux."^ When gold was struck in the provinces — 
 for example, the staters struck by Titus Quinctius Fla- 
 mininus in Greece and afterwards the aurei of Sylla 
 in Asia, or the aurei of Pompey in Cilicia, a. u. 693 — it 
 was always done in the name of Rome and under the 
 prerogative of the State.' This practice was continued 
 to the end of the Empire.'' Lenormant regards it as 
 the jealous prerogative of the imperium.^ We have 
 discussed this theory already, and shown it to be un- 
 tenable. But even admitting, for the sake of limiting 
 its place in time, that such was the case during the Re- 
 public, it certainly ceased to be so when the Empire 
 was consolidated by Augustus, and all the powers and 
 prerogatives of the State, whether religious, civil, or 
 
 1 "These were the so-called 'First Brass,' or, more properly, 'First 
 Bronze,' which took the place of the silver sesterce, the latter thence- 
 forth disappearing from circulation. The half-sesterce, or dupondius, 
 was the 'Second Brass,' and the reduced ace was the 'Third Brass' of 
 the earlier numismatists" (Humphreys, 302, 312). 
 
 2 Lenormant, "Mon. Ant., ii., 120; Mommsen, M. R. iii., 344. 
 
 3 Weight of an aureus of Pompey. 146 grains. Lenormant, ii., 303. 
 
 4 Patin, 35; LavoixrProcopius; Zonaras. 
 
 5 Pp. 121, 248, 304, 363, etc. 
 
ROME 35 
 
 military, were merged in the sovereign-pontiflf. The 
 latest of such alleged military coins were the silver 
 denarii and bronze aces struck by T. Carisius, who was 
 Legatus Augusti in Gallia and Lusitania, A. u. 731-2/ 
 Augustus united the imperium to the pontificate in a.u. 
 740, and from this time forward the right to strike gold 
 became the exclusive prerogative of the sovereign^ 
 pontiff. That it was regarded a sacerdotal prerogative 
 is proved by the continual repetition of religious em- 
 blems on the coins. Lenormant himself notices this: 
 "Pendant longtemps, elles ne portant que des types 
 religieux assez uniformes, arrgt^s par les autorit^s pub- 
 liques et puises dans la religion de I'^tat."^ 
 
 In this year the Roman coinage system was perma- 
 nently organized.* The coinage prerogative was 
 divided between the sovereign-pontiff and the Senate, 
 the former retaining that of gold and resigning to the 
 latter that of silver and copper. In a short time, through 
 the virtual subjection of the Senate, the silver coinage 
 also fell to the sovereign-pontiff. In accordance with 
 the ordinance of a. c. 740, the coinage of silver was 
 permitted to the proconsuls, and the pieces stamped 
 PERMissu DIVI AVGusti, that is, "by permission of 
 the divine Augustus." The coinage of bronze always 
 remained with the Senate* However, this prerogative, 
 like that of silver, was virtually in the hands of Augus- 
 tus; yet it suited his interest not to meddle with it as 
 he did with the coinage of silver. 
 
 I Lenormant,!., 362. 2 Lenormant, ii., 232. 
 
 3 "The school of Mommsen hold that a reorganization of the monetary 
 system took place in a. u. 727, when Octavius received the title of 
 Augustus, or in a. u. 738, the date of the Ludi Saeculares and of his 
 (second) attempted apotheosis" (Lenormant, ii., 214, 399). But they fail 
 to offer any proofs which connect the reorganization with these dates. 
 Moreover, their conclusions are vitiated by the unwarrantejd assump- 
 tion that the coinage was a prerogative of the imperium — an assumption 
 which is negatived by their own admissions concerning the coinages of 
 Otho mentioned further on. 
 
 4 Lenormant, ii., 195, 216, 218. 
 
2'0 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 R.'Hi.m coinage system ofAugusHts, A. u. 740 or E. c. 13. Ratio of silver 
 to gold, 12 for I, 
 
 4 bronze sesterces = I silver denarius 58.4 grains. 
 25 denarii ^^ i gold aureus, 121.6 grains. 
 
 5 jlurei = I libra, 608 grains. 
 
 Hence 500 sesterces = i libra. 
 
 The gold and silver pieces were of substantially fine 
 metal. ^ In this s^istem the silver sesterce gives way to 
 a bronze one. 
 
 The defects of Pliny's history of the Roman money 
 arise chiefly from his too confident reliance upon ver- 
 balisms; yet the school of Mommsen follow him with- 
 out the least misgiving. They gravely inform us that 
 pecunia is derived from /ecMs; that the value of coins 
 is deducible from the names of weights ; that the modern 
 pound sterling is from the pound weight of silver, and 
 the marc of money from a mark weight of silver; they 
 talk familiarly of the single and double "standard" 
 under Julius Ceesar and Augustus; and draw conclu- 
 sions from ancient history, the premises of which can- 
 not possibly be traced in Europe farther back than the 
 coinage legislation of the sixteenth century. Such a 
 school exhibits no claims to be regarded as authorities 
 on either the principles or the history of money. They 
 have been taught to look upon money as so much metal, 
 whereas it is plainly an institution of law. It is as though 
 measures of length and volume were regarded as so 
 much wood, because it has been found most convenient 
 to make yard-sticks, pecks, and bushels of that material. 
 Mommsen's conception of the monetary system of Au- 
 gustus is that it began with an attempt to establish the 
 "double standard" at a ratio of 15.75, then at 14.29, 
 etc., but that after several trials this system was aban- 
 
 I Patin ("Hist. Coins," p. 71) says that the Roman gold coins were of 
 fine metal down to the reign of Alexander Severus, when they were 
 alloyed with one-fifth of silver. This alliage, however, was not common, 
 but exceptional He goes on to say that the purity of coins was re- 
 stored by Aurelian. On this subject, consult Leuormant, i., 200, 203 
 
ROME 37 
 
 doned as impracticable, and the "single gold standard" 
 was definitely adopted in place of it! The facts are 
 that no such idea as is involved in the phrase of single 
 or double "standard" was dreamed of at that period; 
 that no such attempts were made; that no such ratios 
 are deducible from the Roman coinage systems; that 
 the ratio of the Empire was always 12 for i; that no 
 change occurred in its monetary system until the reign 
 of Caracalla, and then only g slight one; and that no 
 change at all was made in the ratio for nearly thirteen 
 hundred years. 
 
 Gold standard, silver standard, double standard, 
 halting standard, etc., these are terms derived from 
 the legislation of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, 
 when, for the first time in the history of the European 
 world, private individuals were permitted to coin 
 money, or, what is the same thing, they were accorded 
 the right to require the government to turn their bullion 
 into money, free of taxation, loss, or expense. This 
 idiotic legislation, euphemistically called "free coinage," 
 deprived government of that control over money which 
 had ever been regarded as an essential attribute of sov- 
 ereignty and as necessary for the maintenance of op- 
 portunities to facilitate a just distribution of wealth. In 
 effect it destroyed money, or nomisma, which is an in- 
 stitution or a measure of value prescribed and regulated 
 by law, and it substituted for money an unknown and 
 illimitable quantity of metal — a substance that, as such, 
 is not amenable to legal control. Hence arose the 
 modern jargon of gold standard, silver standard, etc. 
 So long as money was governed by law, it was the 
 whole number of coins, reduced to one denomination, 
 that determined prices. When money ceased to be 
 governed by law, as was the case after the legislation 
 
38 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 procured by the Dutch and English East India Com- 
 panies, it was the whole quantity of metal that deter- 
 mined prices. Before the seventeenth century the 
 "standard," or measure of priceB,was the whole number 
 of coins, at the valuation affixed to them by law ; after 
 that period the legal valuation (except as to the ratio) 
 formed no part of the measure; and within the last 
 quarter of a century, even the ratio has been swept 
 away. The measure of prices in the Western world at 
 the present time consists chiefly of metal, as such. 
 When that metal is gold, the measure is called the "gold 
 standard;" when it is sHver, the "silver standard," etc. 
 But in the days of Augustus this was wholly unknown. 
 There was no individual coinage. The measure of 
 prices was the whole number of coins which were legal 
 tenders, and which circulated, not merely in Rome, but 
 throughout the Empire, after they were reduced to one 
 of the various denominations which were affixed to them 
 by law. Within prudent limits, it made no difference 
 whether the coins were pure or impure, light or heavj', 
 yellow, white or brown. No one could lawfully stamp 
 them except the State. The value they bore was (with- 
 in such prudent limits) whatever the State chose to 
 stamp upon them ;^ and this principle was so deeply 
 planted in the Roman law and constitution, that it be- 
 came the groundwork of judicial decisions as to what 
 constituted a good and lawful tender of money, down 
 to and including the period of Sir Matthew Hale. 
 
 With regard to the ratios which have been calculated 
 by Mommsen and Lenormant between gold and silver, 
 I have only room to say briefly that they are founded 
 chiefly on two errors. The first one is that of mistak- 
 ing the "libra" of money, or argenti, which was o.^iTpij 
 a sum of current aurei, no matter of what weight or 
 
 I Digest, xviii., i., i. 
 
ItOME 39 
 
 alloy, for a pound weight of silver metal; the second 
 one is that of calculating the ratio from anachronical 
 coins, from exceptional coins, or from those of only local 
 cuiTency or limited legal tender. The ratios calculated 
 by Hoffman' are of the same defective character. When 
 the ratio is calculated, as it should be, from the full legal 
 tender coins, issued under a given system by the sov- 
 ereign-pontiff, it will be found to have always been 12 
 for I. Although many of the Roman emperors issued 
 debased silver coins, these were never full legal ten- 
 ders; for example, they were not receivable for tributes 
 or taxes, which were payable either in aurei or in silver 
 coins, or bullion, at the weight ratio of 12 for i. Lenor- 
 mant's statement (i., 185) that "Alexander Severus, in 
 order to steady the revenues, decided that all pa3-ments 
 into the treasury should be exclusively in gold," is un- 
 warranted by the text to which he refers, which merely 
 says that the emperor "frequently caused his gold and 
 silver to be weighed." This is precisely what is done 
 periodically in all great treasuries.^ Upon this text 
 Lenormant also builds the unwarranted conclusion that 
 the "standard," or measure of prices, was gold metal. 
 His master, the illustrious Mommsen, also sees in the 
 gradually lessened weight of the aureus, "a virtual de- 
 monetization of gold."^ Whereas, in fact, nothing of 
 the sort is to be seen. The lowering of the aureus (a 
 slight one) was merely an economy of gold metal in the 
 fabrication of Roman money — a measure probably dic- 
 tated by the necessities of the times, and of no necessary 
 bearing on the position of money in the law, or even 
 upon its power to correctly measure the value of com- 
 modities, services or debts.* 
 
 1 "Lehre von Gelde." pp. 103, et seq. 
 
 2 "Omne aurum, omne argentum, idque frequenter appendit" (Lam- 
 pridius in "Alex. Severus," xxxix.) 
 
 - -,I. R., iii.,63. 
 Mill, "Polit, EcQn " 
 
40 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEM 
 
 Mommsen and Lenoimant conclude their remarks on 
 this subject with the statement that the aureus was event- 
 ually so much degraded and debased that it ceased to 
 be regarded as money — that it became merely ingots of 
 bullion, and was weighed out with balance in hand. 
 They refer for their warrant to Vopiscus, in Aurelian, 
 9 and 12, Probus 4, and Bonosus 15. Upon turning to 
 these texts we merely find that certain payments of gold 
 "phiilips," or silver "antonines," or copper "sesterces" 
 are mentioned, just as we now say so many Louis d'or, 
 Napoleons, Maria Theresa dollars, etc. Not a word 
 appears in these texts about "ingot-money," or bullion, 
 or weighing in balances. These phrases and inferences 
 are not only unwarranted by the texts, they entirely 
 pervert and misrepresent the condition of money under 
 the Roman law. 
 
 From the second coinage of Constantine to the fall of 
 the Empiie, a period of nearly 900 years, the aureus 
 was seldom degraded, and but once debased; it never 
 ceased to be regarded as money. There was no ingot- 
 money ; there was no weighing of gold coins, they 
 passed then, as they do now, by tale, and, what is 
 more, it was unlawful to refuse, criminal to alter, and 
 death to deface them or to reduce them to bullion.* 
 Says Gibbon, of the Roman imperial revenues: "A 
 large portion of the tribute was paid in money, and 
 of the current coin of the Empire gold alone could be 
 legally accepted."^ Elsewhere he says: "Pendants 
 que dans les tributs il ejfigeoit toujours I'aureus de Con- 
 stantin ;" /. e. while as to tributes, they were alwa3'S 
 exacted in the aureus of Constantine.' He should have 
 added: "Or in twelve times their weight of silver." 
 
 Suetonius informs us that upon the death of Caligula 
 
 1 Arrian, Epictet, iii., i; Paul, Sentent. recept. v., 25, i; Lenormaut, 
 •■> 237; Digest, xlviii., 13, i; Suetonius in "Augustus." 
 
 2 "Decline and Kail," ii , 64. 3 Misc. works, iii., 460. 
 
ROME 41 
 
 an attempt was made to re-establish the Republic' 
 Among the acts of the Senate on this occasion was a 
 decree decrying the tyrant's money, and requiring it 
 to be brought into the treasury and melted down, "so 
 that, were it possible, both his name and features might 
 be forgotten by posterity."^ Nevertheless, there are 
 nearly a hundred different types of his coins still ex- 
 tant. The Senate of this period was republican; but 
 the lower orders of the people, the soldiers, and the 
 priests were in favor of the hierarchy, the former for the 
 sake of the largesses bestowed by the emperors, the 
 latter on account of their benefices, which, ever since 
 the time of Augustus, had been rendered lucrative and 
 permanent. Claudius, the uncle of Caligula, was either 
 so rapid in his movements, or, as the story goes, was so 
 quickly taken up by the praetorian band, that the design 
 of the Senate proved abortive, and it did not have 
 time to issue coins proclaiming the Republic before 
 Claudius succeeded in securing the support of the 
 guards, and was enabled to suppress the incipient rising. 
 It does not appear that the Senate issued any republican 
 coins on this oqcasion, but, as we shall presently see, 
 coins of such a character were indeed issued some 
 twenty-five years later, when Nero died and before 
 Galba seized the imperial throne. 
 
 There were circumstances connected with the reign 
 of Nero which must have encouraged the growth of a 
 revolutionary spirit, having for its object the overthrow 
 of the hierarchy and worship of Augustus, if not, in- 
 deed, the restoration of the ancient Republic. 
 
 Nero seems to have been rather skeptical about the 
 divine origin which was claimed for Augustus, and but 
 little disposed to offer adoration to him. When Rome 
 
 1 Claudius, 10. 
 
 2 Laurence Echard, "Rora. Hist." ii., 103. 
 
42 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 was accidentally burnt, he did not hesitate to rebuild it 
 with funds plundered from the temples in which this 
 profane worship was conducted. By way of retaliation, 
 the enraged priests composed his biography, which 
 they have filled with such horrid crimes as, were the 
 least portion of them true, would render it difficult to 
 understand why the memory of Nero was so dear — as 
 many instances prove that it was — to his countrymen 
 for many ages. If Nero was imbued with any religion 
 at all, it was that of Liber Pater, for it is the effigy of 
 this deity which appears most frequently on his coins. 
 Suetonius also informs us that he sacrificed three times 
 a day to another deity, whose worship was clearly 
 allied to that of Bacchus.^ Otho, who was one of Nero's 
 favorites, professed the religion of Isis, which was either 
 the same or a similar cult.^ This was the popular 
 religion of Italy, where some remains of it survive to 
 the present day. It was the religion of the poor and 
 down-trodden, for it inculcated peace and friendship, 
 and promised liberty and immortality. Nero's dislike 
 for the religion of the State and his partiality for the 
 cult of Bacchus, coupled with his neglect of discipline, 
 his condescension, familiarity, and joviality, could hardly 
 have failed to warm those hopes of restoring the Re- 
 public, which the example and writings of Brutus and 
 Cicero assure us were deeply implanted in the minds 
 of the Roman patricians. Be this as it may, it is cer- 
 tain that upon the news of Nero's death many people, 
 adopting for the emblem of their hopes the Phrygian 
 cap of Liber Pater, ran wildly through the streets, utter- 
 ing revolutionary cries, and fomenting an excitement 
 that ended by involving the Senate in their design, and 
 the issuance of an Act proclaiming a Republican Gov- 
 ernment. Among the first measures of the short-lived 
 I Nero, 56. 2 Otho, 12. 
 
ROME 43 
 
 administration was the coinage of money, designed to 
 announce the restoration. It was, perhaps, unfortunate 
 for these patriots that they began by striking gold, this 
 being essentially a prerogative belonging to the pon- 
 tifical office, and one whose violation, apart from other 
 circumstances, would be likely of itself to array against 
 them, not only the ecclesiastical orders, but the preju- 
 dices of all persons of religious pretensions or of super- 
 stitious tendencies. 
 
 Besides the gold coins, there were struck silver and 
 bronze ones, and so numerous were they that nearly 
 a hundred different types (not merely coins, but types 
 of coins) are still extant. All these must have been 
 struck between June 9, A. d. 68, the date of Nero's 
 death, and July 18, A. d. 69, that of the investiture of 
 Vitellius as sovereign-pontiff. A common type of these 
 coins was a citizen clad in a toga, with a cap of Liberty 
 on his head and a wreath of laurel in his right hand, 
 and the legend LIBERT ATI. Reverse: Victory 
 standing on a globe, with crown and palm, and the 
 legend S. P. Q. R. Others have the legends Concordia 
 provinciarum, Cpncordia prsetorianorum. Fides mili- 
 tum,Roma renascens, Libertas, Libertas populi romani, 
 Libertas restituta, Jupiter Capitolinus, Mars ultor, Vol- 
 canus ultor, Vesta populi romani quiritium, etc' 
 
 The person destined to destroy the ephemeral Repub- 
 lic was Ser. Sulpicius Galba, a member of the Quinde- 
 cemviral Sacred College, a priest of the Augustals and 
 of the Titii, a man of enormous wealth, who never 
 traveled without a retinue of monks and soothsayers, 
 and who, wherever he pitched his camp, erected an 
 altar, swung a censer, and offered frankincense, sacri- 
 ficial wine, and costly jewels to the gods.^ This pious 
 
 I "Revue Numismatique," 1862 and 1865; Lenormant, ii., 373; Cohen, 
 "Mon. Rom." z Suet. "Galba," 4, 8, 9, 18. 
 
44 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 Roman enjoyed a proconsulshipunder Nero in Hispania 
 Tarraconensis, where he appears to have divided his 
 leisure between the celebration of religious ceremonies 
 and the organization of a conspiracy against the throne 
 of his benefactor. When this conspiracy was ripe, he 
 declared it to be a holy war, "sacred and acceptable to 
 the gods." Upon hearing that Nero was dead, Galba 
 proclaimed himself the Csesar, hung a dagger from his 
 ne^k, as a token of his bloody intentions, and, attended 
 by his legions and a formidable body of Spanish re- 
 cruits, made his way to Rome, where an accession of 
 forces had been organized for him by his ecclesiastical 
 friends. Then Galba's dagger came into play. In the 
 course of a few days the Nj^mphidians, as the Repub- 
 licans were called, were all put to death or driven into 
 exile ; the statues of Bacchus were destroyed, the Phryg- 
 ian caps were burnt, the power of the sovereign-pontiff 
 was re-established, and the ill-starred Republic came 
 to an end. 
 
 The coinage prerogative of the Pontifex Maximus is 
 made the subject of a strange argument by the illustrious 
 Mommsen. We must premise that after a short reign 
 Galba was assassinated. He was succeeded by Otho, 
 who, because he declared it his intention to restore the 
 Republic, was undoubtedly supported by the Nymphid- 
 ians and opposed by the ecclesiastics. The latter now 
 turned for aid to Aulus Vitellius. This person was the 
 great-grandson of Q. Vitellius, "questor to Divus Au- 
 gustus," the grandson of P. Vitellius, "a Roman knight 
 and manager of Augustus' affairs," and the son of Lucius 
 Vitellius, who set the example of worshiping Caligula 
 as the living God, and never approached him without 
 covering his head with a veil, turning his body, as was 
 customary in Roman worship, and falling prostrate 
 
ROME 45 
 
 Upon the ground.' The piety of his ancestors must 
 have descended to Aulus, who was rewarded with nu- 
 merous rich ecclesiastical benefices, the gift of three 
 successive princes," besides the lucrative surveyorship 
 of public buildings, a proconsulship in Africa, and 
 another in Germany. This last office, the gift of Galba, 
 was employed by Vitellius as a means to secure his own 
 elevation to the throne. Indulgence, bribery and prom- 
 ises were employed with success to win the legions 
 under his command. The sword of Divus Julius was 
 taken down out of the temple of Mars and placed in the 
 hands of the ambitious proconsul ; the soldiers saluted 
 him as Imperator and Augustus; and a wreath of laurel 
 "most religiously begirt his brow." Sending a power- 
 ful army ahead to overthrow his rival, he began his 
 march to Rome. On the way he was informed of a 
 decisive victory at Bebriacum (now Caveto) and of the 
 death of Otho. Arrived in Rome, Vitellius was soon 
 surrounded by "a numerous assembly of priests," who, 
 together with the faction known as the Veneti, appear 
 to have formed the bulk of his party in the capital. He 
 was invested as Pontifex Maximus on the ominous an- 
 niversary of the battle of Allia, and after a brief and 
 troubled reign of eight months was assassinated. The 
 previous reign of Otho extended from the death of 
 Galba, January 15th (a. d. 69), to his own death, April 
 20th, a period of ninety-five days.^ 
 
 We are now prepared to follow Mommsen's argu- 
 ment. The investiture of the high-priesthood of Rome, 
 after an ancient custom, could only be conferred during 
 the month of March, there being only two instances to 
 the contrary. The coinage of copper, says Mommsen, 
 was the prerogative of the high-priesthood. Otho was 
 
 I Vitellius, 5. 2 Ibid. 
 
 3 Lenormant (ii., 416) says April 15th. 
 
46 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 invested with the pontificate on March 9th. Within 
 five days of this date he was on his way to meet the 
 troops of Vitellius in Lombardy. Therefore, he had 
 not sufficient time to confer upon the Senate the neces- 
 sary authority to strike bronze coins. This, in Momm- 
 sen's opinion, explains why, although there are gold 
 and silver coins of Otho, there are no bronze ones, ex- 
 cept such as were struck in Antioch, and these he ac- 
 counts for on the supposition that the Antiochians, when 
 they heard of Galba's death and Otho's elevation, pre- 
 sumed that of course Otho would be invested as Pon- 
 tifex Maximus in March, and, therefore, proceeded at 
 once to strike those bronze coins with his image, which 
 stand in the way of the extraordinary theory propounded 
 by the Prussian savant. 
 
 To this theory it would be sufficient to reply that if 
 Otho had time to authorize the issue of gold and silver 
 coins, he certainly had time to authorize the issue of 
 bronze ones, and that if the vassal Senate of Antioch 
 could venture to strike bronze coins without Otho's 
 written authority, so could the paramount Senate of 
 Rome. But there is a still further and more cogent 
 reply to make. Mommsen is mistaken in regard to the 
 coinage prerogatives of Rome. His theory is that the 
 prerogative of the gold and silver coinage belonged to 
 the imperium and the bronze coinage to the pontificate. 
 The fact was that the prerogative of gold coinage (cer- 
 tainly from the reign of Julius Caesar) belonged to the 
 pontificate. This is so overwhelmingly proved by the 
 evidence adduced in chapter II. of the present work 
 that nothing further need be said on the subject in this 
 place. In the sweeping interdiction of gold coinage to 
 vassal and subject kings which the Romans maintained 
 for upwards of thirteen centuries, a single exception 
 
ROME 47 
 
 was made. This related to the kings of Poiitus and 
 the Cimmerian Bosporus. The reason of the exception 
 was purely sacerdotal. The kings of Pontus were the 
 guardians of the temples, the oracle, and the mysteries, 
 of that venerated Mother of God, one of whose effigies, 
 piously conveyed to Rome when Hannibal was at its 
 gates, had saved it from impending ruin. Many of the 
 emblems connected with this worship appeared upon 
 the Pontic coins, and this is what saved them from the 
 melting-pot. Augustus merely provided that these coins 
 should bear on the reverse the image of himself as a 
 mark of the suzerainty of Rome. The last coins that 
 were issued by the Ponto-Bosporian kings previous to 
 this regulation are those of Asander, who reigned as 
 governor from A. u. 704 and as king from a. u. 737. 
 These are aurei of 125 grains each. The earliest under 
 the "Augustan regulations are those of Polemon I. 
 stamped with his own head on one side and that of 
 Augustus on the other. From this time onward to the 
 reign of Gallien, when the Temple of Ephesus was de- 
 stroyed by the Goths, the kings of Pontus and Bosporus 
 were permitted to strike a few gold coins, upon one 
 side of which appeared their own images and on the 
 other that of the sovereign-pontiff of Rome, accom- 
 panied by the emblems of the Syrian goddess. Wi^h 
 Rhescuporis VIII. of the Aspurgian dynasty, A. d. 312- 
 18, this Pontic kingdom, already ruined, came to an 
 end, and with it the feeble series of gold coins struck 
 under these exceptional circumstances. Under Cotys 
 III., a contemporary of Alexander Severus, the Ponto- 
 Bosporian aurei were made of electrum, and from this 
 time onward they became paler and paler, until at last 
 they were made altogether of silver, and, like the Dutch 
 gulden of the present day, were gold coins only in 
 name. 
 
48 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 The prerogative of the bronze coinage belonged to 
 the Senate, which, therefore, in the case of Otho, 
 needed no express authority from the pontificate. 
 Whether the silver coinage belonged to the pontificate 
 or to the imperium at this period, is a matter of no con- 
 sequence in the present connection. Of the gold and 
 silver coins, the former were certainly struck in virtue 
 of Otho's pontifical authority. The bronze coins of 
 Antioch were undoubtedly struck by the Senate of that 
 cit}' in virtue of the authority which had long previously 
 been conferred upon it by the Senate of Rome — an 
 authority which remained in full force so long as it was 
 not abrogated. That no Roman urban bronze coins of 
 Otho are extant may be accounted for either by suppos- 
 ing that such coins were indeed struck but that none 
 have been found, or else by supposing that the Roman 
 Senate had good reason for not striking them. In the 
 latter case the reason is matter of conjecture. The 
 Senate was republican; it was disgusted with emperor- 
 worship ; it had but recently engaged in an attempt to 
 restore the Republic; its surviving members, who had 
 returned to Rome, encouraged by the declaration of 
 Otho that his object was to restore the Republic, may 
 have naturall3' viewed with suspicion his subsequent 
 assumption of the pontifical office and his eagerness 
 to proclaim a continuance of the Empire upon his gold 
 and silver coins, and they may have refrained from 
 lending that sanction to these ambitious proceedings 
 which would have been implied had they stamped 
 bronze coins with his image. 
 
 The following tables show the scale of equivalents 
 under Caracalla: — 
 
ROME 49 
 
 First Coinage system of Caracalla, A. D. 211-15. Satio of silver 
 to gold^ 12 for I, 
 4 bronze sesterces = i silver denarius, of 34 grains. 
 I2}i2 denarii = i half-aureus. 
 
 25 denarii ^ i aureus, of 112.5 grains. 
 
 5 aurei ^ i libra. 
 
 Hence 500 sesterces ^ i libra. 
 
 So far as it goes, this agrees with Mr. Finlay's 
 scheme.' In addition to these equivalents he introduces 
 a silver argenteus of 60 to the libra weight, valued at 
 li denarii. Between this system and the one next to 
 be mentioned the change in the contents of the pieces 
 was gradual. 
 
 Second coinage system of Caracal/a, a.d. 215-17. Ratio of silver 
 to gold, 1 2 for I . 
 
 4 sesterces = i, denarius, of 45.83 grains. 
 6 denarii = i gold sicilicas, or shilling. 
 
 12 denarii =: i half-aureus. 
 
 24 denarii = i aureus, of 100 grains, ii fine = 91.67 grains fine. 
 
 5 aurei = i libra. 
 
 Hence 480 sesterces = i libra. 
 
 This system of Caracalla contains all the elements of 
 the decimo-duodecimal,or £. s. d. system, which after- 
 wards became established in the Roman provinces, and 
 still lingers in England and Turkey. The libra, which 
 here contains 458,35 grains fine gold, has since been 
 gradually reduced, until,, at the present time, it con- 
 tains in England but 113. 16 grains fine, while the de- 
 narius, or penny, which here contains nearly 46 grains, 
 has fallen in England to *]\ grains, such being the 
 weight of the Maundy money still issued. The relation 
 of copper to silver and of silver to gold varied from 
 decimal (during the Republic) to duodecimal (during 
 the Empire), but from first to last, with two exceptions 
 noticed herein, the relation between aureus and libra 
 was quinquennial. 
 
 We have seen that the extension of Roman citizen- 
 ship to the free-born inhabitants of Italy was marked 
 I Geo. Finlay, "Hist. Greece," ed. 1877, i., 453. 
 
50 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 by an important change in the monetary system. So 
 Was the extension of the same right to the free-born 
 inhabitants of the provinces, which bears even date with 
 the second coinage system of Caracalla. The tyrant's 
 motive for making this concession was an increase of 
 revenues. One of its fruits was to plant the £. s. d. sys- 
 tem wherever the Roman eagles flew. 
 
 The argenteus, or, as it was sometimes called, the 
 argenteus antonianus, of Caracalla was a silver coin 
 stamped with the rayed effigj' of the sovereign-pontiff, 
 that is to say,he was represented surrounded with a halo 
 of light. In the second coinage system of Caracalla this 
 coin appears to have been substituted for two denarii. 
 Thus, the equivalents appear to be 12 argentei, con- 
 taining 1,020 grains of silver= I aureus, containing 91- 
 .67 grains of gold, a ratio of about ii.i for i. But, in 
 fact, the argenteus antonianus does not appear to have 
 been a full legal tender coin, and when paid for taxes 
 (due in gold aurei) it was only receivable by weight. 
 The ratio of 12 for i, therefore, remained unimpaired. 
 
 The monetary measures of Aurelian are remarkable 
 for the revolt which they occasioned among the guild 
 of moneyers, who, for this reason, must be supposed 
 to have derived considerable profits from the previous 
 system. Aurelian "took away the privilege of coining 
 (silver) money from almost all the local mints of the 
 empire," and only succeeded in crushing the revolt of 
 the moneyers with a loss of 7,000 troops — a striking 
 proof of the number and organization of the former. 
 Mr. Finlay regards the Roman libra weight, at the 
 time of Constantine, as having fallen to 5,040 English 
 grains, and says that Aurelian struck aurei of 50 to the 
 libra. This would make them contain 100.8 grains 
 each ; but, in fact, there are none which contain so 
 
ROME 5 1 
 
 much gold. Throughout the present work the Jibra 
 weight of Rome has been uniformly reckoned at 5,250 
 grains; but as we have always been guided by the 
 weights of the extant coins, the difference between this 
 assumption and Mr. Finlay's does not affect the weights 
 herein mentioned. The extant aurei of Aurelian weigh 
 from 80.85 to 97.52 grains. Supposing them to be ^ 
 fine, they contain about 74 to 90 grains fine gold. The 
 equivalents are shown in the following tables: 
 
 First coinage system of Aurelian, A. D. 270. Ratio of silver 
 to gold, xzfor I. 
 5 nummi, or minuta =: i copper assarion. 
 
 4 assarions = i copper denarius, stamped "XX." 
 
 20 denarii = i silver argenteus, 35)^ grains fine. 
 25 argentei = i gold aureus, 74 grains fine. 
 
 5 aurei = i libra of account. 
 
 Hence 500 copper denarii = i gold aureus. 
 
 Second coinage system of Aurelian^ ». d. 274. Ratio of silver 
 
 to gold, 12 for I. 
 $% copper nummi = i copper assarion. 
 
 4 assarions = i copper denarius, stamped "XXI." 
 
 21 denarii = i silver argenteus (new), 45 grains fine. 
 24 argentei = i gold aureus, go grains fine. 
 
 5 aurei ^ i libra of account. 
 
 Hence 504 copper denarii = i gold aureus. 
 
 Mr. Finlay introduces into this system a "denarius 
 of account" equal to i argenteus. This was probably 
 a purse of 20 to 21 copper denarii, used as a means of 
 reconciling the two coinages of Aurelian. This would 
 enable all sums couched in denarii to be reckoned at 
 the rate of either 20 to the old argenteus, or 21 to the 
 new. Mr. Finla3''s conjecture with regard to the num- 
 ber of English grains in the libra weight appears to 
 have been derived from the number of copper denarii 
 to the aureus, decupled. 
 
52' HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 First coinage system of Diocletian, A. D. 284, Ratio of silver 
 to gold, \2for I (Finlay). 
 
 5 copper nummi = i copper assarion. 
 zYz double nummi = i copper assarion. 
 
 4 assarions ^ I copper denarius. 
 2 copper denarii =i i copper foil is. 
 
 12 foUes = I silver denarius, 45.17 grains standard. 
 
 24 silver denarii = i aureus, 90.34 grains standard. 
 
 5 aurei ^ i libra of account. 
 
 Hence 576 copper denarii = i gold aureus. 
 
 The silver denarius of this system was afterwards 
 called the "centenionalis," because instead of 120 to 
 the libra, as in this system, they became worth 100 to 
 the libra. See below. 
 
 Second coinage system of Diocletian, a. d. 290 (?). Ratio of Silver 
 to gold, 12 for I. 
 
 4 copper assarions = i tetrassarion, or copper denarius. 
 2 copper denarii = i copper foUis. 
 
 12 foUes = I silver denarius, 40 grains, ''XCVI." 
 
 24 silver denarii = i aureus, 80 grains standard. 
 
 5 aurei = i libra of account. 
 
 Hence 576 copper denarii = 1 gold aureus. 
 
 Third coinage system of Diocletian, A. D. 302. Ratio of silver ■ 
 to gold, 12 for I . 
 
 4 copper assarions == i tetrassarion, or copper denarius. 
 2 copper denarii = i copper foliis. 
 
 8 copper assarions = i copper foUis. 
 12 copper foUes = i silver denarius, 36 grains, "XCVI." 
 24 silver denarii = i aureus 72, grains. 
 
 5 aurei = i libra of account. 
 
 Hence 576 copper denarii = i gold aureus. 
 
 Count Borghesi considers the denarius of Diocletian's 
 Edictum fretiuni to be the copper tetrassarion or four- 
 assarion piece, of which 24 went to the silver denarius, 
 stamped "XCVI," meaning <^6 assarions. 
 
 If we compare this system with the assumptions of 
 Jacob,' it will be found that, erroneously assuming the 
 denarius to weigh 65 grains fine, and that, still further, 
 assuming a wrong equivalent in the money of his own 
 time, he deduced unwarrantably high prices for the 
 whole of Diocletian's schedule. 
 
 I "Hist. Free. Met ," ed. Phil. 1832, p. 126. 
 
ROME 53 
 
 First Coinage system of Constantine, not later than A. D. 310. Ratio of 
 
 silver to gold, 12 for i. 
 20 copper nnmmi = 1 copper foUis. 
 12 copper folles = i silver denarius, 36 grains fine. 
 24 silver denarii = i gold aureus, 82.7 grs. standard, say 72 grs. fine. 
 5 aurei = i libra of account. 
 
 Hence 5,760 copper nurami = i gold aureus. 
 
 Nine well-preserved specimens of the earlier aurei of 
 Constantine, now in the British Museum, weigh on the 
 average 82.7 grains. 
 
 Second coinage system under Constantine, fu/y, a. d. 325 Ratio of silver 
 to gold, 12 for I.' 
 
 20 copper nummi = i copper foUis. 
 12 foUes = I silver siliqua,keratipn, or denarius, 35 grains. 
 
 2 siliquas = i silver miliaresion, 70 grains. 
 
 12 miliaresia = i gold solidus, or numisma, stamped "LXXII," 
 
 70 grains. 
 5 solidi = I libra of account, 250 grains of standard gold. 
 
 Hence 5,760 copper nurami = igold aureus. 
 
 Type of the aureus : a winged figure with P : reverse, 
 the head of Constantine. 
 
 These solidi are stamped "LXXII," and, according 
 to Gibbon, Queipo, Finlay and other writers, were 
 struck 72 to the Roman pound weight. The extant 
 coins, in the best state of preservation, only weigh 68f 
 grains, and I have allowed i^ grains more to bring 
 them to a round figure of 70 grains. They could hardly 
 have weighed more at any time. The extant miliaresia 
 are of the same weight as the solidi. The copper follis, 
 or purse, consisted of 20 nummi; the silver follis of 
 2i argyres, or 250 siliquas. Iterations, or denarii, or 125 
 miliaresia. This was the ordinary donative to the sol- 
 diers; it was equal to (about) two libras of account. By 
 a law of A. D. 356,'' a merchant is forbidden to travel 
 with more than one thousand folles. This means silver 
 folles, one thousand of which were I'oughly equal to 
 
 I Gibbon (Misc. Essays, iii., 459, ed. 1815) says 14.4, but is mistaken. 
 Consult Queipo, " Sys. Met, et. Mon ," ii , 465; Finlay, "Hist. Greece," 
 vol. i., App. ii. 2 Cod. Tbeod. ix., 23; i 
 
54 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 two thousand libi-as of account. The gleba senatoria, 
 a sum of gold coins, was the annual capitation-tax of 
 that order. 
 
 Coinage system under Arcadius and Honorius, A. D. 4o8(?). Ratio of silver 
 to gold, 12 for I. 
 
 20 copper nummi = i copper foUis. 
 
 12 copper foUes = i silver siliqua, 35 grains standard. 
 
 2 siliquas = i silver miliaresion de sportula, 70 grs. standard. 
 
 12 miliar, de sport. := i gold solidus, 70 grains standard. 
 
 4 solidi =: I libra of account. 
 
 Hence 5,760 nummi = i gold solidus. 
 
 So far as the copper coins are concerned, this system 
 is constructed by assuming that there were 20 nummi 
 to the follis and 12 folles to the silver siliqua, as in the 
 second system of Constantine. A law of Arcadius and 
 Honorius (a. d. 397)' values the gold solidus at 12 
 miliaresia de sportula, whilst a law of Theodosius II., 
 (A. D. 428)^ values the solidus at 24 siliquas. Another 
 law of Theodosius II. (a. d. 422) values the libra at 4 
 solidi, instead of 5, as before.^ An edict of Honorius 
 and Theodosius II., dated A. d. 418, imposes a mulct 
 of 5 libras of gold upon the members of the provincial 
 council of Gaul for non-attendance at meetings.* This 
 evidently means 20 solidi. To regard these libras, as 
 some writers have done, as so many pounds' weight of 
 gold would not only be' contrary to usage, but prepos- 
 terously excessive. The weight of the solidus in the 
 above table was obtained by weighing a number of the 
 best specimens of the e.xtant coins. Those of Arcadius 
 average 68.51 grains; of Honorius 68.05 grains. A 
 slight allowance for wear brings them up to 70 grains. 
 Fineness not known, but apparently ^^ to ^. 
 
 By a law of Valentinian III. (a. d. 445),* there were 
 7,200 nummi to the solidus, consequently there must 
 
 I Cod. Theod., xiii., ii., i. 2 Cod. Theod.,xii.,iv,, i; Nov.Majoriaiii, 
 vii., 16 (A. D. 458). 3 Cod Theod., viii., iv., 27. 4 "Middle 
 
 Ages Revisited," chap, xvi., p. 2. 5N0V. Val.iii.,depretiosolidus, xiv.,i. 
 
ROME 55 
 
 have been issued a smaller nummus than that of Arca- 
 dius and Honorius. Of these smaller nummi there 
 should be 25 to the foUis; thus 25x1^x2x12 = 7,200 
 nummi to the solidus.' Cassiordorus says there were 
 6,000 to the solidus, but I cannot make this out, unless 
 Valentinian changed the tale relations of the copper to 
 the silver coins, or the silver to the gold coins, of which 
 no explicit account appears in the texts. As at this 
 period copper coins largely superseded silver ones in 
 the imperial circulation, such changes are by no means 
 incredible.* 
 
 Coinage system under Anasiasius, A. D. 491-518. Ratio of silver 
 to gold, 12 for I. 
 
 5 noumia "A" = i pentanoumion, "C." 
 2 pentanoumia = i dekanoumion, "I." 
 
 2 dekanoutnia = i eikosarion or obolus, "K." 
 
 2 eikosaria =^ i follis, either copper "M" or silver (5.83 grs.) 
 
 6 foUes = I silver keration, or siliqna, 35 grains.* 
 2 keratia = i silver miliaresion, 70 grains. 
 
 12 miliaresia = i gold solidus, or iiuramus, 70 grains. 
 5 (?) solidi = I libra of account. 
 
 Hence 5,760 noumia = i gold solidus. 
 
 The letters A, C, I, K, M are stamped on the copper 
 coins, and denote i, 5, 10, 20, 40 noumia respectively.* 
 These marks continued until the time of Phocas, when 
 the Greek M was replaced (on the 40 -noumia piece) by 
 the Latin XXXX.' 
 
 Coinage system under Heraclius /., a. d. 610-41. Ratio of Silver 
 
 to gold, 12, for I. 
 40 copper noumia ^ t copper follis. 
 
 6folles = I silver siliqua, 34.17 grains standard. 
 
 12 foUes = I silver drachma, 68.34 grains standard. 
 
 12 drachmas =1 gold solidus, 69.90 grains standard. 
 
 5 (?) solidi = I libra of account. 
 
 Hence 5,760 noumia = i gold solidus. 
 1 Finlay, i., 444. 2 Ibid. 
 
 3 In this coinage system of Anastasius, I have ioUowed Mr. Finlay. 
 Sabatier(i., 149) says that in 498 Anastasius made 12 phollerates, or 
 teruntiani, to the siliqua, of which last there were 24 to the solidus. If 
 by phollerates he means eikosaria, or copper oboli, then the system re- 
 mained the same as shown in the present text. 
 
 4 Finlay, i., 445. 5 Humphreys, 371. 
 
56 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 The weight of the solidus in this system is that of 
 the extant coins in the best state of preservation. The 
 contents of finfe gold in the solidus was 65 grains, and 
 the fine silver contents of the siliqua 32^ grains. It 
 was upon the solidus of this system that the Arabians 
 built their gold dinar. They evidently weighed and 
 assayed a number of the solidi in actual circulation, 
 and finding them to contain exactly 65 grains of fine 
 gold, determined this for the contents of the dinar. In 
 their earlier coinages they also adopted the silver 
 drachma of 65 grains fine and the Roman ratio of 12 
 for I ; but this was swept away by Abd-el-Melik, and 
 from his time forward nothing except the dinar remained 
 to connect the Moslem coinages with the Empire of 
 Augustus. 
 
 Coinage system under Justinian II. (Rhinotmetus), A. D. 685-95, "'^'^ 
 again •joi-ii . Ratio of silver to gold, 12 for i. 
 40 copper noumia = i copper follis. 
 
 6 foUes = I silver siliqua, 34.17 grains standard. 
 
 24 siliquas := i gold solidus, 68. 35 grains standard. 
 
 5 (?) solidi = I libra of account. 
 
 Hence 5,760 noumia ^= i gold solidus. 
 
 On this coinage appears the earliest unquestionable 
 Christian legend and the earliest effigy of Christ. These 
 sacred emblems 'appear on the gold solidus, described 
 by Sabatier: dN. IVSTINIANVS. SERV. ChPSTI. 
 Full-faced bust of Justinian, diademed, with cross on 
 top, the emperor clothed in a tight-fitting robe, orna- 
 mented with strings of pearls arranged in squares. In 
 his right hand a "potency" cross on three steps; in his 
 left hand a globe, on which appears the word "PAX," 
 the same surmounted by a Greek cross. Reverse: dN. 
 Ihs. ChS. REX REGNANTIVM. Full-faced bust of 
 Christ. The extremities of the arms of a small cross 
 appear behind the ears and above the head. Under the 
 left arm a book. 
 
ROME 57 
 
 There are so few coins extant of this period that, be- 
 tween the reigns of Leo Isaurus and Michael I., or from 
 A. D. 718 to 811, Sabatier, whose work is believed to 
 contain a complete list of all the Byzantine types, only 
 furnishes seventy-three types during the entire interval. 
 As this is an interval of the greatest interest to the 
 Western world, because it embraces the coinage system 
 of Charlemagne, we have endeavored to fill the blank 
 thus left with the system of Nicephorus I. In the table 
 of equivalents we have been guided by Sabatier and 
 the mediaeval text's cited in Guerard's "Polyptique 
 d'Irminon"and De Vienne's"Livre d'Argent." Queipo 
 has noticed that the silver coins of Basileus II. (a. d. 
 962), Romanus I. (a. d. 918), Nicephorus II. (a. d. 
 963-9), and the emperors of Trebizond are assimilated 
 in weight to the Arabian dirhem or its subdivisions.' 
 In like manner, it is to be remarked that the gold coins 
 of all the Byzantine emperors, from Heraclius onward, 
 are closely allied to the Arabian dinar of 65 grains fine. 
 This remark includes the coins of Nicephorus I. 
 
 Coinage system of Nicephorus I. (Logothetes), son of Irene, a. d. 802-11. 
 Ratio of silver to gold, i-zfor i, 
 
 3 copper foUes = i silver half-siliqua, 15^ grains fine. 
 2 half-siliquas =^ i silver siliqua, 31)^ grains fine. 
 lyi siliquas = i Arabian dirhem. 46^^ grains fine. 
 
 2 siliquas = i miliaresion, 63^ grains fine. 
 
 3 miliaresia = i gold tetarteron, or sicilicus, 15^ grains fine. 
 
 4 miliaresia = i gold triens, 21 1-6 grains fine. 
 12 miliaresia ^= i gold solidus, 63^ grains fine. 
 
 5 solidi = I libra of account, 317^^^ grains fine. 
 Hence 12 half-siliquas, or denarii = i sicilicus, or tetarteron. 
 
 20 sicilici, or shillings = i libra. 
 240 denarii, or pennies = i libra. 
 
 The tetarteron, or gold shilling, appears in both earlier 
 and later coinage systems, for example, in the monetary 
 denominations of Nicephorus II. and Phocas. Tetar- 
 teron means the fourth part,and is the Greek equivalent 
 of the Latin guar tar ius, as quartarius vini,^ whence our 
 I Table Ixi., vol. ii., p. 464. 2 Livy, v., 47. 
 
58 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 quart of wine, meaning the quarter of a gallon. Tetar- 
 teron is also the equivalent of the Latin sicilicus, or 
 fourth part, whence came our shilling, which was the 
 fourth of the solidus and twentieth of the libra, as it is 
 still. Gold shillings or quarter-solidi were struck by 
 many of the Roman sovereigns, and are not uncommon 
 in the great numismatic collections. In the same sense 
 chat sicilicus was issued for the fourth of the aureus, 
 scrupulum was anciently used for the ninth and after- 
 wards the tenth of the aureus. 
 
 The solidus of the above system is taken from the 
 unique specimens extant attributed to Irene and Nice- 
 phorus, both of which are described and portrayed b}' 
 Sabatier. The former has simply "Irene, Basileus," 
 with her bust and a cross on both sides; the latter has 
 "Nicephorus Basileus," with his bust on one side, and 
 "IhSuS. XRISTVS. nICA," with a potency cross on 
 the other. Nike, Nika, Nica,. etc., means the Victor or 
 Victorious, and it appears in the name of Nicephoius 
 himself. 
 
 Coinage system under Basil I., a. d. 867-86. Ratio of silver 
 to gold, 12 for I. 
 
 20 noumia = i eikosarion. 
 
 2 eikosaria, or oboli := i copper foUis. 
 
 6 folles = I silver Iteration, or siliqua, gross weight 41.46 
 = 34 grains standard.* 
 
 2 siliquas = i miliaresion, 68 grains standard, 
 
 12 miliaresia = i gold solidus, 68 grains standard. 
 
 5 solidi = I libra of account. 
 
 Hence 5,760 noumia = i gold solidus. 
 
 Coinage system under Basil /I. and Constantine VI 11., «. d. 976-1025. 
 Ratio of silver to gold, 12 for 1. 
 20 noumia — i obolus. 
 2 oboli = I copper foUis. 
 
 6 folles = I silver siliqua, 41.5 grains gross, or 34 grains standard. 
 2 siliquas = i miliaresion, 68 grains standard. 
 
 12 miliaresia= i gold solidus, 68 grains standard. 
 5 solidi = I libra of account. 
 
 Hence 5,760 noumia ^ i gold solidus. 
 
 I This means when reduced to the same standard as the gold coins. 
 
ROME 59 
 
 It will scarcely fail to be remarked that the number 
 of noumia to the solidus exactly corresponds to the 
 number of grains in the troy pound of the Western 
 world — a circumstance that, remembering the common 
 practice of the Romans to apply their subdivisions of 
 money to measures of various kinds, suggests the origin 
 of the troy pound weight. It has been the common 
 method of metrologists to seek for the origin of moneys 
 in weights. The present example, and many others 
 mentioned in my "Middle Ages Revisited," leads to 
 the belief that the converse is the fact, and that the 
 origin of weights is to be found in moneys. In other 
 words, that the first weights were coins, and that 
 weights descended from coins, rather than coins from 
 weights. This consideration, should it hold good, 
 would vitiate a large portion of the laborious metrolog- 
 ical work of Boeckh, Mommsen, Queipo and others. 
 
 With the system of Basil II. ends our review of the 
 coinages of the Roman Empire, because, from his reign 
 to the fall of Constantinople, they underwent no import- 
 ant changes; indeed, according to Finlay, none at 
 all. The aureus of the succeeding Basilei varied from 
 68 grains, in the reign of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, 
 to 65 grains in that of John Comnenus, and rose again 
 in that of Eudoxia to 68 grains, where it remained to 
 the end ; while the denarius, siliqua, or argenteus, of 
 which 24 went to the aureus, was coined at just half 
 these weights, thus always maintaining the sacerdotal 
 ratio of 1 2 silver to i gold. Even after the Empire fell 
 and the Western States, as Venice, Florence, Amalfi,Ara- 
 gon, etc., began to coin gold, they maintained the same 
 ratio of 12 to I in their coinages, until this ratio came 
 into conflict with the Moorish ratios in Andalusia and 
 the Gothic ratios of the Baltic and Low Countries. 
 
6o HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 This review would be incomplete without some refer- 
 ence to the Western coinage systems that grew out of 
 those of the Byzantine Empire, and especially the sys- 
 tems of the Meringovinian and Carlovingian dynasties. 
 As a rule, political economists of the present day do not 
 take the trouble to study the history of money ; it is 
 much easier to imagine it and to deduce the principles 
 of this imaginary knowledge. Therefore but little in- 
 formation of a reliable character relating to this subject 
 appears in their works. One of the most experienced, 
 and yet the most recent writers of this class, repeats the 
 idle tale to be found in many economical works, that 
 Charlemagne invented the £. s. d. system still used in 
 England.' In fact, Charlemagne neither invented the 
 system nor struck the coins requisite to complete it. 
 The libra was a money of account, the solidus he never 
 struck; his coinage began and ended with the denarius, 
 which formed merely the tail end of a system whose 
 beginning belonged to a remote antiquity, and whose 
 principal elements were still firmly held in the grasp of 
 the Basileus. 
 
 The prerogative and monopoly of the gold coinage, 
 except as to the Ponto-Bosporian guardians of the Asian 
 temples and mysteries of Greek and Roman veneration, 
 was never parted with, to subject-kings and vassal 
 states, by the sovereign-pontiff of Rome. Even the 
 Roman proconsuls, illustrious and powerful as were 
 many of these officers, were not permitted to exercise 
 this right until it was reluctantly conceded by Anasta- 
 sius I. to Clovis, the Merovingian king of the Franks, 
 and Amalric, king of the Visigoths of Spain, both of 
 whom were proconsuls of Rome. 
 
 In his earlier coinages, Clovis (a. d. 481-512) appears 
 to have adopted a ratio of 8 silver for i gold a con- 
 
 I Mr. Henry Dunning MacLeod's "Bi-Metallism," London, 1894. 
 
ROME 
 
 6i 
 
 venient mean between the Roman ratio of 12 and the 
 Indian ratios of 6i to 6i, which, even at that early 
 period, must have exercised an influence upon the trade 
 of the Baltic* In his later coinages the ratio was 10 
 for I. 
 
 The principal coins of Clovis were the soHdus and 
 triente, both of excellent gold, and both stamped with 
 the effigy of Anastasius. Clovis also coined silver 
 denarii, but at what tale relation to the gold coins is 
 uncertain. The marks of Roman suzerainty which he 
 placed upon his coins were repeated on those of his 
 successors, Clodomir, Childebei-t L, and Clothaire I. 
 At a later period the coinage of copper was added to 
 that of gold and silver, and the marks of suzerainty 
 were sometimes limited to the gold coins, until in the 
 middle coinages of Theodebert, king of Austrasia 
 (a. d. 534-47), they disappeared altogether, and in their 
 place stood the effigy of the barbarian king and the 
 legend D. N. THEODEBERTVS PP. AUG., or 
 D. N. THEODEBERTVS. VICTOR.^ This, of 
 course, was a proclamation of defiance to the Basileus, 
 and as such it was resented by Justinian and recorded 
 by Procopius.' Notwithstanding the decrepitude of 
 the Empire, its prestige was still so great, and veneration 
 for its sacerdotal claims so widespread, that the example 
 of Theodebert was avoided by his contemporaries, who 
 refrained, with superstitious horror, from the impiety of 
 striking gold without the authority of the Basileus. Yet 
 Theodebert's revolt was not altogether without its in- 
 fluence. Little by little the marks of Byzantine suze- 
 rainty upon their rude coinages became fainter, and by 
 the seventh century the Merovingian coins and mone- 
 
 r "Ancient Britain," index word, "Pagan Hansa." 
 2 Lenormant, ii., 449. 3 Procop. "Bell. Goth.," iii., 33. 
 
62 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 tary regulations gave evidence of little more than a 
 
 trace of Roman suzerainty. The following table of 
 
 weights and valuations is derived from the coins and 
 
 texts cited by Guerard, Lenormant, De Vienne and 
 
 others : 
 
 Typical coinage system of the Merovingian kings during the seventh cen- 
 tury. Ratio of silver to gold, lofor i. 
 
 12 (?) copper oboli = i silver denarius, 17^ grains. 
 10 denarii = i gold sicilicus, 17^ grains. 
 
 z^Yi denarii = i gold triente, 23^^ grains. 
 
 40 denarii = i gold solidus, or coronatus, 70^ grains. 
 
 5 solidi = I libra of account. 
 
 It was to these coronati that Pope Gregory referred 
 when he said that they would not pass in Italy.' 
 
 The Empire of Gaul, lost by Byzantium, was soon 
 recovered by Rome. An alliance with Pepin the Short 
 ended the Merovingian dynasty, established the tem- 
 poral power of the Roman bishops, and erected the 
 dynasty of the Carlovingians. The coinage regula- 
 tions, however, still continued subject to the Basileps, 
 and doubtless formed part of that definitive treaty of 
 partition which was made between Nicephorus I. and 
 Charlemagne at Seltz in 802 or 803"^ Under this treaty 
 it would seem that the coinage of gold was expressly 
 reserved to the Basileus and of copper to the Byzantine 
 Senate; for as a matter of fact from the accession of 
 Charlemagne to the downfall of the Byzantine Empire 
 in 1204, neither gold nor copper coins, but only silver 
 ones, were struck by any Christian prince except the 
 Basileus. The ratio of silver to gold, which the Mero- 
 vingians had fixed at 10 for i, was gradually changed 
 by Charlemagne to the sacerdotal ratio of 12. It is 
 this change of ratio which explains the frequently 
 altered weights of Charlemagne's denarii, and his tale 
 
 1 Freheri, 39. 
 
 2 Authorities differ as to this date. Consult "Middle Ages Revisited." 
 
ROME 63 
 
 roljtions of the Byzantine sou d'or, or gold sicilicus 
 (shilling) to the libra of account. 
 
 Carloving'an coinage system wider Pjpin, n.. d. 754. Ratio of silver 
 to gold, TO J or I. 
 10 silver denarii, 17^ grains (?) = i petite sou d'or, it% grains (?). 
 22 sous d'or = I livre de compte. 
 
 These sous d'or were coined by the Basileus. Some- 
 times the worn triente took the place of the sicilicus. The 
 copper coins which circulated in Western Europe were 
 also of Byzantine mintage. The silver coins alone were 
 struck in the West. Pepin not only refrained from the 
 coinage of gold, he forbade it to the princes subject to 
 his authority. In both these respects he was followed 
 b}' Charlemagne and all the Western "emperors" until 
 the reign of Frederick IJ. 
 
 Carlovingian coinage system under Charlemagne^ A, D. 803. Ratio of 
 silver to gold, 1 2 for i . 
 12 Byzantine coppers =: i Carlovingian silver (denier, 17^ grains. 
 12 deniers = I Byzantine sou d'or, 17^ grains. 
 
 20 sous d'or = I livre de compte. 
 
 Hence 240 deniers := i libra. 
 
 With regard to the value of gold and silver one to 
 the other,it is to be observed that there are four distinct 
 periods in the history of this relation. These are: 
 
 First, the period from the accession of Julius Csesar 
 to the fall of the Roman or Greek Empire in 1204, 
 during which time the Roman government, b}' monop- 
 olizing the coinage of gold, and fixing the ratio between 
 gold coins and silver, whether coined or otherwise, 
 at 12 for I, kept it constant and unaltered at that figure. 
 As, during the same interval, the ratio in the Orient and 
 the Arabian States was about 6\iox i, and in the Gothic 
 States 8 for i, some variation from the Roman ratio is 
 to be observed near the frontiers of the Empire, but 
 not elsewhere. 
 
 Second, the period from the fall of Constantinople to 
 
64 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 the enactment of Individual, Private, or Free coinage 
 in Holland, England and other States in the sixteenth 
 and seventeenth centuries. During this interval the 
 various princes of the Occident began to coin gold, 
 each for himself, and they fixed the ratio to suit their 
 own interests or necessities. This period is character- 
 ized by the wildest dissonance of the ratio. It was a 
 contest, on the one hand, between monarchs, who alter- 
 nately raised their gold coins to the value of nearly 
 twenty times their weight in silver (France in 13 13), 
 and raised their silver coins to the value of an equal 
 weight in gold (France in 1359); ^^^' 0° *^^ other 
 hand, their subjects and foreigners, who, until they 
 adopted measures of avoidance or reprisal, were made 
 the victims of these frequent and ruinous changes of 
 value. 
 
 Third, the period from the adoption of individual or 
 free coinage to the years 1867-75. '^^e principal States 
 of the Occident ceased to coin silver for individual 
 account at the dates last mentioned. During this inter- 
 val the ratio of value between gold and silver was the 
 mint price, or the result of a competition between the 
 mints of the principal States. For example, the value 
 of gold in silver, during this interval, never rose above 
 the highest price paid for it at any important mint, and 
 never fell below the price paid for it at any other im- 
 portant mint. In other words, nobody gave more nor 
 less in one metal for the other than the mints gave, and 
 the mints gave whatever the law directed. The so- 
 called "market value" of this period was simply what 
 may be termed an international mint ratio. 
 
 Fourth, the period since 1867-75, when, silver -being 
 coined by the principal States on their own account 
 alone, there arose in the West, for the first time since 
 
ROME 65 
 
 the establishment of free coinage, a general market 
 value between gold and silver, entirely distinct from, 
 and having only a remote relation to, their mint value. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE SACRED CHARACTER OF GOLD. 
 
 Coinage the surest mark of sovereignty — Abstention of the Christian 
 princes from minting and coining gold, from Pepin to Frederick II. 
 — Dates of the earliest Christian coinages of gold in the West — In- 
 adequate reasons hitherto given to explain this singular circumstance 
 — Opinions of Camden — Ruding — Father Joubert — The true reason 
 given by Procopius — The coinage of gold was a Sacred Myth and a 
 prerogative of the Roman emperor — Its origin and history — Bram- 
 inical Code — The Myth during the Roman Republic — During the 
 Civil Wars — Conquest of Egypt by Julius Caesar — Seizure of the 
 Oriental trade — The Sacred Myth embodied in the Julian Constitu- 
 tion — Popularity and longevity of the Myth — It was transmitted by 
 the pagan to the Christian Church of Rome, and adopted by the 
 latter — Its importance in throwing light upon the relations of the 
 Western kingdoms to the Roman Empire. 
 
 The right to coin money has always been and still 
 remains the surest mark and announcement of sover- 
 eignty. A curious proof of this is afforded by the story 
 told by Edward Thomas, in his "Pathan Kings of 
 Delhi," of that Persian commander who, being sus- 
 pected of a treasonable design towards his sovereign, 
 diverted suspicion from himself to the king's son by 
 coining and circulating pieces of money with the latter's 
 superscription.^ Says Mr. Thomas: "Some, perhaps 
 many, of the Mahometan coinages of India constituted 
 merely a sort of numismatic proclamation or assertion 
 and declaration of conquest and supremacy." In an- 
 cient times such conquest and supremacy often em- 
 braced the triumph of an alien religion. Where printing 
 was uncommon and the newspaper unknown, a new 
 gold or silver coinage was the most effective means of 
 proclaiming, the accession of a new ruler or the era of 
 
 I "History Money," p. 89. 
 .-, 66 
 
THK SACRED CHARACTER OF GOLD . 67 
 
 a new religion.' At the period of the earliest voyages 
 of the Portuguese to India, the same significance was 
 attached to the prerogative of coinage. Says Duarte 
 Barbosa: "There are many other lords in Malabar who 
 wish to call themselves kings, but they are not so, be- 
 cause they are not able to coin money. . . . The 
 king of Cochin could not coin money, nor roof his house 
 with tiles, under pain of losing his fief (to the king of 
 Calicut, his suzerain); but since the Portuguese went 
 there, he has been released from this, so that now he 
 lords it absolutely and coins money." Father Du Halde, 
 in his " History of China," makes a similar statement 
 in reference to that country. Says he: "There were 
 formerly twenty-two several places where money was 
 fabricated, at which time there were princes so power- 
 ful that they were not contented with the rank of duke, 
 but assumed the dignity of sovereigns; yet they never 
 durst attempt to fabricate money, for, however weak 
 the emperor's authority was, the coins have always had 
 the stamp that he commanded."^ 
 
 The custom of employing coins as a means of promul- 
 gating religious doctrine and official information was 
 adopted by the Romans during the Commonwealth. It 
 may be traced, at a later period, in the otherwise super- 
 fluous coinages of the Empire. Julius, Hadrian and 
 Theoxloric depicted the principal events of their reigns 
 upon their coins. In the absence of felted paper and 
 pi'inting ink, it was the only means the ancients had of 
 printing and disseminating the most important intelli- 
 gence and opinions. Addison correctly regarded the 
 Roman coinage as a sort of "State Gazette," in which 
 
 1 Gibbon declared that were all other records destroyed, the travels of 
 the Emperor Hadrian could be shown from his coins alone. The Em- 
 peror Theodoric the Goth stamped his coins with the view to instruct 
 posterity ("History Money," p. 89, n.) 
 
 2 Duarte Barbosa, pp. 103 and 157; Du Halde, ii., 293. 
 
68 • HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 all the great events of the Empiie were periodically 
 published. It had this advantage over any other kind of 
 monument: it could not be successfully mutilated, 
 forged, or suppressed. Especially is the fabrication 
 and issuance of full legal-tender coins the mark of sov- 
 ereignty. Towards the end of the Republic and during 
 the Empire this attribute belonged alone to gold coins; 
 therefore, to speak of these is to speak of full legal- 
 tender money. Vassal princes, nobles and prelates, 
 under the warrant of their suzerains, everywhere struck 
 coins of silver, which, although legal tender in their 
 own domains, were not so elsewhere, unless by special 
 warrant from the Basileus; but no Christian vassal 
 ever struck gold without intending to proclaim his own 
 independent sovereignty and without being prepared 
 to defy the suzerainty of the Caesars. 
 
 Lenormant, in his great work on the "Moneys of 
 Antiquity," holds similar language. "With the excep- 
 tion of the Sassanian coinages down to the reign of 
 Sapor III., it is certain that the coinage of gold, no 
 matter where, was always intended as a marked defiance 
 to the pretensions of sovereignty by the Roman Em- 
 pire; for example, during the period of the Republic, 
 about B. c. 86, the gold coinages of Mithridates, in 
 various places over which he had extended his con- 
 quests. The supremacy of Rome was so widely ac- 
 cepted both East and West, that for many centuries 
 neither the provinces subject directly or indirectly to 
 the Basileus, nor even the more or less independent 
 States adjacent to the Empire, ever attempted to coin 
 gold money. When gold was struck by such States it 
 was as a local money of the Roman sovereign.'" As 
 such it yielded him seigniorage; it bore his stamp; its 
 I Lenormant, ii., 427. 
 
THE SACRED CHARACTER OF GOLD 69 
 
 use implied and acknowledged his suzerainty, both 
 spiritual and temporal ; while its issuance was subject 
 to such regulations as he chose to impose. 
 
 Commodus refused to believe that his favorite Per- 
 ennius aspired to the Empire until he was shown some 
 pieces of provincial money, upon which appeared the 
 effigy of his faithless minister.' Elagabalus condemned 
 Valerius Psetus to death for striking some bijoux pieces 
 of gold for his mistress, upon which he had imprudently 
 caused his own image to be stamped.^ The very first 
 act of a Roman sovereign after his accession, election, 
 or proclamation by the legions, was to strike coins, that 
 act being deemed the surest mark of sovereignty. Ves- 
 pasian, when pioclaimed by the legions in Asia, hurried 
 to strike gold and silver coins at Antioch.' Antoninus 
 Diadumenus, the son of Macrinus, was no sooner nom- 
 inated by the legions as the associate of his father in 
 the Empire, than the latter hastened to strike money at 
 Antioch in his son's name, in order to definitively pro- 
 claim his accession to the purple.* When Septimius 
 Severus accepted his rival-, Albinus, as his associate on 
 the imperial throne, he coined money at Rome in the 
 name of Albinus as evidence to the latter of his agree- 
 ment and good faith. ^ Vopiscus, in his life of Firmus, 
 asserts that the latter was no brigand, but a lawful sov- 
 ereign, in whose name money had been coined. PoUion 
 says that when Trebellius was elected emperor by the 
 inhabitants of Isaurus,he immediately hastened to strike 
 money as the sign of his accession to power.* When 
 the partisans of Procopius, the rival of Valens, sought 
 to win Illyria to their master's cause, they exhibited 
 the gold aurei which bore his name and effigy, as evi- 
 
 1 Herodian, i., g. 4 Lampridiaus, in "Diadumenus," 2. 
 
 2 "Dion. Cass.," Ixxix., 4. 5 Herodian, ii , 15. 
 
 3 "Tact. Hist.," ii., 82. 6 "Thirty Tyrants," xxv. 
 
yO HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 dence that he was the rightful head of the Roman Em- 
 pire.' Moses of Khorene informs us that "when a new 
 king of Persia ascended the throne, all the money in 
 the royal treasury was recoined with his effigy."^ Even 
 when countermarks were stamped upon the Roman 
 coins, care was taken never to deface the effigy of the 
 sacred emperor.' The interchange of religious antip- 
 athy and defiance, which Abd-el-Melik and Justinian 
 stamped upon their coins, is related elsewhere. Indeed, 
 history is full of such instances. The coinage of money, 
 and especially of gold, was always the prerogative of 
 supreme authority.* The jealous monopoly of gold 
 coinage by the sovereign-pontiff ascends to the Achi- 
 menides of Persia, that is to say, to Cyi'us and Darius ;° 
 in fact, it ascends to the Bramins of India. Tlje Greek 
 and Roman Republics broke it down; Cassar set it 
 up again. 
 
 Assuming the common belief that the Christian 
 princes of mediaeval Europe were in all respects inde- 
 pendent sovereigns before the destruction of the. Roman 
 Empire by the fall of Constantinople, in 1204, it is diffi- 
 cult to explain the circumstance that none of them ever 
 struck a gold coin before that event, and that all of them 
 struck gold coins immediately afterwards. There was 
 no abstention from gold coinage by either the Goths, 
 the Celts, the Greeks, or the Romans-of-the-Common- 
 wealth ; there was no abstention from gold coinage by 
 the Merovingian Franks or the Arabians of later ages ; 
 there was no lack of gold mines or of goM river-wash- 
 ings in any of the provinces or countries of the West; 
 there was no want of knowledge concerning the manner 
 of raising, smelting or stamping gold; yet we find the 
 
 1 "Ammianus Marcellinus," xxvi. , 7. 3 Lenormant, ii.. 389; iii.,389. 
 
 2 Lavoix, MS., p. 12. 4 Lavoix, MS., p. 16. 
 
 5 Lenormant, ii., 195, ig6. 
 
THE SACRED CHARACTER OF GOLD 7 1 
 
 Strange fact that wherever the authority of. the Roman 
 sovereign-pontiff was established, there and then the 
 coinage, nay, sometimes even the production, of gold 
 at once stopped. It must be borne in 'mind that it is 
 not the use of gold coins to which reference is made, 
 but the coinage — the minting and stamping of gold. In 
 England gold coins, except during the early days of 
 the Heptarchy, have been in use from the remotest era 
 to the present time. Such coins were either Gothic 
 (including Saxon), Celtic, Prankish or Moslem, but 
 never Roman, unless struck by or under the sovereign- 
 pontiff. In a word, for more than thirteen centuries — 
 that is, from Augustus to Alexis IV. — the gold coins of 
 the Empire, East and West, were struck exclusively by 
 the Basileus. Again, from the eighth to the thirteenth 
 century, a period of five hundred years, we have no 
 evidence of any native Christian gold coinage under 
 any of the kings of Britain. With the exception of a 
 unique and dubious coin, now in the Paris collection, 
 which bears the effigy of Louis le Debonnaire, the same 
 is true of France, Germany, Italy; indeed, of all the 
 provinces of the Empire whose princes were Christians. 
 Before pointing out the significance of these circum- 
 stances, it will be useful to clear the ground by examin- 
 ing the explanations of others. Camden conjectures 
 that "ignorance" was the cause; but Dr. Ruding very 
 justly remarks that it could not have been ignorance of 
 refining or coining gold, because silver, a much more 
 difficult metal to treat, and one that in its natural state 
 is nearly always combined with gold, had been refined 
 and coined in Britain for many ages.^ Dr. Ruding 
 and Lord Liverpool both have supposed that coins of 
 gold were not wanted during the middle ages; but this 
 is worse than Camden's conjecture, for it flies in the 
 I Camden's "Remains," art, '^Money," p. 241. 
 
72 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 face of a palpable fact. That gold coins were indeed 
 wanted is proved by the very common use of gold 
 aurei, solidi, foUes, or besants throughout all this 
 period. Not only this, but the Arabian gold dinar, or 
 mancus, was current in all the countries of the North ; 
 and either this coin or the gold maravedi was the prin- 
 cipal medium of exchange in the trade of the Baltic. 
 
 Another explanation which has been advanced is, 
 that the confusion caused by the conquests or revolts 
 of the barbarians resulted in the closure of the gold 
 mines, and rendered gold metal too scarce for coinage 
 into money. Explanations which take no heed of the 
 truth, made either in ignorance or desperation, may be 
 multiplied indefinitely without serving any useful end. 
 The facts were precisely the reverse of what is here 
 assumed. It was the barbarians who opened the gold 
 mines and the Christians who closed them. The her- 
 etical Moslem, Franks, Avars, Saxons, Norsemen and 
 English all opened gold mines during the medieval 
 ages. The moment these people became Christians, or 
 were conquered or brought under the control of the 
 Roman hierarchy, their gold mines began to be aban- 
 doned and closed.^ 
 
 All such futile explanations are effectually answered 
 by the common use of Byzantine gold coins throughout 
 Christendom. In England, for example, the exchequer 
 rolls relating to the mediaeval ages, collated by Madox, 
 prove that payments in gold besants were made every 
 day, and that gold coins, as compared with silver ones, 
 were as common then as now.'' If metal had been 
 wanted for making English gold coins, it was to be had 
 in sufficiency and at once. All that was necessary was 
 
 1 "History Precious Metals;" "History Money." 
 
 2 Lord Liverpool does not appear to have perused this valuable and 
 instructive work. For other historical omissions in his Letter to the 
 King, see Sir David Balfour's Memorandum of October 20, 1887. 
 
THE SACRED CHARACTER OF GOLD 73 
 
 to throw the besants into the English melting-pot. As 
 for the feeble suggestion that for five hundred years no 
 Christian princes wished to coin gold so long as the 
 Basileus was willing to coin for them, when the coinage 
 of gold was the universally recognized mark of sover- 
 eignty, and when, also, the profit, as we shall presently 
 see, was one hundred per cent, it is scarcely worth 
 answering. The greatest historians of the mediaeval 
 ages — Montesquieu, Gibbon, Robertson, Hallam, 
 Guizot, etc. — have neither remarked these facts nor 
 sought for any explanation concerning the gold coin- 
 age. In their days the science of numismatics had not 
 yet freed itself from the toils of the sophist and forger, 
 and it offered but little aid to historical investigations. 
 It has since become their chief reliance. 
 
 The true reason why gold money was always used 
 but never coined by the princes of the mediaeval em- 
 pire, relates not to any circumstances connected with 
 the production, plentifulness, scarcity or metallurgical 
 treatment of gold, but to that hierarchical constitution 
 of pagan Rome, which afterwards with modifications 
 became. the constitution of Christian Rontie. Under this 
 constitution, and from tl^e epoch of Julius to that of 
 Alexis, the mining and coinage of gold was a preroga- 
 tive attached to the office of the sovereign-pontiff, and 
 was, therefore, an article of the Roman constitution 
 and of the Roman religion. Although it is probable that 
 during the dark and middle ages the prerogative of 
 mining was violated by many who would never have 
 dared to commit the more easily detected sacrilege of 
 coinage, there are no evidences of such violation by 
 Christians. 
 
 The mines of Kremnitz, which contained both silver 
 and gold, and which Agricola says were opened in 
 
74 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 A. D. 550, were in the territory of the pagan Avars ; the 
 gold washings of the Elbe, re-opened in 719, were in 
 the hands of the pagan Saxons and Merovingian 
 Franks; so were the gold washings of the Rhine, Rhone 
 and Garonne; the gold mines of Africa and Spain, re- 
 opened in the eighth century, were worked by the 
 heretical Moslem; the gold mines of Kaurzim, in Bo- 
 hemia, opened in 998, were managed by pagan Czechs. 
 Whenever and wherever Christianity was established, 
 gold mining appears to have been relinquished to the 
 Basileus or abandoned altogether. So long as the 
 Byzantine empire lasted, neither the emperor of the 
 West, nor any of the other princes of Christendom, 
 except the Basileus himself, seem to have conducted or 
 permitted gold mining. 
 
 With regard to gold coinage the facts are simple and 
 indisputable. Julius Cassar erected the coinage of 
 gold into a sacerdotal prerogative; this prerogative was 
 attached to the sovereign and his successors, not as 
 the emperors, but as the high priests of Rome ; it was 
 enjoyed by every Basileus, whether pagan or Christian, 
 of the joint and Eastern empires from the Julian con- 
 quest of Alexandria to the papal destruction of Con- 
 stantinople; the pieces bore the rayed effigies of the 
 deified Caesars, and some of them the legend "Theos 
 Sebastos." When emperor-worship was succeeded by 
 Christianity they bore the eflfigy of Jesus Christ.' It 
 would have been sacrilege, punishable by torture, death 
 
 I William Till (p. 39) says that Justin II. (a. d. 565-78) first struck the 
 aureus (solidus, or besant) with the efiBgy of Christ and the legend 
 "Dominus Noster, Jesus Christus, rex regnantium," and that this prac- 
 tice was observed down to the fall of the Byzantine empire. This state- 
 ment is erroneous in several respects. The first name of Christ on the 
 Roman coins was never spelled "Jesus," but, successively, "Ihs," 
 "Issus," and "lesus." The effigy of Christ did not appear on the coins 
 of Justin II. It first appeared on a gold solidus of Jtlstinian II. (Rhinot- 
 metus), who reigned 685-95, and again 705-11 (Sabatier, "Monnaies 
 Byzantines," ii., 22). 
 
THE SACRED CHARACTER OF GOLD 75 
 
 and anathema for any other prince than the sovereign- 
 pontiff to strike coins of gold; it would have been 
 sacrilege to give currency to any others; hence no 
 other Christian prince, not even the pope of Rome, nor 
 the sovereign of the Western or Mediajval "empire," 
 attempted to coin gold while the ancient Empire sur- 
 vived. 
 
 Says Px'ocopius: "Every liberty was given by the 
 Basileus Justinian I. to subordinate princes to coin sil- 
 ver as much as they chose, but they must not strike 
 gold coins, no matter how much gold they possessed ;" 
 and he intimates that the distinction was neither new 
 nor its significance doubtful. Theophanus (eighth cen- 
 tury), Cedrenus (eleventh century), and Zonaras (twelfth 
 century) state that Justinian II. broke the peace of 686 
 with Abd-el-Melik because the latter paid his tribute 
 in pieces of gold which bore not the effigy of the Roman 
 emperor. In vain the Arabian caliph pleaded that the 
 coins were of full weight and fineness, and that the 
 Arabian merchants would not accept coins of the Roman 
 type. Here are the exact words of Zonaras: "Justinian 
 broke the treaty with the Arabs because the annual 
 tribute was paid, not in pieces with the imperial effigy, 
 but after a new type, and it is not permitted to stamp 
 gold coins with any other effigy but that of the emperor 
 of Rome."* The "new type" complained of probably 
 had as much to do with the matter as the absence of 
 
 I From the period a. d. 645, when their conquests deprived the 
 Roman -empire of the bulk of its Asiatic and African possessions, to 
 about the beginning of the eighth century, the Arabians struck coins with 
 the efBgy of the Roman emperor and the emblems P and the cross. At 
 that period they struck coins still with these emblems, but in place of the 
 emperor's efBgy, that of Abd-el-Melik with a drawn sword in hand. 
 Like the maravedis of Henry III. (1257) and the nobles of Edward III. 
 (1344), the issue of these coins amounted to an assertion of independent 
 sovereignty, and as such was resented by Justinian. To the nummu- 
 lary proclamation of the Arabian : "The servant of God, Abd-el-Melik. 
 Emir-el-Moumenin," the Roman replied : "Our Lord Justinian, servant 
 of Christ." 
 
>]6 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 Justinian's effigj'. That new type was the effigy cf 
 Abd-el-Melik with a drawn sword in his hand, and the 
 Mahometan religious formula: a triple ofTense — ai, 
 insult, a defiance and a sacrilege. 
 
 The privilege accorded to subject-kings with regard 
 to silver was extended to both mining and coinage. 
 Silver mining and coinage was conducted by all the 
 Western princes, the Western emperor included. The 
 pope disposed of a few coining privileges to new or 
 weak States, or dependent bishoprics, the Western 
 emperor disposed, of others to the commercial cities ; 
 but for the most part silver was coined by the feudal 
 princes, each for himself, and not under any continuing 
 prerogative of the empire, whether ancient or mediaeval. 
 
 The following table shows some of the earliest gold 
 coinages of Christian Europe: — 
 
 1225. Naples (Amalfi). — Aurei, or augustals, of Frederick II.; Si to 82 
 English grains fine. 
 
 1225. Leon. — Gold ducats of Alfonso, gross weight 54!^ English grains, 
 
 with the following inscription in Arabic: "In the 
 name of the Father, Son, and holy Ghost, God is 
 One. He who believes and is baptized will be 
 saved. This dinar was struck in Medina Tolei- 
 tola, in the year 1225, month of Saphar."i Here 
 is a curious mixture of doctrines and dates. 
 1223. Portugal. — Gold ducats of Sancho I., weighing $^% grains gross. 
 
 1226. France. — Louis IX. Pavilion d'or, De Saulcy, "Documents," 
 
 I., IIS— 25- 
 1241. Faenza, Siege of. — Leather notes issued by Frederick, payable in 
 gold augustals. Yale's ' 'Marco Polo." 
 
 I Although this can hardly be deemed a Christian coin, I have in 
 eluded it in the table. Heiss publishes a gold coin with "Ferdinand" on 
 one side, and ' 'In nomine Patris et Filii Spiritus sanctus, " on the other, 
 which he ascribes to Ferdinand I. (II.), 1157-88; but Saez is positive that 
 it is a sueldo of Ferdinand II. (III.), 1230-52. There is about the same 
 difference of time between the Julian and Christian eras. The next gold 
 coins, after those of Alfonso, were either the sueldos of Barba Robea, in 
 the thirteenth century, or the Alfonsines struck by Alfonso XI., of 
 Castile, 1312-50. Thelatter had a castle of three turrets on one side, and 
 a rampant lion on the other. Gross weight 67.89 English grains (Heiss 
 (i., 51; iii., 218). 
 
THE SACRED CHARACTER OF GOLD 77 
 
 1250. France.— Gold agnels, or dinars, struck for Louis IX. by Blanche, 
 
 his mother. Weight 63}^ grains gross.i 
 1252. Florence.— Republican zecchins or florins, 56 grains flue. 
 1252. Genoa. — Gold "genovinas." 
 
 1257. England.— Pennies, or maravedis, of Henry III., 43 grains fine. 
 1265. Flanders.— Mantelets d'or. De Saulcy. 
 1276. Venice. — Zecchins or sequins, 555^ grains fine. 
 1300. BoH. and Pol. — Ducats of Veneslas, 54^ grains gross. 
 1312. Castile. — Alfonso XI. Doblas, valued at 100 pesetas. 
 1316. Avignon. — Sequins of Pope John XXII., 54)^ grains fine.'' 
 1325. Germany. — Louis IV. Ducats. 
 1336. Arragon. — Pedro IV. Florines. 
 
 1339. Holland and Hainault. — Ducats. 
 
 1340. Guelderland. — Duke Rainhold. Ducats. 
 1342. LuBECK. — Patent from Louis IV. Ducats. 
 1344. England. — Edward III. Nobles. 
 
 1356. Holland. — William V. Ducats. 
 
 1357. Flanders. — Louis II. Ducats. 
 
 1372. Nuremberg. — Frederick, under patent from the Emp. of Ger. 
 
 Ducats. 
 1496. Den. and Nor. — Eight-mark piece of John, 240 grains gross.' 
 
 That Christian Europe abstained from coining gold 
 for five centuries because such coinage was a preroga- 
 tive of the Basileus, is an explanation that may not be 
 acceptable to the old school of historians; but this is 
 not a sufficient reason for its rejection. The old school 
 
 1 Baron Malestroict ("Inst. ," p. 4. ) ascribes the first gold agnel to 
 Blanche of Castile, as regent of France during the minority of Louis 
 XI. Patin ("History of Coins," p. 38) repeats that they were struck by 
 Blanche as regent, but says nothing more. As Blanche was regent a 
 second time (during the sixth crusade, 1248-52), these coins were 
 probably struck in 1250 to defray the expenses of that war. Louis' 
 ransom of 100,000 marks was probably paid in silver. "There were 
 sent to Louis in talents, in sterlings, and in approved money of Cologne 
 (not the base coins of Paris or Tours), eleven waggons of money, each 
 loaded with two iron-hooped barrels" (M. Paris, sub anno 1250, vol. ii., 
 pp. 342, 378, 380). Humphreys (p. 532) ascribes these agnels to Philip 
 le Hardi, 1270-85 ; but there is no reason to doubt the earlier and mjre 
 explicit authority of Malestroict, Le Blanc, and Patin, nor the more re- 
 cent judgment of Lenormant ("Monnaies et Medailles," p. 228) and 
 Hoffman ("Monnaies Royale"). 
 
 2 This pope is responsible for a treatise on the transmutation of 
 metals, the prolific exemplar of many similar works. 
 
 3 The eight-mark piece and its fractions, of King Hans (John), a. d. 
 1481-1512, are in the Christiania Collection. The type of these coins is 
 evidently copied from the nobles of Edward III., minted from 1351 to 
 1360. 
 
^8 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 would have been very greedy of knowledge if they 
 had not left something for the new school to discover. 
 
 In his "Science des Medailles" (i., 208-11), Father 
 Joubert, and after him other numismatists, observing 
 the strange abstention of the Christian princes from 
 coining gold, and perhaps anxious to supply a reason 
 for it which would have the effect to discourage any 
 further examination of so suggestive a topic, invented 
 or promulgated the ingenious doctrine that the Roman 
 emperors from the time of Augustus were invested, 
 in like manner, with the power to coin both gold and 
 silver. If this doctrine enjoyed the advantage of being 
 sound, it would deprive the long abstention from gold 
 coinage by the Western princes of much of its signifi- 
 cance; because, assuming that the coinage of gold and 
 silver stood upon the same footing, and remembering 
 that all the Christian princes coined silver, their omis- 
 sion to coin gold might, with some reason, be attributed 
 to indifference. But that Father Joubert's doctrine is 
 not sound is easily proved. 
 
 I. With the accession of Julius C^sar was enacted 
 a new and memorable change in the monetary system 
 of Rome. The gold aureus was made the sole unlimited, 
 univei'sal legal-tender coin of the empire; the silver and 
 copper coins were limited and localized in legal tender; 
 the ratio of gold to silver in the coinage was suddenly — 
 and in the face of greatly increased supplies of gold 
 bullion — raised from 9 silver to 12. silver for i gold; 
 and the mining and commerce of gold were seized, 
 controlled, and strictly monopolized by the sovereign- 
 pontiff; whereas the mining of silver was thrown open 
 to subsidiary princes and certain privileged individuals.' 
 With the production of gold thus limited to pontifical 
 
 T The exportation of gold had been previously controlled by the Senate. 
 CsEsar made it a prerogative of the sovereign-pontiff. 
 
THE SACRED CHARACTER OF GOLD 79 
 
 control, and that of silver thrown gpen to numerous 
 persons, the coinage of the two metals in like manner, 
 or under like conditions, was totally impracticable and 
 historically untrue.' 
 
 II. As will presently be shown more at length, the 
 imperial treasury — which was kept distinct from the 
 public treasury, and known by another name — was 
 organized as a sacred institution ; its chief officer, then 
 or later on, was invested with a sacred title; the coin- 
 age of gold, which was placed under its management, 
 was exercised as a sacred prerogative; and the coins 
 themselves were stamped with sacred emblems and 
 legends. '^ On the contrary, the coinage of silver was a 
 secular prerogative ; it belonged to the emperor as a 
 secular monarch, and as such it was thrown open to the 
 subsidiary princes, nobles and cities of the empire, 
 while that of copper-bronze was resigned to the Senate. 
 These are not like conditions of coinage, but, on the 
 contrary, very unlike ones. 
 
 III. From the accession of Julius to the fall of Con- 
 stantinople, the ratio of value between gold and silver 
 within the Roman empire, whether pagan or Christian, 
 was always i to 12; whereas, during the same interval, 
 it was I to 6i in India, as well as in the Arabian 
 empires, in Asia, Africa and Spain; and it was i to 8 
 in Freisland, Scandinavia, and the Baltic provinces. It 
 is inconceivable that one single unvarying ratio of i to 
 12 should have been maintained for centuries by the 
 innumerable and irreconcilable feudal provinces of the 
 Roman empire, if the freedom to coin silver, exercised 
 by the feudal princes, was in like manner extended to 
 gold. 
 
 1 See "History Money," chapter xxv., for further consideration of 
 this subject. 
 
 2 The ofBcers of the sacred fisc, who were stationed in the provinces 
 to superintend the collection of gold for the sacred mint at Constanti- 
 nople, are mentioned in the Notitia Imperii. 
 
8o HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 IV. The authority of ancient writers is conclusive 
 on this subject. Cicero, Pliny, Procopius, and Zona- 
 ras, though they lived in distant ages, all concur in 
 representing that the coinage of the two precious metals 
 was not conducted in like manner nor under like condi- 
 tions. 
 
 V. The authority of modern writers, for example, 
 Letronne, Mommsen, and Lenormant, is to the same 
 effect. This absolutely closes the subject, and com- 
 pletely disposes of Father Joubert. 
 
 The sacerdotal character conferred upon gold, or the 
 coinage of gold, was not a novelty of the Julian consti- 
 tution ; rather was it an ancient myth put to new polit- 
 ical use. Concerning the testimony of witnesses, the 
 ver};^ ancient Hindu Code says: "By speaking falsely 
 in a cause concerning gold, he kills the born and the 
 unborn" — an extreme anathema. Stealing sacred gold 
 is classed with the highest crimes.' A similar solici- 
 tude and veneration for gold occurs elsewhere through- 
 out these laws. The Budhists made it unlawful to mine 
 for, or even to handle gold, probably because the 
 Bramins had used it as an engine of tyranny. Accord- 
 ing to Mr. Ball, this superstition is still observed in 
 some remote parts of India. It is possible that, in some 
 instances, the sacerdotal character attached to gold by 
 the Bramins belonged only to such of it as had been 
 paid to the priests, or consecrated to the temples, and 
 that when the priests paid it away it was no longer 
 sacred ; but the texts will not always bear this reading. 
 For example: "He who steals a suvarna" (suvarna 
 a gold coin) "dies on a dunghill, is turned to a serpent, 
 and rots in hell until the dissolution of the universe " 
 (vide Braminical inscription found on copperplate due 
 up at Raiwan, in Delhi).'' The same superstition occurs 
 
 1 Halhed's "Gentoo Code," viii., 99; ix., 237. 
 
 2 "Jour. Asiat. See. Bengal," Ivi., 118. 
 
THE SACRED CHARACTER OF GOLD 8 1 
 
 among the ancient Egyptians, Persians and Jews. 
 There are frequent allusions to it in the pages of Herod- 
 otus. For example.Targitaus, the first king of Scythia, 
 a thousand years before Darius, the sacred king of 
 Persia (this would make it about b. c. 1500), was the 
 divine son of Jupiter and a daughter of the river Borys- 
 thenes or Dneister. In the kingdom of Targitaus gold 
 was found in abundance, but being deemed sacred, it 
 was reserved for the use of the sacred king. In another 
 place Herodotus relates that in the i-eign of Darius, 
 B. c. 521 (of whom Lenormant says, in his great work 
 on the "Moneys of Antiquity," that he reserved the 
 coinage of gold to himself absolutely), Aryandes, his 
 viceroy in Egypt, struck a silver coin to resemble the 
 gold darics of the king. Possibly, to make the resem- 
 blance greater, it was also gilded. For this offense 
 Aryandes was condemned as a traitor and executed.^ 
 Josephus makes many allusions to the sacredness of 
 gold. A similar belief is to be noticed among the an- 
 cient Greeks, whose coinages, except during the repub- 
 lican era, were conducted in the temples and under the 
 supervision of priests. Upon these issues were stamped 
 the symbolism and religion of the State, and as only 
 the priesthood could correctly illustrate these mysteries 
 of their own creation, the coinage — at least that of the 
 more precious pieces — naturally became a prei-ogative 
 of their order. Rawlinson notices that the Parthian 
 kings, even after they threw off the Syro- Macedonian 
 yoke, never ventured to strike gold coins. ^ The reason 
 probably" was that in place of the Syro-Macedonian 
 yoke they had accepted the Roman, and that the Ro- 
 man (imperial) law forbade the coinage 'of gold to 
 subject-princes. 
 
 1 Mel., 7, 166; Lenormant, i., 173. 
 
 2 Geo. Rawlinson, "Seventh Monarchy," p 70. 
 
82 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 Whatever credit or significance be accorded or denied 
 to these ancient glimpses of the myth, its significance 
 becomes clearer when it is viewed through the accounts 
 of the Roman historians. The Sacred Myth of Gold 
 appears in Rome at the period when the history of the 
 Gaulish invasion of a. u. 369 was written. The story 
 runs that after the eternal city had been saved from the 
 barbarians, it was held by the Roman leaders that to 
 the gold which had been taken from the mass belonging 
 to the temples should be added the gold contributed by 
 the women towards making up the ransom, or indem-t 
 nity, of a thousand pounds weight, and that all of it 
 should thenceforth be regarded as sacred. Says Livy: 
 "The gold which had been rescued from payment to 
 the Gauls, as also what had been, during the hurry of 
 the alarm, carried from the other temples into the recess 
 of Jupiter's temple, was altogether judged to be sacred, 
 and ordered to be deposited together under the throne 
 of Jupiter.'" 
 
 At this period, according to Pliny, the Roman money 
 was entirely of bronze. If this is true, all offerings of 
 money to the temples must have been in bronze coins. 
 If the object of conferring a sacerdotal character upon 
 gold was merely to preserve the ecclesiastical treasure 
 from violation, it is inexplicable that the same sacred 
 character was not also conferred upon the current 
 bronze money. It is far more consistent with the grossly 
 superstitious character of the age to believe that the 
 Romans (of the period when this legend was penned) 
 were taught to regard all gold, except such as was 
 worn upon the person, as sacred; and that the object of 
 pronouncing the gold in the jewels contributed by the 
 Roman women to be sacred, was to prevent its ever 
 being again worn as jewelry. This gold had saved 
 I Livy, v., 50. 
 
THE SACRED CHARACTER OF GOLD 83 
 
 Rome, for although it is said it was not actually paid 
 to the Gauls, the dela}' attending the weighing of it had 
 given time for Camillus to advance to the rescue of the 
 beleaguered citadel and drive the barbarians away. 
 There was no less reason for rendering sacred the gold 
 in the jewels, whose weighing had saved the city, than 
 the geese whose cackling had contributed to the same 
 happy event. However, it is possible that, as yet, a 
 sacred character was only attached to such gold as had 
 been consecrated to the gods. 
 
 The social, servile and civil wars of Rome were 
 characterized by great disorders of the currency, and 
 during the latter, that is to say, in b. c. 91, Livius 
 Drusus, a tribune of the people, authorized the coinage 
 of silver denarii, alloyed with "one-eighth part of 
 copper," which was a lowering of the long established 
 standard. As the civil wars continued, a portion of 
 the silver coinage was still further debased, and the 
 denarius, whose legal value had long been 16 aces, was 
 lowered to 10 aces. Later on we hear of the issue of 
 copper denarii plated to resemble those of silver. It is 
 possibly to these debased or plated coins that Sallust 
 alludes when he says that by a law of Valerius Flaccus, 
 the Interrex, under Sylla (b. c. 86), "argentum eere 
 solutum est," i. e. silver is now paid with bronze. 
 Valleius Paterculus explained the operation of this law 
 differently, in saying that it obliged all creditors to 
 accept in full payment only a fourth pai-t of what was 
 due them. These explanations afford a proof that at 
 this period the gold coins were not sole legal tenders. 
 The discontent produced among commercial classes by 
 this law of Valerius Flaccus, induced the College of 
 Prgetors (b. c' 84) to restore the silver money to its 
 ancient standard by instituting what we would now call 
 
84 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 a trial of the pix. Sylla, enraged- at this interference 
 with the coinage and the political designs connected 
 with it, annulled the decree of the praetors, proscribed 
 their leader, Marius Gratidianus, as atraitor,and handed 
 him over to Catiline, by whom he was executed.' 
 
 Sylla's lex nummaria (b. c. 83), which prescribed 
 the punishment of fire and water, or the mines, to the 
 forgers of gold and silver coins, implies that at this 
 period the 'immunity which perhaps previously, and 
 certainly afterwards, attended gold coins, was not yet 
 secured. About b. c. 82, Q. Antonius Balbus, an urban 
 praetor, was authorized by the Senate, then controlled 
 by the partisans of Marius, to collect the sacred treasure 
 from the temples and turn it into coins. This money 
 was employed in the struggle with Sylla. It is to this 
 period, doubtless, that Cicero afterwards referred when 
 he said: "At that time the currency was in such a 
 fluctuating state,that no man knew what he was worth. ''^ 
 After Sylla's triumph over Marius, and his resignation 
 of the dictatorship (b. c. 79), the ancient standard of 
 silver coinage was restored ; and the opulent citizens, 
 in order to express their approbation of this measure, 
 erected full length statues of the unfortunate Marius 
 Gratidianus in various parts of Rome. About b. c. 69, 
 Cicero alluded to the public treasury as the ''sanctius 
 aerarium." This expression, in connection with the 
 coins struck by Antonius Balbus, from consecrated 
 treasure and the statues erected to Marius Gratidianus, 
 all point to this period as that of the adoption of the 
 sacredness of gold in the Roman law. 
 
 About this time the Jews appear to have again ac- 
 quired some share in that lucrative trade with India 
 
 I Modern writers on money have expended a 'great deal of false 
 sentiment on Gratidianus. Cicero, who was his relative and possibly 
 knew him better, proves him a liar, cheat, demagogue, and traitor 
 (Off., iii., 20.) 
 
 2 Off., iii., 30. 
 
THE SACRED CHARACTER OF GOLD 85 
 
 which they had formerly shared with the Greeks, and 
 which has ever been a source of contention and hatred 
 among the states of the Levant. The principal channel 
 of this trade was now by the Nile and the Red Sea, 
 and was in the hands of the Ptolemaic rulers of Egypt. 
 A portion of it, however, went overland by Palmyra; 
 and from this portion Jerusalem derived important com- 
 mercial advantages. Such as they were, these advantages 
 were lost to the Jews and acquired by Rome, when, 
 in B. c. 63, Pompey and Scaurus snatched Judea from 
 the contentious Maccabees, and established over it a 
 Roman government.' In b. c. 59 Cicero said: "The 
 Senate, on several different occasions, but more strictly 
 during my consulship, prohibited the exportation of 
 gold." (Exportare aurum non oportere cum saspe antea 
 Senatus turn me consule gravissime judicavit. )^ Cicero 
 was consul four years previously, that is to say, in 
 B. c. 63. "Exportation" here seems to mean transmis- 
 sion from one province of the Roman empire to another, 
 because elsewhere, in the same pleading, Cicero says: 
 "Flaccus" ( a proconsul of Syria) "by a public edict 
 prohibited its exportation" (that of gold) "from Asia." 
 The introduction of the word "Italy" in Cicero's plea 
 for Flaccus, can only be regarded as a means of enlist- 
 ing the prejudice of the judges. Herfe is the passage 
 in full: "Since our gold has been annually carried out 
 of Italy and all the Roman provinces by the Jews, to 
 Jerusalem, Flaccus, by a public edict, prohibited its 
 exportation from Asia." The Jews probably bought 
 gold (with silver) in the provinces between Judea and 
 India, because it was cheaper in those places than in 
 
 1 The Maccabees struck the earliest Jewish coins. These were called 
 sicals or shekels, the same name given to coins by the ancient Hindus, 
 with whom sicca meant a mint, or "minted," or "cut." The Arabians 
 of a later period also borrowed the same term. 
 
 2 "Orat. pro L. Flacco," c. 28. 
 
86 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 Europe. They may have bought silver in Greece or 
 Italy, but unless their commercial pre-eminence is a 
 trait of altogether modern grow.th, it is hard to believe 
 that they bought gold in Italy, when it could have been 
 obtained nearer by, at two-thirds the price. The pen- 
 alty which this unlucky people have paid for their ill- 
 starred attempts to share in the Greek and Roman profits 
 of the oriental trade has been more than two thou- 
 sand years of oppression and ostracism. 
 
 The conquest of Egypt by Julius Cgesar (b. c. 48) 
 threw the whole of the oriental trade into the hands of 
 Rome. Canals connecting the Mediterranean and Red 
 Seas had been constructed successively by Necho,' 
 Darius and Ptolemy ; and shortly after the Julian con- 
 quest, one of these canals was used for the voyages of 
 the Indian fleet. ^ A century or so later Pliny recorded 
 the fact that a hundred million sesterces' worth of silver 
 (equal in value to one million gold aurei) was annually 
 exported to India and China.' The numerical propor- 
 tions of the gold and silver ratios in Europe and India 
 indicate that this trade was not a new one, and that a 
 similar trade had been conducted by the Ptolemies and 
 by the Babylonians and Assyrians upward to a remote 
 era of the commercial intercourse between the Eastern 
 
 1 Herodotus, Clio, zo2,- Eut., 158; Me!., 39. 
 
 2 Strabo. At a later period the inter-oceanic canal became clogged 
 with drifting sand, and was reopened by Trajan or Hadrian, probably 
 the latter. It was kept open by the Byzantine emperors. See 
 Marciauus in Morisotus, "Orbis Martimus," and Anderson's "History 
 Commerce." It was again reopened by Amrou in a. d. 639, during the 
 reign of the caliph Omar. The Ptolemaic (and Roman) route was by 
 Alexandria, the Nile, the Canal, Berenice, Sabia, and Muscat. It is 
 fully described in the "Periplus maris erythraei" of Arrian. 
 
 3 Minimaque computatione millies centena millia sestertium annis 
 omnibus India at Seres peninsulaque ilia imperio nostro adimunt. Tanto 
 nobis delicias et feminas constant ("Nat. History," xii., 18.) In another 
 place (vi., 23) he puts it at half this sum, "Quingenties I. I. S ," for 
 India alone. The "feminine luxuries'' imported in exchange included 
 gold, silk, and spices. Numbers of the silver coins exported to India at 
 this period have been found during the present century buried in Budhist 
 topes. 
 
THE SACRED CHARACTER OF GOLD 87 
 
 and Western worlds.' During the Ptolemaic period 
 the ratio was lo for i in Europe, and I2i for i in 
 Egypt, whilst it was 6 to 6i for i in the Orient. In 
 other words, a ton weight of gold could be bought in 
 India for about 6i tons of silver, and coined, in Egypt, 
 into gold pieces worth I2i tons of silver.^ The profit 
 was therefore cent per cent, and even after the Romans 
 conquered Egypt, the rate of profit on exchanges of 
 Western silver for Eastern gold was quite or nearly as 
 great. This explains what seems so abstruse a puzzle 
 to the industrious but uncommercial Pliny: he could 
 not understand why his countrymen "always demanded 
 silver and not gold from conquered races.'" One rea- 
 son was that the Roman government knew where to 
 sell this silver at a usurer's profit. When this profit 
 ceased, as it did when the oriental trade was abandoned, 
 the Roman government entirely altered its policy. Dur- 
 ing the middle ages it preferred to collect its tributes in 
 gold coin. 
 
 When the enormous difference in the legal value of the 
 precious metals in the Occident and Orient is consid- 
 ered, and that, too, at a period when maritime trade 
 between these regions was not uncommon, it is impos- 
 sible to resist the conviction that the superior value of 
 gold in the West was created by means of legal and, 
 perhaps, also sacerdotal ordinances. This method of 
 fixing the ratio may even have originated in the Oiient. 
 
 Colebrook* states that the ancient Hindus struck gold 
 
 1 "Hist. Money, Ancient," p. 71- 
 
 2 Lenormant, i., 146-51. 
 
 3 Equidem miror P. R. victis gentibus in tribute argentum imperitasse 
 non aurum ("Nat. Hist." xxxiii., 15). 
 
 4 "Asiat. Researches," London, 1799, v., 91. Meninsky, in his "The- 
 saurus Ling. Orient.," p. 1897, voc. "Choesrewani,"says that, in the time 
 o£ Chosroes (a. d. 531-79). 'be Persians worshiped the dirhems of that 
 monarch. If we read "venerated" for "worshiped," and "dinars" for 
 "dirhems," we shall probably get nearer to the truth. Chosroes the 
 deified was so successful in his wars against Justinian, that the latter 
 
88 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 coins, which were multiples of the christnala, the latter 
 containing about 2i English grains fine. According 
 to Queipo,' five christnalas equaled a masha of iii 
 grains and 80 christnalas a tola, or suvarna, of 180 
 grains. This system appears to have originated at two 
 different periods, the octonary relations belonging to 
 the remote period of the Solar worship, and the quin- 
 quennial to the Braminical period. Dished gold coins 
 (scyphates) of the type afterwards imitated in the besant, 
 called "ramtenkis," and regarded as sacred money, 
 were struck in India at a very remote period. The 
 usual weights were about 180, 360 and 720 English 
 grains (1,2 and 4 tolas). One example weighed 1,485 
 grains, and was probably intended for 8 tolas sicca. 
 The gold being alloyed with silver gave a pale appear- 
 ance to the pieces. The extant coins contain no legible 
 dates or inscriptions, and are much worn by repeated 
 kissing. The emblems upon them are the sacred ones 
 of Rama, Sita and Hunuman. They were evidently 
 held in high veneration by the Bramin^ Facsimiles of 
 these coins have been published in the "Journal of the 
 Asiatic Society of Bengal."" In the Braminical coin- 
 ages the value of silver seems to have been lowered 
 from 4 (to 5) for i gold; and though in later coinages 
 the value of silver was again lowered, as before stated, 
 to about 6i for i gold, the general tendency in the 
 Orient was to maintain the value of silver, and in the 
 Occident to raise that of gold. So that, although the 
 
 was obliged to pay him an annual tribute of forty thousand pieces of 
 gold (sacred besants). These were most lil ely the pieces that, upon 
 being recoined in Persia, were venerated by its subservient populace. 
 Von Strahlenberg (p 330) says that the lestiaks or Oes-tiaks, near 
 Samarow, venerated a cufic coin of the Arabians, from whom they had 
 captured it. In a tomb near the river Irtisch, between the salt lake 
 lamischewa and Ihecity Om-Iestroch, a flat oval gold coin that had 
 evidently been used as an object of worship, was found and delivered 
 to Prince Gagarin, the governor of Siberia (about a. d. 17 15). 
 
 I Queipo, i., 449-52. i 'Joiirn. Asiat. Soc. Bengal," liii., 207-11. 
 
THE SACRED CHARACTER OF GOLD 89 
 
 system of deriving a profit from the device of altering 
 the ratio was probably of oriental origin, the practical 
 operation of this system — certainly at the periods em- 
 braced within' the Greek and Roman histories — was 
 precisely opposite in the Western world to what it was 
 in the Eastern. The governments of Persia, Assyria, 
 Egypt, Greece and Rome made a profit on the coinage 
 by raising the value of gold, while those of India, 
 China, and perhaps also Japan, made their profit by 
 maintaining, or enhancing, the value of silver. In the 
 last named St^te silver was valued at 8 (some say at 4) 
 to I of gold, at one of which ratios it stood so late as 
 1858. 
 
 It is evident that,by continuing the use of this myth, 
 or by attaching a sacerdotal character to the coinage 
 and coins of gold, which in Italy may hitherto have 
 only been attached to consecrated deposits of gold — a 
 character which the conqueror, who was also the ^onti- 
 fex maximus of Rome, was quite competent to confer 
 upon it — he would not only acquire the means to repub- 
 lish upon its coins the mythology and religious symbols 
 of the empire, altered to accord with his own impious 
 pretensions of divine origin, but he would also be en- 
 abled to reap profits equal to those which the Ptolemies 
 had derived from the oriental trade. Indeed, in this 
 respect Cassar made another innovation : he increased 
 the Roman ratio from 9 to 12 for i, and there it re- 
 mained fixed, in consequence of his ordinance, for 
 thirteen centuries. 
 
 That Cassar attached a sacerdotal character to the 
 gold coins of Rome, and that Augustus and his succes- 
 sors, both the pagan and Christian sovereign-pontiffs of 
 the empire, continued and maintained this sacred char- 
 acter is so abundantly evidenced that it has never been 
 
90 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 disputed. It is only in assigning reasons for the meas- 
 ures that numismatists have differed. Evelyn believed 
 that the gold coins were rendered sacred to preserve 
 them from profanation and secure them from abuse.' 
 Others have found the origin of this regulation in the 
 desire to preserve the most precious monuments of Ro- 
 man antiquity from the melting pot, and they point to 
 the numerous coinage restorations of Trajan as a proof 
 of the Roman anxiety on this subject. The reasons 
 herein suggested as the true ones are, first, the useful- 
 ness of coins to proclaim monarchical and pontifical ac- 
 cessions, and to disseminate religious doctrine ; and, 
 second, the profits of the oriental trade, which could 
 only be secured by means of an ordinance enjoying the 
 •sanctity of religious authority. These reasons even 
 receive confirmation from the contrary regulations 
 adopted by the Arabians. Whether in scorn of the 
 Roman mythology, or else to enhance the value of the 
 immense silver spoil which they had derived from the 
 conquest of the Roman provinces in Asia, Africa and 
 Spain, or because they were unable or unwilling to 
 continue that pretense of sacredness, partly by means 
 of which so artificially high a valuation of gold had 
 been created in Europe, it appears that when the Ara- 
 bians came to permanently regulate the affairs of the 
 conquered provinces (reform of Abd-el-Melik) they 
 swept away the mythological emblems upon the coins 
 for all time, and for several centuries they destroyed 
 the sacred charactei of gold. They issued plain coins 
 of constant weight and fineness, and reduced the ratio 
 to the Indian level (then) of 6^ for i. 
 
 Whatever reasons induced Ctesar to enhance the 
 value of gold, there can be no doubt of the fact. In 
 the scrupulum coinages of A. u. 437 the ratio was 10 
 
 I Evelyn, "Medals," 224-7. 
 
THE SACRED CHARACTER OF GOLD 9I 
 
 silver for i gold ; in the coinage system of Sylla (a. u. 
 67s) the ratio was 9 for i. Caesar raised the value of 
 his gold coins by a double jump to 12 for i ; in other 
 words, without changing its value in silver coins, he 
 gradually lowered the aureus from i68i to 125 grains 
 fine, and this alteration he sanctified and rendered per- 
 manent by stamping upon the coins the most sacred 
 devices and solemn legends. If this great politician of 
 antiquity endeared himself to the masses by thus lower- 
 ing the measure of indebtedness, he secured for his 
 empire the approval of the patrician and commercial 
 classes by securing its stability, for the ratio which he 
 adopted and solemnized was never changed until Rome 
 dissolved into a mere name — a name by which ambitious 
 princes afterward continued to conjure, but which at 
 that late period really belonged to a dead and powerless 
 empire. 
 
 In that admirable review of the Byzantine empire 
 which forms the subject of Gibbon's seventeenth chap- 
 ter, he declares that by law the imperial taxes during 
 the dark ages were payable in gold coins alone.' We 
 now know the reason of this ordinance — the oriental 
 trade was gone. The custom of the period was that 
 when gold coins were not paid, silver coins were ac- 
 cepted instead, at the sacred weight ratio of 12. In the 
 reign of Theodosius the officer entrusted with the gold 
 coinage was the Comes Sacrarum Largitionuni, or 
 Count of the Sacred Trust, one of the twenty-seven 
 illustres, or greatest nobles, of the empire. Ilis pow- 
 ers supplanted those of the former qucBstori -prafecti 
 cerarii and other high officers of the treasury. His 
 jurisdiction extended over the mines whence gold was 
 extracted, over the mints in which it Was converted 
 into coins, over the revenues which, being payable in 
 I Same, in his Misc. works, iii., 460. 
 
92 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 gold coins, kept the latter in use and demand, and over 
 the treasuries, in which gold was deposited for the 
 service of the sacred emperor or in exchange for silver. 
 Even the woolen and linen manufactures and the foreign 
 trade of the empire were originally placed under the 
 control of this minister,with the view, no doubt,to regu- 
 late that exchange of Western silver for oriental gold, 
 of which some remains existed at the period of these 
 elaborate and subtle arrangements. 
 
 It is the peculiarity of sacerdotal ordinances that they 
 long outlive the purpose intended to be subserved by 
 their enactment. In the hot climates of India, Egypt, 
 Palestine and Arabia the interdiction of certain meats 
 for food may possibly have been originally founded 
 upon hygienic considerations — a fact that may have 
 commended this ordinance to local acceptation, but cer- 
 tainly did not earn for it that general and continued 
 observance which it owes to the Braminical, Jewish 
 and Mahometan religions. It is not to be wondered 
 that Justinian I. rebuked Theodoret the Frank for 
 striking heretical gold coins, nor that Justinian II. pro- 
 claimed war against Abd-el-Melik for presuming to 
 pay his tribute in other heretical gold ; but it certainly 
 seems strange to find this myth observed in distant ages 
 and among distant nations — for example, to witness the 
 pagan Danes of the mediaeval ages solemnizing their 
 oaths upon bangs of sacred gold; to find Henry III., 
 of England, after plundering the Jews of London, re- 
 ceiving the gold into his own hands, but the silver by 
 the hands of others; and to discover that Philip II., of 
 Spain, attempted to re-enact in America this played-out 
 myth of idolatrous India, Egypt and Rome.' 
 
 I Procop. "Bel. Got.," iii., 33; Lenormant ii., 453, 454; Du Chaillu, 
 "Viking Agej" Matthew Paris, i., 459; "Recopilacion de Leyes de los 
 Reynos de las Indias," law of 1565. 
 
THE SACRED CHARACTER OF GOLD 93 
 
 The importance of this myth, in throwing light upon 
 the political relations of the Roman provinces toward 
 the Byzantine and Western or mediaeval empires, does 
 not depend either upon its antiquity or the reasons of 
 its adoption into the Roman constitution, nor upon its 
 general acceptance or popularity. It is sufficient for the 
 purpose if it can be shown that, as a matter of fact, the 
 sovereign-pontiff alone enjoyed the prerogative of coin- 
 ing gold throughout the Empire, and that the princes 
 of the Empire respected this prerogative. It is submitted 
 that concerning this cardinal fact the evidences herein 
 adduced are sufficient. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 POUNDS, SHILLINGS AND PENCE. 
 
 This system appears in the Theodosian Code — Is probably older — Its 
 essential characteristic is valuation by moneys of account — Ad- 
 vantages — Previous diversity of coins — Danger of the loss of numis- 
 matic monuments — Exportation of silver to India — Difficulty of en- 
 forcing contracts of coins of a given metal — /. s d. as an instrument 
 of taxation — As an historical clew — It always followed Christianity — 
 Sidelights to history afforded by the three denominations-^;^ . s. d. 
 and the Feudal system — It saved the most precious monuments of 
 antiquity from destruction — Artificial character of the system — Its 
 earliest establishment in the provinces — In Britain — Interrupted in 
 some provinces by barbarian systems — Its restoration proves the 
 resumption of Roman government — This rule applied to Britain. 
 
 Searching for the beginning of a custom is Jike 
 tracing a river back to its source: we soon discover 
 that it has not one source but many. When brevity is 
 preferable to precision, it is sufficient if we follow an 
 institution to its principal or practical source. 
 
 We have elsewhere shown the marks of chronological 
 stratification in Roman history — originally decimal and 
 afterwards duodecimal — which resulted from a change 
 that, it is assumed, took place in the method of meas- 
 uring the solar circle. This, we are persuaded, was 
 originally divided into ten parts, each of 36 degrees; 
 hence the archaic Roman or Etruscan year of ten 
 months, each of 36 days, and the week or nmidinum of 
 nine days. At a later period the zodiac was divided 
 into twelve parts, each of 30 degrees, whence the year 
 of twelve months, each of 30 days.' In these two sys- 
 
 1 By some writers the year of 360 days has been erroneously called a 
 lunar year, but in fact a year contains nearly thirteen lunar months. The 
 year of twelve months was originally solar, and was always astrological. 
 Many of the early institutes mentioned by Livy, Pliny, and Censorinus 
 wereevidently taken from the laws of conquered and obliterated Etruria, 
 and falsely attributed to Romulus, Numa, and other creations of Roman 
 fancy. Among these institutes was the change from ten months of 36 
 days to twelve months of 30 days to the year (Livy, i., ig). 
 
 94 
 
POUNDS, SHILLINGS AND PENCE 95 
 
 terns we have the basis of the decimal and duodecimal 
 methods of notation, which are so strangely inter- 
 mingled in all Roman numbers and proportions, and 
 which also appear in £. s. d. Thus the number of 
 solidi to the libra was five, and the number of sicilici to 
 the libra twenty, both of which are decimal propor- 
 tions.' On the other hand, the number of denarii to 
 the sicilicus was twelve, and the ratio between the met- 
 als was twelve, which is duodecimal.^ 
 
 Those writers whose researches into monetary sys- 
 tems are bounded by the narrow conclusions of Adam 
 Smith's "Wealth of Nations" or Tooke's "History of 
 Prices" usually attribute the origin of £. s. d. to Wil- 
 liam the Norman or to Charlemagne,and their explana- 
 tion of the system is commonly confined to that of the 
 £., which they regard as the symbol for a pound weight 
 of silver, or else a pound weight of silver coins. The 
 different books in which this delusion is repeated are 
 probably sufficiently numerous to stock a good sized 
 library; yet it can be demolished in a few words. 
 Neither the contents of the Norman or Carlovingian 
 nor of any other coins sustain this theory, neither is 
 
 1 The "pound" of money is to be discerned during the decay of Attic 
 liberty. Thg Romans used the term "pondus" to mean 100 drachmas 
 and the Greeks used the "talenton" of money before them. Twenty 
 drachmas (silver) equaled in value one stater, and five staters were 
 valued at a talenton, which the Romans called a pondus. The Greek 
 ratio was 10. Most of the confusion on this subject has resulted from ^ 
 the refusal of numismatic writers to recognize — what their own monetary 
 systems of to-day attest — that every name of a weight also meant at the 
 same time a sum of money, which had no relation to such weight. 
 Humphreys, Chambers and Putnam all furnish confused references to 
 the pondus of 100 drachmas. The Persians in the time of Cyrus appear 
 to have had a system of £. s. d. very like what the Romans afterward 
 had. 
 
 2 A remarkable custom, which, it may reasonably be conjectured, orig- 
 inated in the changed subdivision of the zodiac, prevailed among the 
 Goths. With them the ten meant twelve, and an hundred was six score. 
 The custom still prevails in Essex, Norfolk and Scotland (Sir Francis 
 Palgrave, i. , 97). Some vestige of the score system still lingers in the 
 French names for numbers. Curiously enough, too, the method of 
 counting by scores was employed by the Aztecs (Prescott, p. 33). 
 
96 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 it sustained by the texts- of the Carlovingian or any 
 other period. The libra of money (not the whole triad 
 of £ s. d.) is at least five hundred and may be. fifteen 
 hundred yearfe older than Charlemagne, being clearly 
 defined in the Theodosian Code (lib. xiii. ,tit. ii. ,11), of 
 which the following is the text and literal translation: — 
 "Ita ut pro singulis libris argenti quinos solidos inferat" 
 — "So that for each libra of money five solidi are to be 
 understood.'" This portion of the code is attributed by 
 some commentators to the constitutions of Constantine, 
 by others to a law of Honorius and Arcadius (a.d. 397) f 
 but, as shown elsewhere, the libra of five gold pieces 
 is older than either. It was used for five gold aurei by 
 Caligula, Probus and Diocletian. It frequently occurs 
 in the texts of Valens,' Arcadius and other sovereign- 
 pontiffs of the fourth to the eighth century, where, except 
 in one instance, it always means five solidi. According 
 to Father Mariana ("De Ponderis et Mensures"), the 
 sicilicus — known in a subsequent age as the gold shill- 
 
 1 It is from this passage in the Theodosian Code that the learned 
 Boeckh, Rome d'Lisle, and Bodin regarded the libra as a weight, and 
 deduced the supposed ratio between silver and gold of 14.4 to i. It is 
 needless to say that if the libra was a money of account and not a weight, 
 the deduction is erroneous. There is no instance of such a ratio of 14 4, 
 or thereabouts, in Roman or Greek history — a fact which by itself should 
 have rendered these erudite persons more cautious. The Code of Jus- 
 tinian (liber, a., tit. Ixxvi., de argenti pretio) also gives the ratio, "pro 
 libra argenti, 5 solidi." 
 
 2 Queipo, ii., 56. 
 
 3 The cupidity of the Duke of Moesia induced hira to withhold pro- 
 visions from the Gothic refugees, whom Valens, the sovereign-pontiff, had 
 permitted to enter that province, so that a slave (niancipium) was given 
 by the Goths for a loaf of bread (unum panem) and ten Ii bras (of money) 
 for a carcass of meat (aa< decern libras in unum carnem mercarentur). 
 It is evident that ten libras meant precisely what the law declared 
 it should mean, namely. 50 solidi (equal to the contents of about 32 
 English sovereigns), for ten pounds weight of gold would contain as much 
 as 464 English sovereigns. Gibbon avoids the difficulty by saying "the 
 word silver must be understood;" but such was not the custom of that 
 time, any more than it is now. When silver was understood it meant 
 money and not metal. Said the law: "So that for each libra (libris 
 argenti) five solidi (of gold) are to be understood" (Jornandes, "De 
 Getarura, '' c. xxvi. ; Gibbon, ii. , 597, 4to ed. ) 
 
POUNDS, SHILLINGS AND PENCE 97 
 
 ing — was struck as early as the first century of our era, 
 for he states that in his own collection were gold pieces 
 of this weight, struck by Faustina, Augusta, Vespasian 
 and Nero. Others of Justinian, weighing i6 grains, 
 are now in the Madrid collection. Thedenarius of the 
 early empire, of which 25 in value went to the aureus, 
 tallied in weight, though not in fineness, with the half- 
 aux-eus. In the reign of Caracalla 24 denarii went to 
 the aureus, the ratio of value between the metals re- 
 maining unchanged. Such is briefly the genesis of 
 £. s. d. 
 
 The translation of "argentum" into "money" needs 
 no explanation to Continental readers, for in all the 
 Continental languages — French, Spanish, Italian, etc. — 
 "silver" means money. This custom is derived from 
 the Romans of the Empire, with whom "argentum" 
 meant money, as the following examples sufficiently 
 prove: — Argentariae tabernge, bankers' shops (Livy); 
 argentaria inopia, want of money (Plautus); argen- 
 tarius, treasurer (Plautus); argentei sc. nummi, or 
 money (Pliny, xvi., 3); ubi argenti venas aurique 
 sequuntur (Lucretius, vi., 808); cum argentum esset 
 expositum in aedibus (Cicero); emunxi argento senes 
 (Terrence); concisum argentum in titulos faciesque 
 minutas (Juvenal xiv., 291); tenue argentum venaeque 
 secundae {ibid., ix., 31). The Romans in turn got this 
 term from the ancient Greeks, whose literature thej- 
 studied and whose customs they aflected. One of the 
 Greek names for money was "argyrion," from argy- 
 ros, silver. The Hebrew word for money was casepk, 
 literally silver, alluding to the coined shekels of the 
 Babylonians. The same custom, /. e., using the term 
 "silver" for money, is to be found in the most ancient 
 writings of Egypt and India. 
 
98 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 In a letter of Honorius and Theodosius II. to the 
 Prefect of Gaul, written in our year of 418, after sug- 
 gesting the formation of a council to regulate the affairs 
 of that province, the emperors proposed, in case its 
 members failed to attend the meetings, to subject them 
 to fines of ihree and five "libras of gold" each. It is 
 evident that the "libras" here mentioned are moneys 
 and not weights, for five Roman libras weight of gold 
 are equal to the quantity contained in 232 English sov- 
 ereigns of the present day, and this would have been a 
 preposterously heavy mulct for mere non-attendance. 
 On the other hand, a libra of account represented by 
 five gold solidi, would not have contained more than 
 one-fourteenth of this quantity of gold, and it is evident 
 that this is what was intended. 
 
 These researches into the origin of £. s. d. were 
 necessary in order to determine its essential character- 
 istics as a system of valuations and proportions. The 
 names of the subdivisions of money have in all ages 
 been used to denote the relative proportions or sub- 
 divisions of other measures, as of weight, area, capacity, 
 etc., and it is this practice which is resi^onsible for 
 much of that confusion on the subject of monej' that 
 distinguishes economical literature. For example, £. 
 s. d. were at one time used as proportions of the pound 
 weight for weighing bread, at another time as propor- 
 tions of the acre for measuring land. In the former 
 case £. represented a pound weight of bread, s, an 
 ounce, etc. ; in the latter £. meant one and a-half acres 
 and d. a rod of land.' Sir Francis Palgrave (i., 93) 
 says that many instances of this practice are to be found 
 in charters of the sixth century. The mischief of it lies 
 in the insinuation it conve3's that because a "pound" 
 weight can be the unit, integer, or standard of weight, 
 1 statute 51, Henry III. (i267);Fleetwood's "CbroniconPreciosum." 
 
POUNDS, SHILLINGS AND PENCE 99 
 
 and a "pound" measure (one and a-half acres) can be 
 the unit of superficial area, so a "pound" sum of money 
 can be the unit of money, which in the last case is 
 physically impossible. The unit of money can never 
 be one "pound," but must necessarily be all the 
 "pounds," under the same legal jurisdiction, joined 
 together. In other words, the unit of money is and 
 must necessarily be all money.' 
 
 Taking the essential character of £. s. d. to be a sys- 
 tem of valuation by moneys of account, as distinguished 
 from a system of valuation by coins, it must have 
 possessed merits that rendered its adoption highly 
 necessary and advantageous. We shall find that 
 this was actually the case. Previous to the adoption 
 of £. s. d. there was commonly but one denomination 
 of money and — except in the peculiar monetary sj'stem 
 of the Roman Commonwealth — it usually related to an 
 actual coin. With the Romans this coin was succes- 
 sively the ace, denarius, sesterce and aureus. Even 
 when two of these kinds of coins circulated side by 
 side — as the ace and the denarius, or the sesterce and 
 aureus — sums of money were always couched in one 
 denomination, never in both. We now say so many 
 pounds and shillings and pence, perhaps combining 
 some of each denomination in one sum ; or We may say 
 so many dollars and cents, or so many francs and cen- 
 times. Down to the era of £. s. d. the Romans, in 
 expressing sums of money, only used one term. So 
 long as only one or two or three kinds of coins were 
 current at the same time, there was no inconvenience 
 in/this custom; but when coins came lo be made of 
 (Mferent sizes and vvelghts and of several different 
 ii|etalsrr^i)ronze, silver and gold — some of them of 
 limited tender and highly ov^er-valued, like the bronze 
 
 I See cla'apter on tjas'subject In the author's "Science of Money." 
 
lOO HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 coins of to-day, one term for money became inexact 
 and inconvenient. This is one of the reasons that led 
 to the adoption of £. s. d. 
 
 In the last quarter of the third century the Roman 
 empire was divided between four Caesars, to whom was 
 afterwards added he whom Sir Francis Palgrave has 
 rather effusively termed "our own Carausius." Even 
 before this division took place, the diversity of bronze 
 and silver coins was so great as to produce confusion. 
 Witii four emperors almost daily adopting new designs 
 for coins, and several thousand unauthorized moneyers 
 expelled from Mount Caelius and other places to ply 
 their trade in every province of the Roman empire, the 
 confusion became intolerable. Without some device 
 by aid of which this maddening variety of types and 
 weights could be readily harmonized and valued, it be- 
 came impossible to carry on the operations of trade. 
 Such a device was £. s. d. 
 
 The infinite diversity and number of local and im- 
 perial silver coins had long since broken down that 
 fragment of the fiduciary system of money which was 
 attempted to be revived by Augustus; it had effaced 
 all the influence of mine-royalties; it had nullified all 
 the effects of mint-charges and seigniorage. The rela- 
 tive value of coins, which Rome was formerly content 
 to read in the edicts of her consuls or emperors, she was 
 now almost compelled to determine with a pair of 
 scales, The imperial government could scarcely have 
 observed this symptom of popular distrust without grave 
 concern. In proportion as such coins lost fiduciary 
 value, and rested upon that of their metallic contents, 
 so did the empire lose importance to the provinces and 
 the proconsuls lo the local chieftains. F'urthermore, 
 when money ceased to derive any portion of its value 
 
POUNDS, SHILLINGS AND PENCE lOI 
 
 from limitation of issue or from sacerdotal and imperial 
 authority, why might not the proconsuls feel at liberty 
 to issue circulating money as well as the sovereign- 
 pontiff? why not the under-lords as well as the pro- 
 consuls? why not foreigners as well as citizens? — why 
 not anybody or everybody? 
 
 Besides this, it is to be remembered that the coins of 
 Rome were designed to illustrate its mythology and 
 history, and that they constituted its most precious and 
 enduring monuments. Upon them were stamped the 
 story of its miraculous origin, the images of its gods, 
 demi-gods and heroes, the symbols of its religion, the 
 spirit of its laws, and the dates of its most glorious 
 achievements. All these now threatened to disappear 
 in the melting-pot. The monuments had come to be. 
 regarded only as so much bullion, and every provincial 
 governor or barbarian king woul^ be tempted to reduce 
 them to metal, in order that, upon recoining them, his 
 own upstart image might shine in the glass that had 
 once reflected a Romulus, a Caesar, or an Augustus. 
 There was but one way to stop such a calamity, and 
 that way was monopoly of the coinage and arbitrary 
 valuation ; but this had to be done through some new 
 device, for the old ones were worn out, and would be 
 seen through and rejected at once.' The efforts to save 
 the old monuments would justify a slight discrimination 
 of value at the outset in favor of certain precious issues, 
 and this discrimination might be extended and enlarged 
 as time went on. Rome had hitherto kept its most 
 sacred numismatic monuments from the furnace by 
 means of a golden myth, a fixed ratio, and the restric- 
 
 I In a less superstitious age perhaps not even the device of £. s. d. 
 would have allayed the fear that the valuations would be changed, or 
 have kept the coins from the melting put. But to the Romans that lavif 
 was a sacred one, which forbade ttie neltiag down of old coins (Digest 
 i„ c. de Auri pub. prosecul.; lib. xii., 13; Camden, "Brit.," p. 105). 
 
102 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 tion of exports. Without disturbing either of these 
 arrangements, it was now proposed to supplement them 
 with the device of £. s. d. 
 
 The diversity of coins, and the hope of restoring 
 some of their lost fiduciary value, furnished reasons 
 for the adoption of a triad of monetary terms, in the 
 place of that single term in which the Romans had 
 hitherto couched their valuations and contracts; but the 
 same considerations do not explain why these denomi- 
 nations were essentially ideal ones, nor why they remain 
 so still. The explanation is simple enough. It will be 
 found in the physical impossibility of adding together 
 quantities of various materials and producing a quotient 
 of one material. If £. means apiece of gold, s. a piece 
 of silver, and d. a piece of bronze, then as a matter of 
 fact it is impossible to add them together and produce 
 a sum which shall represent a quantity of any one of 
 these metals. Hence these denominations are essen- 
 tially ideal. However, as logic seldom stands in the 
 way of practical legislation, we may be sure that it was 
 not this difficulty which compelled the Romans, when 
 they adopted £. s. d., to make them ideal moneys, or 
 moneys of account, that would logically add together; 
 it was the practical difficulty of enforcing contracts pay- 
 able in coins of a particular metal. Numbers of the 
 mine-slaves had revolted, or escaped, to swell the 
 armies of the Goths and other malcontents; the pro- 
 duce of the Roman mines had become irregular; the 
 oriental trade had absorbed vast quantities of silver.' A 
 contract to pay sesterces meant so many silver coins, 
 and the name sesterce had been so long wedded to a 
 silver coin that it was found easier to 'establish a new 
 denomination than divorce sesterce from silver. The 
 same may be said of the gold aureus. £. s. d. being 
 
 I Pliny, "Natural History," vi , 23, and xii., 18. 
 
POUNDS, SHILLINGS AND PENCE I03 
 
 imaginary moneys, might be represented by either gold, 
 silver or bronze coins at pleasure of the government, 
 and as best ^ited the convenience of the times or the 
 equity of payments.' 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to turn from the public to the 
 private influences which urged the adoption of £. s. d. 
 upon the imperial and pontifical mind. A monetary 
 system which by insensible degrees might be made to 
 slip away from all metallic anchorage or limitation, 
 needed no further recommendation to a needy treasury. 
 Yet it still had another one. The diversity of races that 
 constituted the population of the Empire and a nascent 
 feudal system both stood in the way of any uniform 
 system of taxation, while the distance between Rome 
 and the capital of each province greatly multiplied 
 frauds upon the treasury-, and threw too much power 
 and profit in the hands of the provincial vicars or pro-" 
 consuls and the greedy farmers of the revenues. The 
 facility to regulate the value of various coins which the 
 adoption of £. s. d. promised to afford, placed in the 
 hands of the sovereign-pontiff the means of levying a 
 tax that could neither be evaded nor intercepted. 
 
 Thus many reasons and interests combined to recom- 
 mend the system of £. s. d. It brought into harmony 
 the diversity of coins and coinages; it promised to re- 
 store some of the lost value of bronze and silver coins, 
 and to conserve or obliterate (at pleasure) the ancient 
 and sacred types; it offered to remedy the difficulties 
 produced by the irregular supplies of the mines, and 
 by the heavy exports of silver to India; it placed a 
 
 I In 1604 the Chief Justices of England decided that £. s. d. were 
 imaginary moneys, and meant concretely whatever coins the sovereign 
 fi-ora ti "P to time might decree they should mean. They deduced this 
 conclusion not only from the spirit of the common, but also from the 
 principle's of the civil law ; and there can be no doubt that such was its 
 1 gnl significance at the period of its original adoption in Rome (State 
 Trials, ii , 114; Digest, xviii., 11). 
 
I04 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 future choice of other remedies in the hands of the em- 
 peror; and, finally, it was competent, at a pinch, to 
 solve the problem of suddenly recouping an empty 
 treasury. Under the system of £. s. d. any coin or 
 piece of money could b'e legalized or decried at pleas- 
 ure of the government, and any value could be put upon 
 it that seemed expedient or desirable. All that was 
 needed was a brief edict of the supreme sovereign, and 
 at once, with military precision, this or that piece of 
 money took its allotted station among the £. s. d., and 
 there it served in the capacity and with the rank assigned 
 to it by its imperial master.* 
 
 In the fourth century the d. was represented by a 
 silver coin, and the s. by a gold coin containing about 
 i8 (afterwards i6) grains of fine gold, and the £. by 
 five large solidi (afterwards called besants), each con- 
 taining 72 (afterwards 64) grains of fine gold. 
 
 If we follow the adoption of £. s. d. in the various 
 provinces of Europe — for example, Gaul, Britain, Spain 
 or Germany — it will be found that it never preceded, 
 whilst it invariably followed, the establishment of Ro- 
 man Christianity. It therefore furnishes a valuable 
 guide to the date of such establishment, and to the res- 
 toration of Roman government. £. s. d. was adopted 
 in Gaul by Clovis, in a part of England it was estab- 
 lished by Ethelbert, whilst in other parts it was rejected 
 by the unconverted Gothic kings, his contemporaries." 
 
 I On different occasions the same coin has ranked as a penny three- 
 half-pence, two-pence, and even three-pence. A shilling was at one 
 time represented by a gold coin, at another by a silver coin. Examples 
 o£ this character often occur in the ordinances of the mediaeval kings of 
 France; and there is reason to believe that the sovereign-pontiffs of 
 Rome more than once altered the legal value of their silver and bronze 
 issues. 
 
 I The name of the sicilicns, which is evidently derived either from the 
 fourth of the aureus or else from the fifteen-grain gold pieces of Sicily, 
 was applied to the Norse aurar in the laws of Ethelbert (Sections 33-35). 
 From the context it is evident that fifty scats are less in value than three 
 
POUNDS, SHILLINGS AND PENCE I05 
 
 So the Arian Goths of Spain, down to the close of 
 Roderic's reign, refused both the Roman religion and 
 the Roman system of money, and the Saxons would 
 have none of either until Charlemagne bent their stub- 
 born necks to the yoke of the Roman gospel. 
 
 Another valuable historical sidelight is derived from 
 £. s. d. The arithmetical relations of these moneys 
 of account wei'e originally, but have not been always, 
 12x20=240. Sometimes they were 5X48=240, or 
 4X60=240, or even (exceptionally) 5x60=300. When- 
 ever this is observed it affords a sure indication of 
 grafting. The Gothic ratio between the precious metals 
 was 8, the Arabian ratio 6i, and the Roman ratio 12. 
 Consequently, when the Roman arithmetical relations 
 of £. s. d. were grafted on Gothic or Arabian, or 
 Gothic-Arabian, monetary systems they had to be 
 modified to suit the local valuation of gold and silver.' 
 For example, in the eighth century in Roman Christian 
 Gaul (ratio of 12) it took 12 silver pence, each of 16 
 grains, to equal in legal value i gold sicilicus of similar 
 weight, whilst in the Gothic parts of Britain, where the 
 Arabian ratio prevailed (ratio of 6^), 5 silver pence, 
 each of 20 grains, sufficed ; so that if, as convenience 
 dictated, the newly introduced £. was still to consist of 
 
 shillings, hence that the purely silver scat of five to the gold shilling 
 was not yet in use, and that the scats alluded to were the old rude ones 
 of composite metal, weighing 7^ grains and upwards, and of varying and 
 uncertain metallic contents. 
 
 The shilling of Ethelbert's laws is the earliest mention of that coin in 
 England. There was as yet no Norse analogue, either for the libra or 
 the penny; in other words, there was no twelfth of the aurar nor any 
 twenty-aurar piece,, hence there was no further application of £. s. d. at 
 that time to Gothic coins. The Roman "pounds, shillings and pence" 
 had yet to be fully established in England. Some of the gold sicilici of 
 the heretical Roger II., of Sicily, bear the legend in Arabic: "One God; 
 Mahomet is His Prophet.'' On the other side is the phallic sign. A 
 specimen, somewhat worn, weighed by the -writer, contained 15 grains 
 gross. These shillings were evidently copied from older Sicilian coins 
 of the same weight and type. 
 
 1 The system of Offa, king of Mercia, was Gothic-Arabian, and, as is 
 elsewhere shown, some of his coins had Arabian inscriptions upon th-ra. 
 
Io6 HISTORY OK MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 240 pence, it would have to be valued at 48 shillings 
 of account, and this was accordingly done.' Modifi- 
 cations in the weights of the silver penny, and efforts to 
 harmonize the two principal conflicting ratios — the 
 Roman and Arabian — will explain, not only the remain- 
 ing variations of £. s. d. above alluded to, but also 
 many other obscure problems connected with the early 
 monetary systems of England. 
 
 We have seen how £. s. d. arose out of the circum- 
 stances of a decaj'ing empire; we shall now see how it 
 accommodated itself to those circumstances, so as to pro- 
 mote the very disease it was in part designated to" rem- 
 edy. The empire was falling to pieces, splitting into 
 many parts. First, it had one Caesar, then two, three, 
 four or more. Even when it got rid of its Thirty Tyrants, 
 and reduced the number to six, the diversity of coins 
 and coinages was too bewildering for practical purposes. 
 To harmonize and regulate these coins, as well as for 
 other reasons, £.s.d. was adopted. Yet by accommodat- 
 ing itself to a diversity of moneys, this sj'stem prevented 
 the evil from righting itself through the simple and 
 efficacious means of re-coinage. Dispensing with the 
 necessity of uniformity, it encouraged heterogeneity by 
 rendering it less intolerable, and thus facilitated that 
 splitting up and subdivision of the coining authority 
 which characterized the matured feudal system, and 
 lent it strength and support. Devised in part to unify 
 moneys and centralize authority, it became no insignifi- 
 cant aid to decentralization and feudalism. On the 
 other hand, but for its influence the Roman coins, and 
 with them the memories which they invoked and the 
 sacred myths they perpetuated, would have been de- 
 stroyed, and the modern world would have had to 
 read the history of the past in the unmeaning baugs of 
 
 I System of Ethelbert, king of Kent, 725-60. 
 
POUNDS, SHILLINGS AND PENCE I07 
 
 Scandinavia, the saigas of Frakkland, or the composite 
 scats of the Anglo-Saxon heptarchy. 
 
 Returning to the historical clew afforded by the adop- 
 tion of £. s. d., the reader will scarcely fail to have 
 been impressed with the extreme artificiality of this 
 system. Hundreds of books have already been written 
 upon it, and hundreds more will probably yet be written 
 upon it before its true character, mischievous bearijig, 
 and incongruity with the modern age of progress will 
 be recognized and acted upon. Allusion is here made, 
 not merely to a system of three denominations, as £. 
 s. d., nor to a mingled bi-decimal and duodecimal nota- 
 tion, nor to its character as money of account, but to 
 the mingling in this system of imperial with pro^^incial 
 and municipal or other coins; of seignioried with non- 
 seignioried coins; of coins with various degrees of 
 legal tender; of coins of local with others of extensive 
 legal tender; of native with foreign coins made legal 
 tender; of redeemable with non-redeemable coins; of 
 governmental with private (bank) issues of various 
 degrees of legal tender; and of non interest-bearing 
 with interest-bearing legal-tender issues. In these re- 
 spects and others the principles of all the monetary 
 systems of the present day originated in the Roman 
 imperial system of £. s. d., and so far as they follow 
 it thej' interpose important obstacles to the practice of 
 equity, the just diffusion of wealth, and the progress 
 of civilization. ' 
 
 The £. s. d. system was as much unfitted for the 
 Gothic kingdoms or fiefs of the dark ages as it was 
 suitable for the Empire. In a former work it was shown 
 that there existed a natural harmony, or tendency to- 
 ward harmony, between systems of government and 
 systems of money, just as there is between social phases 
 I "Science of Money," chapter vi. 
 
Io8 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 and language. For example, if one of the sentences of 
 Cicero or Tacitus were imputed to a savage orator, no 
 matter how eloquent or renowned, the unfitness of the 
 phraseology, and its lack of harmony with the social 
 phase of the speaker, would a once expose the blunder 
 or imposture. Similarly, if an £. s. d. system of money 
 were attributed to a tribe of Zulus, the incongruity of 
 the collocation would immediately stamp it as untrue. 
 For not only are three denominations of money too arti- 
 ficial a means of valuation to fall within the mental 
 compass of a barbarian tribe, one of them (the £.) was 
 always an ideal money, and all of them were main- 
 tained, and could only be maintained, by a mint code 
 of extreme complexity, and covering mining, minting, 
 seigniorage, artificial ratio between the precious metals, 
 and a hundred other subjects, concerning which 
 neither Zulu nor Goth ever had a clear conception. For 
 these various reasons the artificial system of £. s. d. 
 furnishes an unerring clew to historical researches during 
 the dark ages. In a previous chapter similar clews were 
 found in the golden myth and the sacred ratio of twelve; 
 in the present one we shall follow the clew of the three 
 denominations. 
 
 The text of the Theodosian Code implies the use of 
 £. s. d. at Rome and in all the Christian provinces of 
 the Empire. The non-Christian provinces were those 
 parts of Gaul and Britain which, at the time of the pro- 
 mulgation of this code, were temporarily under the 
 control of Anglo-Saxon, Frankish and other barbarian 
 chieftains. The letter of Honorius and Theodosius II. 
 (a. d. 418) implies the use of £. s. d. at that date in 
 southern and perhaps central Gaul. From 496 to 561, 
 during the governments of the Roman patricians Clovis 
 and Clothaire I., the £. s. d. system was probably 
 
POUNDS, SHXLLINCS AND PENCE lop 
 
 established throughout the whole of Gaul, except Brit- 
 tany, Burgundy and Provence. The Roman coins 
 found buried with the body of Childeric,' and more es- 
 pecially the Roman offices and titles accepted by the 
 Merovingian Frankish princes down to the sixth cen- 
 tury, when image-worship was insisted upon, or, still 
 worse, when the assassin Phocas was worshiped at 
 Rome, imply the continuance of Roman government in 
 Gaul until that period. After this time, and until the 
 reign of Pepin, many of the provinces forgot their alle- 
 giance.' Over and over again the Franks had pro- 
 fessed and evinced their willingness to live under 
 Roman law and Roman government, and they proved 
 their sincerity and good faith in these professions by 
 accepting Roman ecclesiastics as the administrators of 
 that law and the representatives of that government. 
 So long as Rome inculcated the worship of a heavenly 
 deity the Franks continued loyal to the empire, but 
 when the Roman pontiff fell at the feet of Phocas, and 
 the detested religion of emperor-worship seemed about 
 to be revived in the very fane of religion, they turned 
 upon the Empire.' From Theodebert to Pepin the 
 Short the Roman monetary system was interrupted in 
 Gaul. Its place was partly filled with a Frankish sys- 
 tem, in which the relative value of gold and silver, no 
 longer kept in place by the sacred myth of Rome, fell 
 back to the old Druidical (and Etruscan) ratio, or else 
 obe3'ed, to a certain extent, the influence of the Moslem 
 mint-laws of Spain and Southern Gaul, for it became 
 I to JO instead of i to 8. The gold sou, or solidus, 
 
 1 His tomb was opened in the seventeenth century (Morell, 67). 
 
 2 The Merovingians struck gold under authority of the Basileus until 
 the reign of Theodebert, who struck gold for himself. Yet even after 
 this period many of the Merovingians coined under authority of the 
 Basileus. 
 
 3 Charlemagne, at the Council of Frankfort (794), denounced the wor- 
 ship of the imperial images. 
 
no HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 was valued in Merovingian laws at 40 silver deniers, 
 or. denarii ; the little sou, or sicilicus, was valued in the 
 same laws at 10 silver deniers, the sicilicus and denier 
 containing the same weight of metal. The first fact is 
 from the texts of the period, the last from the coins 
 themselves. The establishment of this system was the 
 mark of Frankish independence from the empire. It 
 lasted about a century and a half; after that Gaul 
 again became a Roman province.' 
 
 In short, the monetary system of £. s. d. was estab- 
 lished wherever Roman government prevailed — in Italy, 
 Greece, Asia Minor, Armenia, Egypt, Carthage, Spain, 
 Gaul, Britain and Germany. It was not established 
 by any state or people not subject to Rome, never by 
 the pagan Angles, Jutes, Saxons, Franks, Sclavs or 
 Huns, and never by the Moslem, whether in Arabia, 
 Egypt, Africa, Spain, France or Persia. After the dry 
 bones of the sacred Empire fell into the hands of the 
 Turks, in the fifteenth century, the latter, in order to 
 accommodate their nummulary language, so far as 
 practicable, to the customs of the conquered Greek prov- 
 inces, employed the £. and the d, to mean — not in- 
 deed what they formerly meant — but something that 
 suggested it, and this practice afterwards found its way 
 into other provinces of Turkey; but it had no essential 
 connection with the £. s. d. system, and employed onl}' 
 two denominations instead of the characteristic three. 
 
 Although it is probable that the libra of money (not 
 the £. s. d. system) continued to be used in the Roman 
 cities of Britain from the Roman period down to the 
 time when these cities fell into the hands of the Anglo- 
 Saxons, we have no certain evidence of the fact. The 
 
 I The earliest rehabilitation of the Roman system appears in the capi- 
 tulary o£ Pepin and Carloman, a. d 743, wherein the sol is valued at 12 
 deniers (Guizot, iii., 27). 
 
FOUJNDS, SHILI.IJNGS AND PENCE III 
 
 earliest implication of the £. s. d. system in any docu- 
 ment now extant occurs in the barbarian laws of Ethel- 
 bert, A. D. 561-616 (ss. 33-5), where certain fines are 
 levied in shillings. No "libras" are mentioned; and no 
 denarii for twelfths of the Norse aurar;* hence no en- 
 tire adoption of the system can be positively inferred. 
 The shilling of Ethelbert was probably either a Latin 
 name for a coin identical in weight with the Norse 
 aurar, or an anachronism, inserted by copyists at a later 
 date." In neither case would this text afford any cer- 
 tain indication when the £. s. d. system was re-intro- 
 duced into Britain ; and there is no other evidence that 
 can be relied upon of an earlier date than the reign of 
 Ina, which was towai'd the end of the seventh century. 
 
 Measured by the clew of £. s. d., the Anglo-Saxon 
 chieftains interrupted the continuity of Roman govern- 
 ment in some parts of Britain during an interval of more 
 than two centuries, that is to say, from a date somewhat 
 later than the edict of Arcadius and Honorius to the 
 reign of Ina. In other parts there was scarcely any 
 interval at all, for many of the Roman cities of Britain 
 held out long after the legions departed, and even then, 
 they capitulated on terms which involved, if they did 
 not expressly admit, the imperial supremacy of Rome. 
 
 So far as it goes, the clew of £. s. d. harmonizes 
 with the myth of gold and the sacred ratio, and they all 
 corroborate those other evidences which proclaim that 
 except during a comparatively brief interval, which was 
 probably no greater in Britain than in Gaul, the former 
 
 I Sje Uoman gold coin of Canterbury mentioned in my "Ancient 
 Britain," ch. xix. 
 
 3 Bishop Fleetwood("ChroniconPreciosum," pp.52-4) gives examples 
 fiom Brompton's translations of the laws of Ethelstan and Ina, in which 
 the terminology and valuations of money were changed to suit the circum- 
 stances of the translator's times. Guerard and De Vienne give examples 
 of similar alterations in the ancient texts of the Prankish, Lorabardian, 
 Frisian, and Burgundian codes of law. 
 
1 1 2 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 remained a province of the empire from the reign of 
 
 Claudius down to a much later period than is commonly 
 
 supposed.* 
 
 1 Mr. Freeman deemed it probable that at the end of the sixth century 
 there were still Roman towns in Britain tributary to the English chief- 
 tains, rather than occupied by them. Sir Francis Palgrave (i.,vi, ) ex- 
 tends the Roman occupation of some British cities down to the seventh 
 century. Du Bos, Savigny, and GibBon concur in a similar belief with 
 regard to some of the cities of Gaul. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 GOTHIC MONEYS. 
 
 Proofs that the earlier sagas were altered in the mediaeval ages — Among 
 these is their frequent mention of baug-money: an institution which 
 did not survive the contact of Norsemen and Romans — Progressive 
 order of Norse moneys — Fish, vadmal, and baug moneys — The baug 
 traced from Tartary to Gotland, Saxony and Britain— Gold baugs 
 acquired a sacerdotal character — This was probably immediately 
 after Norse and Roman Contact — Subsequent relinquishment of 
 baug-money and the adoption of coins — Proof that Caesar en- 
 countered Norse tribes in Britain, derived from his mention of 
 baugs — This view corroborated by archaeology and philology — Subse- 
 quent Norse coinage system of stycas, scats, and eras— Important 
 historical conclusions derived from this study. 
 
 It needs but a cursory examination of the earlier 
 sagas to be satisfied that they have been grossly muti- 
 lated. They jumble together events hundreds of years 
 apart; they minrgle details which belong to communities 
 as yet ignorant of Roman customs with the affairs of 
 communities well acquainted with them; they resurrect 
 the Turkish or Scythian forefathers of the Norsemen, 
 and set them down in the midst of mediaeval Christian 
 saints; they omit all mention of Rome or Roman affairs, 
 or the Roman religion, or the causes of difference be- 
 tween the Norsemen and the Empire; they eschew 
 dates, ignore the calendar, and commit the pagan festi- 
 val to oblivion. The silly explanation which has been 
 offered to us of this disorder is that the sagas were 
 popular songs,' which were repeated by word of mouth 
 for centuries before they were committed to writing, and 
 that this custom produced the confusion, omissions, 
 anachronisms, and other defects which now characterize 
 them. There might have been a time when such an 
 
 I Tacitus ("Germania,"iii.) mentions the folk-songs of the Northern 
 tribes. 
 
 113 
 
I 14 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 explanation was sufficient, but the class of people who 
 offer them forget that the world grows and that knowl- 
 edge is cumulative. We now know that language with- 
 out a written literature to fix its terms and meanings is 
 too ephemeral to last for centuries, indeed, that a iev/ 
 generations mark the utmost time during which it will 
 remain unaltered. It was reliance upon this principle 
 that led to the distrust of Macpherson's forged" Ossian," 
 and that compels us to regard as mutilations the Eddas 
 as produced by Saemund Sigfusson and Snorri Sturla- 
 son.' 
 
 In the present connection the liability of unwritten 
 language to rapid mutation proves one of two things — 
 either that the earlier sagas are mediaeval fabrications 
 in Latin, translated into the mediaeval Norse and 
 re-translated into the vernacular, which is precisely 
 the case with Macpherson^s spurious "Ossian;" or else 
 they are mutilations of early Gothic or runic originals. 
 Their repleteness of historical materials and local coloi- 
 ing belonging to the earlier centuries of our era, leads 
 at once to the conclusion last named.* It is this local 
 coloring which marks the distinction between a mutila- 
 tion and a forgery out of the whole cloth. Macpherson 
 had no historical dates before him, therefore he was 
 forced to forge his entii'e work ; Sigfusson found plenty 
 of history in the old written sagas, so he merely muti- 
 lated them, and, with the sobriquet of "The Learned," 
 achieved that immortality which is ever the reward of 
 virtue and fidelity. If any further proof than that 
 afforded by the nature of language itself were needed 
 to corroborate these views, it will be foimd in the fre- 
 quent mention of anachronical moneys in the sagas. An 
 
 1 The historian of Iceland (a. d. 1056-1133) and his foster-grandson 
 (a. d. 1178-1241). 
 
 2 Charlemagne m-de n collection of these sagas, but these are now 
 "lost" (Note to Murphy's Tac. "Germ.,'' iii., probably from Eginhard). 
 
GOTHIC MONEYS II5 
 
 example of this sort will be quoted in the present chap- 
 ter from the Egil Saga; others will appear as the argu- 
 ment develops. 
 
 The evolution of Norse monetary systems, whether 
 in lestia, Saxony, Scandinavia, Frakkland, Britain, 
 Russia or Iceland, usually proceeded in the following 
 manner: — First, fish and vadmal (cloth) money; second, 
 baug, or ring-money ; third, imitations of pagan Roman 
 coined money ; fourth, Norse pagan coinage system 
 (partly derived from the Roman system) of stycas, scats, 
 and oras; fifth, intrusion of Moslem coinage system of 
 dinars, maravedis and dirhems; sixth, replacement of 
 the last by Christian Roman coinage system of £ s. d. 
 This progression did not occur simultaneously in the 
 vaiious countries named, because the Goths used coined 
 money in Britain before they employed fish-money in 
 Iceland; it was the usual order of progression in each 
 country or petty kingdom by itself. From the period 
 of their original settlement in Britain < down to that of 
 their contact with the Brigantes, the Norsemen used no 
 coined money; indeed, they had little or no commerce, 
 and lived chiefly by hunting, fishing and plundering. 
 After each raid upon the enemy the plunder was 
 "carried to the pole" and there divided. It is evident, 
 from numerous analogous examples in the sagas, that 
 in case of dispute the rival claimants fought it out at 
 once, and the survivor took the lot. This is a custom, 
 not of trading communities, but of predatory bands. 
 
 The first money of the Norsemen in Britain was 
 probably fish, as was the case in Norway' and in Ice- 
 land down to the close of the last century. Slid, bring, 
 or herring, is still used to mean money, ^ and the scad 
 or scat (corrupted to scot), a fish of the same genus, 
 
 1 Frostathing Laws, xvi. , 2. 
 
 2 Poole, "Anglo-Saxon Coins," i., 7. 
 
Il6 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 has the same meaning in North Britain.' There are 
 suggestions of fish-money in the expressions "Rome- 
 scat, ""scot-free, ""scot-and-lot," etc. Following fish, 
 the money of the Norsemen in Britain was vadmal, a 
 homespun cloth, measured by the arm's length; still 
 later they used bangs, or ring-money. It was not until 
 after all this that they began to strike coins. 
 
 Bangs were anciently that money of Scythia, northern 
 China and northern India of which a reminiscence still 
 survives in the bangle or bangle.^ At a remote period 
 baug-money was introduced from Scythia into Egypt. 
 Representations of it appear upon the stone monuments 
 of Thebes. As for dates, Egyptian chronology has 
 been so ruined in the various attempts made to fit it 
 successively into the mythologies of Assyria, Greece 
 and Rome, that no reliance can be placed upon it. 
 The baugs engraved at Thebes are round rings, which 
 are represented as being placed in the scales to be 
 weighed. No peculiarity of form and no stamp-marks 
 distinguish them in the sculptures — facts that, coupled 
 with the weighing, led the author in a previous work 
 to doubt that they were money. Since that time "doz- 
 ens of rings (stamped), with the names of Khuen-Aten 
 and his family, and molds for casting rings" have 
 been found in the ruins of Tel-el-Amarna.' It cannot 
 now be doubted that such rings were money, and we 
 may also feel tolerably confident that they formed the 
 principal circulating medium of Egypt during the time 
 of the Hucsos or Scythian kings. From Egypt baug- 
 
 1 According to Mr T. Baron Russell's "Current Americanisms" (Lon- 
 don. 1893) "scads" is still used for "current coin" in some parts of the 
 United States. 
 
 2 The pinched bullet-money of Cochin China also appears to be a 
 modification of the baug. 
 
 3 Address of Dr. Flinders Petrie, before the Oriental Congress, Lon- 
 don, September 6th, 1892. Khuen is evidently the Tartar "kung." or 
 king. Ridgway mentions the baugs of Mycenae found by Dr. Schlie- 
 mann, while Madden alludes to the baugs of Syria, mentioned in the bible. 
 
GOTHIC MONEYS 1 1 7 
 
 money made its way down the eastern coast of Africa, 
 where the early Portuguese and Spanish navigators 
 found it, the latter giving to the rings the name of 
 manillas or manacles. They were used in Darfoor 
 (latitude 12° north, longitude 26° east) so late as 1850, 
 for Mr. Curzon saw several chests full of gold bangs 
 from that country at Assouan in 1854. They are still 
 used on the West coast, from whence the present author 
 had one of copper, shaped like the letter C, that is to 
 say, with the two ends of the ring left apart.' Another 
 line of bangs is traceable from Scythia to Gotland, 
 where they are mentioned in sagas, which, although in 
 their present form belonging to an era subsequent to 
 the employment of bangs for money, are evidently mu- 
 tilated versions of more ancient texts. ^ Egil having 
 been paid two chests of silver as indemnity for his 
 brother, "recites a song of praise," in which he alludes 
 to the indemnity as "gul-baug,"or gold rings, meaning 
 money.' 
 
 The suspected mutilations of the sagas are corrobo- 
 rated by the known mutilations of the laws: "If a 
 hauld wounds a man, he is liable.to pay 6 baugar to the 
 king,each worth 12 oras; if an arborin-madr wounds 
 a man, he has to pay 3 baugar, and a leysingi (freed- 
 man) 2, a leudrman 12,- a jarl 24, a kning 48, 12 oras 
 being in each bang, and the fine shall be paid to those 
 to whom it is due by law. All this is valued in silver."* 
 The text of this law proves that it assumed its present 
 form at three different dates. The first belongs to the 
 
 1 "History of Money," 133. Baugs, or ring-money, are mentioned 
 by Pliny ("Nat. History," xxiii., 1). 
 
 2 Baugs appear to have been also used by the tribes ot the Baltic 
 coasts after the Goths conquered or assimilated with them, tor the term 
 was employed by the Salic Franks, and is still employed in French to 
 mean rings. 
 
 3 Egil Saga. The Dutch still give the name of "gulden" to certain 
 silver coins. 4 Frostathing Laws, iv., 53; Da Chaillu, i., 549, 
 
Il8 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 barbarous period, when the indemnity was fixed in Gothic 
 baugs; the second to the Roman period, when the 
 baugs were valued in heretical oras, or Roman sicilici ; 
 and the third to the period when the oras were valued 
 in Christian silver pennies. The original baug appears 
 to have weighed about as much as three sovereigns of 
 the present day. 
 
 A C-shaped figure, like that of the African baug 
 above mentioned, is twice repeated on a stone slab 
 from the Kivikgrave, near Cimbrisham, a monument 
 assigned by archaeologists to a very remote period. 
 Whether it represents the baug or not cannot at present 
 be determined,' but there is some reason to think it 
 does, from the fact that gold baugs seem to have been 
 clothed with a sacerdotal charactei". For example, Egil 
 fastened a gold baug on each arm of the dead Thoroff 
 before he buried him,^ and a gold baug was paid for 
 his bride.' Bagi was also the Parthian name for divine 
 or sacred ; it appears on all the coins of the Arsacidae.* 
 The originals of the Frostathing laws may have de- 
 scended from the period before the Goths revolted from 
 Roman control. 
 
 Specimens of Gothic baug-money are still extant. 
 Gold, silver and iron baugs will be found in the collec- 
 tions of Bergen, Christiania, Newcastle, York and other 
 centers of Norse antiquities. There are Gothic gold 
 baugs (about one inch in diameter) and copper and 
 iron baugs in the London and Paris collections. During 
 the last century " a vast quantity of small irou ring- 
 money was exhumed in the west of Cornwall, and one 
 of these was deposited by Mr. Moyle in the Pembroke 
 collection.'''' After the era of baugs the Goths used 
 
 I Fig. 28, in Du Chaillu, 88. 2 Du Chaillu, ii., 476. 
 
 3 Frostathing Laws, vi., 4; Du Chaillu, ii., 16. 
 
 4 Geo. Rawlinson, "Seventh Monarchy,'' p. 66. 
 
 5 Walter Moyle's works, i., 259, 
 
GOTHIC MONEYS lip 
 
 coins. SaysDu Chaillu: "A barbaric imitation in 
 gold of a Roman imperial coin was found with a skele- 
 ton at Aarlesden in Odense, amt Fyen," a district and 
 island about 86 miles from Copenhagen/ A barbaric 
 imitation of Byzantine coin of the fifth century was 
 found in Mallgard, Gotland.^ A barbaric gold coin, 
 falsely stamped with the image of Louis le Debonnaire, 
 was found in Domberg, Zealand, and is now in the 
 Paris collection. 
 
 When, several centuries- before our era, the Celts 
 came into contact with the Greeks, whether in Spain, 
 Gaul or Britain, they began to strike Celtish coins in 
 imitation of Greek originals. In like manner, after 
 the Goths came into contact with the Romans, or rather 
 after they had learnt to abhor the religion of the Ro- 
 mans and despise their arms, whether in Moesia, Sax- 
 ony, Zealand or Britain, they began to strike Gothic 
 coins in imitation of Roman originals. Such imitations 
 are found in the uninscribed stycas, scats and oras of 
 early Britain — a fact which is deduced as well from the 
 Latin name of the ora as the general type and compo- 
 sition of all the pieces. 
 
 When Goth and Roman first met in Britain was 
 when the ring-money was still used by the former — a 
 period clearly established by the following passage 
 from the principal work ascribed to Julius Caesar. 
 Speaking generally of the tribes whom he encountered 
 in Britain (b. c. 55), Cassar says: "Utuntur aut asre, 
 aut nummo aureo, aut annulis ferreis, ad certum pondus 
 examinatis pro nummo" — "They used either bronze 
 (money) or gold money, or iron rings of a certain (de- 
 termined) weight for money." The bronze metal, Caesar 
 
 1 Du Chaillu, i., 262. 
 
 2 Du Chaillu,;., 275. 
 
I20 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 adds, was imported.* It is evident that this ring-money 
 was not used at the time by the Celtic or Gaelic tribes 
 of Britain, because these tribes used coined money, 
 which, as a measure of value, is more precise and con- 
 venient than bangs. The Celts also came from Gaul 
 and Belgium, where coined money was already in use. 
 Their productions and commerce were too varied for 
 the employment of so rude a measure of value as baugs. 
 Caesar says their numbers were countless, their build- 
 ings exceedingly numerous, their wealth great in cattle 
 and cultivated lands, and their industry diversified, 
 including not only pasturage and agriculture, but also 
 mining for tin and iron.^ Baugs had not been used by 
 the Celtic tribes for nearly three centuries, that is to 
 say, not since they had learnt the superiority of coins 
 from the Greeks. On the other hand, their use among 
 the Norsemen at this time or, perhaps, even a later 
 period is proved b)' the sagas,' and the conclusion that 
 the ring-money found in Britain by Caesar belonged to 
 the Norse tribes in the remoter parts of the island, and 
 indicated their presence there, seems to be well sus- 
 tained.* When added to the evidences of archaeology, 
 customs and language, adduced by Wright, Stilling- 
 fleet, Pinkerton, Du Chaillu, Hawkins, Evans and other 
 
 I "De Bell. Gall.,'' v., 12. Several readingsot this important passage 
 are given in Henry's "Hist. Brit.," ii., 238. The reading in the text is 
 from a MS of the tenth century. Mr. Hawkins discovered that this 
 passage had been materially corrupted in later copies (Havfkins, "Sil- 
 ver Coins," p. 8, and Ch. Knight, "Hist. England," i., 15, citing re- 
 marks en ancient coins in "Moneta Historica Brit.," p. 102). 
 
 i Even after Caesar had ravaged their lands, the Belgians were able to 
 send him supplies of corn to Gaul ("De Bell. Gall.," v., 19, 20). 
 
 3 The pagan Norse kings who ruled in Ireland used bang -money until 
 they were driven out of that country in the twelfth century. This is 
 what Sir John Lubbock, in his article on Money in the "Nineteenth 
 Century," loosely called the "ring-money of the ancient Celts." 
 
 4 Cassar (v., 9 and 11} alludes to the civil wars which preceded his 
 arrival in Britain, and which pince the Celts were all of one religion (the 
 Druidical), we may reasonably surmise were occasioned by the encroach- 
 ments of the heretical Norsemen . 
 
GOTHIC MONEYS 121 
 
 writers on the subject,' the body of proof that the Norse 
 settlement of Britain antedates its Roman settlement 
 becomes difficult to overthrow. 
 
 The Norse-British coinage system consisted of stycas, 
 scats and oras. The styca was a small bi'onze coin, 
 struck from the composition derived probably from the 
 melting down of bronzes, and containing about 70 per 
 cent of copper and 20 of zinc, the remainder consisting 
 of tin, silver, lead and a minute proportion of gold. 
 The extant stycas are confined by numismatists to 
 Northumberland, but a coin of similar description, and 
 used as a divider for the scat, must have been employed 
 in Kent and elsewhere. The scat was an electrum coin, 
 struck from the composition resulting from the melting 
 down of gold and silver jewelry. The ora was a coin 
 of pure or nearly pure gold. Originally containing 
 about 30 grains of gold, it fell successively to 22^, 20, 
 16 and even 13 grains. The electrum scats weighed 
 about the same as the oras. The early oras are known 
 among modern numismatists as gold scats. Sometimes 
 the scats were stamped with the svastica, or with runes 
 — a peculiarity that does not appear upon any coins issued 
 by the southern kings of the heptarchical period. Eight 
 "stycas went to the scat, and eight scats to the ora. Ow- 
 ing to the composite nature of the scats, the ratio be- 
 tween gold and silver is indeterminable. Judging fronf 
 the numerical relations between scats and oras, the ratio 
 was intended to be 8 for i. The coin ora must not de 
 confused with the weight ora, which was afterwards the 
 eighth of the mark weight; nor must the money of ac- 
 count, called the mark (of which more anon), be con- 
 fused with the weight mark. 
 
 There is a remarkable similarity between the Gothic 
 
 I Doom-rings and numerous other Norse antiquities have been found 
 in Britain. 
 
122 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 coinage system and that of ancient Japan. There, too, 
 coins were made respectively of gold, electrum, and 
 bronze; the gold and the electrum coins were of the 
 same weight, and the relative value of these even- 
 weighted coins indicated that of the metals which 
 composed them.' On the other hand, the Norse-British 
 systems were distinctly non-German. Styca and scat 
 are Norse terms, and were not used in Germany ; mark 
 is also a Norse term, and, according to Agricola, it was 
 employed by the Goths many centuries before it was 
 known in Germany. The runic letters and syastica 
 are both Gothic and pagan. The Germans did not strike 
 gold coins. The ratio of 8 for i is Gothic; that of 
 Germany followed the Roman law, and down to the 
 thirteenth century was either 12 for i or some mean be- 
 tween this and the Gothic ratio. Finally, the independ- 
 ent issues of gold and electrum coins were essentially 
 Gothic, because the Goths, down to the eighth, ninth, 
 or tenth centuries, were pagans, and refused to acknowl- 
 edge the pope; whilst the Germans from the date when 
 their country was made a province of the Empire, had 
 invariably bowed to its ecclesiastical authority. 
 
 The Anglo-Saxon coins were not issued by any cen- 
 tral authority, but by each local chieftain independently 
 ^of the others. For this reason the valuation of the 
 coins, and of the metals of which they were made, 
 probably greatly varied. Moi'e important than all, the 
 whole number of coins was uncertain and subject to 
 the vicissitudes of war. A successful attack upon the 
 Romans, who, down to the sixth or seventh century, still 
 held many of the walled towns of Britain, might in a 
 
 I The Japanese system is fully described in "Monejand Civilization,'' 
 ch?p. XX. The reader must, however, not argue too much from this 
 resemblance. In the ruder societary life of the Anglo-Saxons exchanges 
 were comparatively few and simple, and- the monetary system was of 
 minor importance; in the refinement of modern Japanese life, it affected 
 the foundations of equity and civil order. 
 
GOTHIC MONEYS 123 
 
 single day have doubled the entire circulation of a 
 given kingdom ; whilst a repulse, followed by Roman 
 pursuit and reprisals, might as suddenly have reduced 
 the circulation to a moiety. 
 
 The reader will bear in mind that the ora described 
 above was the original Gothic ora, afterwards called 
 the gold shilling (gull skilling), not what the ora be- 
 came in later ages. As time went on it continually fell 
 in weight; the ratio of silver to gold changed from 8 
 for I, to 6i and 'ji for i, then to lo for i, then to 12 for 
 I ; the number of scats — or, as they were afterwards 
 called, pennies — to the ora, changed from 8 to 5, then 
 to 4, then to 20, 12, 20 and 16.^ In one instance there 
 were 15 minutse to the ora. "Ora, vernacula aura, 
 Danis ore, fuit olim genus monetae, valens, 15 minuta.'"^ 
 These may have been, not copper coins, but silver half- 
 pence.^ It would be tedious to explain the endless 
 combinations to which the changes in the three terms — 
 viz., weight, ratio and value — gave rise. Eventually 
 the ora became a money of account, and as the ora 
 weight was one-eighth of the mark weight, so the ora 
 of account was valued at one-eighth of the mark of 
 account, which, during the Norman and Plantagenet 
 eras, consisted of five gold maravedis, each weighing 
 two-thirds of the Roman solidus. This mode of fixing 
 the value of the ora gave rise to new and still more 
 perplexing numismatic problems, all of which, however, 
 are readily solved by the guides herein offered. For 
 example, in the lime of William I. there were still 
 some actual gold oras extant, or mentioned in unexpired 
 leases. These were valued in Domesday Book at 20 
 
 : Domesday Book; Ruding, i., 315. The relation ot tour scats to the 
 ora was enacted prior to the middle of the tenth century ("Judicia Civi- 
 tatis Londonia;;'' Ruding, i., 309). 
 
 2 Dolraerus. in Du Fresne, in Fleetwood, p. 27. 
 
 3 The minuta of the Netherlands was the les, or Bs (Budelius), 
 
124 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 pennies, because their namesake, the ora of account, 
 was in England one-eighth of the mark of account, and 
 the mark of account was two-thirds of the libra of ac- 
 count. As the latter then consisted (in England) of 
 240 actual silver pennies, so the mark was valued at 
 160 pence, and the gold ora was valued at 20 pence. 
 
 If this mode of calculation, which was employed in 
 England after the Norman conquest, be applied to the 
 ancient Gothic S3 stem, in which the gold ora was of 
 the same weight and value as one-fourth of the gold 
 solidus or mancus, it would follow that the mark of 
 account consisted of two mancusses instead of five mar- 
 avedis. Thus, if an ora is 20 pence and a mark is 160 
 pence, then there are eight oras to the mark. If there 
 were four oras ^o the mancus, there were consequently 
 two mancusses to the mark. The fallacy of this mode 
 of calculation, which some numismatists have used, 
 arises from the employment of the ora in two senses — 
 firstly, as a money of account, which it was in the 
 eleventh century; and, secondly, as an actual gold coin, 
 which it was probably from the second to the seventh 
 or eighth century. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 MOSLEM MONEYS. 
 
 The empire of Islam — Conquest of the Roman provinces in Asia, Africa, 
 and Spain — Administra,tive policy of the Moslem — Monetary regula- 
 tions — Numismatic declaration of independence — Origin of the dinar 
 and dirhem — Singular ratio of value between silver and gold — 
 Probable reasons for its adoption — Its worth as a historical guide — 
 As a monetary example— Permanence of the tale ratio between 
 dinar and dirhem — Moslem remains in the Western and Northern 
 States of Europe: Spain, Frailce, Burgundy, Flanders, Britain, and 
 Scandinavia — Coinage system of Abd-el-Melik — Prerogative of 
 coinage vested in the caliphate — Individual coinage unknown — Emir 
 coinages — These substantially ceased with the reform of Abd-el- 
 Melik — Legal tender in Egypt, Spain, and India — ^Weights and 
 fineness of the dinar in various reigns — Same of the dirhem — 
 Frontier ratios between gold and silver. 
 
 Islam, like Rome, was a sacred empire; the sover- 
 eign was both emperor and high-priest, but with this 
 remarkable difference, that whilst the Roman emperor 
 demanded to be worshiped as a god, the Commander 
 of the Faithful unswervingly directed all worship to be 
 made to an incorporeal deity. Mr. Freeman perceives 
 another difference. The Roman emperor, he says, was 
 pontiff because he was emperor, whilst "the Prophet, 
 from a spiritual teacher, gradually became a temporal 
 lord, consequently his successor is only emperor be- 
 cause he is pontiff.'" I confess myself unable to follow 
 this author, either as to the factor its significance. The 
 first Augustus was emperor for several years before the 
 death of Lepidus enabled him to reunite the two offices 
 in one person. After that time the Augustus or Basileus 
 was the emperor, and the emperor was the Augustus. 
 Those who were proclaimed by the army were neces- 
 
 I Freeman's "History of the Saracens," p. 62. 
 135 
 
126 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 sarily emperors before they could be invested as 
 chief-pontiff. On the other hand, those who became sov.- 
 ereign-pontiffs by adoption or descent were both emper- 
 ors and chief-pontiffs at the same time. With respect 
 to the Moslem, Mr. Freeman's inaccuracy is still more 
 glaring. Mahomet was never a temporal lord ; whilst 
 several temporal lords, or emirs, ruled the empire which 
 he did so much to erect, before Abd-el-Melik pro- 
 claimed himself an independent sovereign, and, uniting 
 the pontificate to the throne, took the title of caliph and 
 Emir-el-Moumenin, or Commander of the Faithful. 
 Spain emancipated herself from the temporal but not 
 from the spiritual control of the Arabian caliphs so 
 early as A. d. 756; Egypt followed suit in a. d. 868. 
 Abd-el-Raman I. was therefore an independent sove- 
 reign before he became a pontiff; indeed, he never be- 
 came one. Says Lavoix: "The Ommiades of Spain 
 always respected the supremac}' of the caliph." This 
 was true down to the reign of Abd-el-Raman III., but 
 not afterwards. The previous caliphs of Spain never 
 styled themselves Emir-el-Moumenin, but he did. He 
 was not only Commander of the Faithful, he was also 
 En-Nasr-li-din-Allah, or "Servant of the Religion of 
 God." 
 
 As usual, the coinage decides the point. The Arabian 
 emirs or caliphs, call them what you will, struck no 
 independent coins before Abd-el-Melik. Their coins 
 bear the stamp of Roman suzerainty; the emblems of 
 the Roman religion ; the legends of Roman superstition. 
 These are proofs that until Abd-el-Melik the Arabian 
 caliphs were not independent sovereigns. But the 
 coinage proves more than this: it proves that the tem- 
 poral sovereignty of the caliphs did not arise fi'om their 
 spiritual authority. This existed from the time of 
 
MOSLEM MONEYS 127 
 
 Mahomet, whiJe the temporal sovereignty only began 
 with Abd-el-Melik. Another proof of the correctness of 
 this view is derived from the coinage of gold, which, 
 with the Arabs as with the Persians and Romans, ^^as 
 a sacerdotal prerogative. This prerogative belonged 
 to the caliph as the sovereign-pontiff of Islam. The 
 early emirs struck no gold, not even with Roman de- 
 vices, and when Abd-el-Melik struck gold, the sovereign- 
 pontiff of Rome, who was aware of its significance, 
 immediately declared war upon him. It was the same 
 in Spain. The Spanish caliphs struck no gold before 
 Abd-el-Raman III. Until then the gold coins used in 
 Spain were struck by the Arabian caliphs as Com- 
 manders of the Faithful. In Egypt it was the same. 
 When the first Fatimite King struck gold in that prov- 
 ince he meant it to be understood, and the caliphs so 
 construed it, that he regarded himself as independent 
 of the caliphate, and was prepared to take the conse- 
 quences of that declaration. 
 
 The spiritual and temporal attributes of the caliph, 
 and the important bearing which this dual character 
 had upon the development of the Moslem empire, is 
 best shown by the historian Dozy. The empire rose 
 by the strength which it derived from this union of the 
 spiritual and temporal powers; it fell by the weakness 
 which invariably follows such a union. The strength 
 was born of religious enthusiasm ; the weakness resulted 
 from the impractical features of hiei-archical govern- 
 ment. 
 
 The demands of space forbid us to follow this subject 
 any further. Our object is not to trace the history of 
 Islam, but of its monetary systems in Europe. We 
 can, therefore, only glance at the events connected with 
 the establishment of Moslem government. 
 
128 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 It is a common mistake to confound the rise. of Sara- 
 cenic power witli the advent of Mahomet. Three 
 centuries before his time the frontier tribes of Arabia 
 had ventured to resist the authority of Rome, and under 
 their goddess' or queen Mania' their strength had been 
 sufficient to defy and overthrow an imperial army. 
 Their religion had also taken form. Sozomen, describ- 
 ing the Arabs of the fourth century, says: "They 
 practice circumcision, refrain from the use of pork, and 
 observe many other Jewish rites and customs." It may 
 be added that they observed many religious rites and 
 customs which were afterwards adopted by the RoiHan 
 church.^ 
 
 However, the establishment of Islam is certainly due 
 to Mahomet and his successors, and to their conquests 
 of Persia, Syria, Egypt, Africa and Spain. It is through 
 this last-named country that France, England, Germany 
 and America are interested in the progress of the Ara- 
 bian monetary systems. 
 
 At the time of Mahomet and the emirs the Arabs 
 numbered about 120,000 fighting men. These con- 
 stituted that army of invasion which accomplished its 
 work with so much courage and energy. After repelling 
 the forces which had confined them to the desert, they 
 bui-st out upon Rome and Persia, at that time the two 
 most powerful States of the Western world. In less 
 than ten years they subdued Irak, Mesopotamia, Sj'ria 
 and Egypt, and turned these countries into "the dwell- 
 ing of the Arab race, the kernel of the empire, the 
 garden where Religion and Victory were born to- 
 gether.'" The attack was so rapid that the conquest 
 proceeded almost without administrative organization. 
 
 1 Rufinus calls the Arabian queen Mania; Socrates and Sozomen call 
 her Mavia. The name is probably the same as Maia, Maria, etc. 
 
 2 Stanley's "Sabean Philosophy," p. 800. 3 Ibn Kaldoun. 
 
MOSLEM MONEYS 
 
 [29 
 
 Locally this was left entirely in the ha:nds of the con- 
 quered races. In Persia the conquerors, who were 
 rough soldiers and awkward in clerkly duties, employed 
 Jewish or Persian writers and accountants. The native 
 language was retained. In Syria the principal servants 
 of the Arabian government down to the reign of Abd- 
 el-Melik were "Arian" Greeks. For example, one 
 Sergius, a Greek, was superintendent of finances, or 
 collector of taxes. But in the reign of Abd-el-Melik 
 all was changed. The civil government of Irak was 
 taken from the Persian writers and given to Arabians. 
 The Domesday Book of Syria was translated into Ara- 
 bic; the registry of the treasury, the tax lists, and the 
 text of the laws all became Arabic. 
 
 It was the same with the coinage. During nearly 
 sixty years following the conquest, this privilege and 
 function was exercised by local emirs, who employed 
 Persian, Greek or Hebrew mone3'ers. The sizes, types 
 and inscriptions of the coins, their weight, fineness, 
 value, legal function, and other characteristics were 
 copied with precision from the current coins and mone- 
 tary systems of the subdued nations.' Under Abd-el- 
 Melik this was all reformed. The coins became wholly 
 Arabian, and among the characteristics which they 
 acquired was one which was carried westward, and 
 continued to influence the coinages of Europe until 
 after the discovery of America. This was the peculiarly 
 Arabian valuation of silver to gold of 6i for i. But 
 before explaining this subject, let us first briefly follow 
 the Arabian conquests through Africa to Spain. 
 
 I From - Abd-el-Melik the Arabs seldom omitted an opportunity to 
 proclaim upon the coins the unity of God. The ordinary motto was, 
 "There is no God but the one God." Upon the bilingual coins it varied; 
 for example: "In Nomine Domini Misericordis. Unus Deus. " . . . 
 •'Non est Deus nisi Solus Deus cui non socius Alius." . . . "Non est 
 Deus nisi, Unus cui non Deus alius similis." The coinage of the emirs 
 began as early as a. d. 638; of Ali 660; Abd-el-Melik, 683. 
 
130 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 An interesting relic of antiquity, communicated to the 
 world in recent years, assures us that the Arabian policy 
 in Egypt was the same as in Persia and Syria — the 
 local administration was at first left entirely in the hands 
 of the conquered nation.* 
 
 John of Nikios, after describing the anarchical con- 
 dition of the religious community in Egypt, the dissen- 
 sions which distracted it, the persecutions instituted by 
 the sacred emperor Heraclius, and the joy with which 
 the inhabitants forsook the Roman for the Moslem 
 yoke, notices the wisdom of the Arabian policy in re- 
 taining native administrative officers. Says John : "After 
 the Moslem conquest a man named Menas, whom the 
 Emperor (of Byzantium) made praefect of Lower Egypt, 
 and who despised the Egyptians, was, nevertheless, 
 retained at his post. The Moslem also chose another 
 Greek, named Sinoda, as praefect of the province of 
 Rif, and another, named Philoxenos, as praefect of 
 Arcadia or Fayoum." Even when Menas was removed 
 from the government of Alexandria,the Moslem replaced 
 him by John of Damietta, a Greek who had also been 
 a praefect undei the Emperor, and who, moreover, had 
 successfully exerted himself to save the city from injury 
 by its Arabian conquerors. This was his recommenda- 
 tion to them. 
 
 The conquest of Africa was very different from that 
 of Persia, Sj'ria and Egypt. In these countries the 
 worship of Ceesar had deeply disgusted the inhabitants 
 with Roman rule, and even where "Christianity'" had 
 
 1 "Chronique de Jean, ^vSque de Nikiou" (Nikos), texte Ethiopien, 
 publie et traduit par H. Zotenberg, Paris, 1883. This bishop lived in 
 Egypt during the latter half of the seventh century, that is to say, at 
 the time of the Arabian invasion. 
 
 2 It is hardly necessary to remind the intelligent reader that the- so- 
 called "Christianity" of the seventh century bore but slight resemblance 
 to the Christianity of the present day. 
 
MOSLEM MONEYS I3I 
 
 supplanted emperor-worship, the people never became 
 wholly reconciled to the religion of their conquerors. 
 The Berbers of Africa, being more remote from Byzan- 
 tium, were less troubled by religious disputes. Neither 
 the worship of Augustus, nor Bacchus, nor of the reign- 
 ing emperor, gave them much concern. They were 
 strangers to both the Latin and Greek tongues, and 
 came but little into contact with the officials, eitker sec- 
 ular or sacred, who had been appointed over them. 
 Hence they were not divided by schism, and were far 
 from being disposed to welcome the new race of religious 
 enthusiasts and conquerors. The conquest of the other 
 provinces of Rome had been effected by the Moslem in 
 campaigns, which, .ending with the battle of Nevahend 
 (a. d. 641), had lasted less than ten years. The con- 
 quest of the African provinces of that empire cost them 
 half a century of fighting. The country which lay be- 
 fore them comprised Tripoli to the Tingitane, Central 
 Maghred and Western Maghred. Two races occupied 
 it; the seaports were in the hands of the Byzantines, 
 who also possessed, in the interior, military posts de- 
 fended by strong garrisons. The Byzantine legate 
 reigned at Carthage; Gregory, the patrician, governed 
 at Sufetula; the rest of the country was filled by the 
 warlike Berbers, chiefly in Auras, Zab and Hodna, 
 where they had established themselves during the con- 
 tests between the Romans and Vandals. 
 
 After a series of preliminary raids and skirmishes, 
 during which the Moslem established bases. of supplies 
 at Zaoueilah and Barkah, they prepared for a more ex- 
 tended campaign in A. h. 49. This was under the chief 
 command of Akbar-ben-Nafi, who,in a. h. 50, founded 
 the city of Kairoun. At the end of twelve years' hard 
 fighting Akbar had penetrated westward so far as Ceuta, 
 
132 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 then commanded by Count Julian. From the flanks of 
 this fortress Akbar first beheld the limitless ocean of the 
 West and the towering Rock of Hercules, Calpe (or 
 Gibraltar), beyond which lay the famed land of gold 
 and silver. Leaving Ceuta on his right,Akbar marched 
 straight on to Tangier. Here, while separated from 
 his army, and defended by only 300 cavaliers, he was 
 ambushed and massacred by the enemy. 
 
 Zohair-ben-Kais, and after him Hasan, having suc- 
 ceeded to the command of the Moslem forces, other 
 campaigns followed, in which. Carthage was won, then 
 lost, and then won again. With its second winning 
 the Roman garrisons in Africa were virtually subdued. 
 The natives, however, were far from being conquered. 
 Under their queen, Kahinah, they held the Arabians 
 in check, and eventually defeated them. Africa seemed 
 unconquerable. After this defeat — the most terrible 
 that the Moslem had ever sustained — Hasan received 
 orders from the indomitable caliph to renew the war. 
 This time Kahinah was defeated and Kairoim retaken. 
 The Moslem armies again took up the march for Ceuta. 
 Hasan was now replaced by Mousa-ben-Nosier, under 
 whose vigorous command Ceuta was secured, and (a. 
 D. 704) the arms of Arabia were carried to the Western 
 Ocean. 
 
 Five years later Abou-Zoriah-Tharik-ben-Zaid (better 
 known to us as Tarik), under the orders of Mousa, 
 passed the Straits of Hercules with one hundred horse 
 and four hundred foot soldiers, debarked at the Rock, 
 captured and sacked the town, as well as the neighbor- 
 ing cities of Carteia and Algeciras, and then returned 
 to Africa rich with spoils. Next year Tarik landed 
 with a larger force, better equipped, and boldy advanced 
 to meet the Gothic army of King Roderic. Except 
 
MOSLEM MONEYS 133 
 
 when the Saracenic vassals of the empire, whom Valens 
 in 378 had called to the defense of Constantinople, and 
 whose savage valor had avenged his death by bloodily 
 repulsing the Goths from the suburbs of the capital, this 
 was the first occasion when the Moslem and the Gothic 
 arms came into conflict, and here, again, victory was 
 with the Arabs. The immediate consequence of the 
 action was to open the road to Toledo, and in an in- 
 credibly short space of time nearly the whole of Spain 
 fell into the hands of the invaders. The fame of this 
 extraordinary exploit aroused the jealousy of Mousa, 
 who, crossing from Africa, hastened to complete the 
 conquest of Spain, and share the vast spoils of Tarik. 
 By A. H. 94 (a. d. 712) the conquest was completed, 
 and Mousa, like Cortes at a later'period, found himself 
 master of an empire greater and richer than that of the 
 caliph his master. 
 
 In every country that fell beneath their sway the 
 policy of the Moslem was the same: they imposed a 
 tribute(usually of about one dinar per capita per annum) 
 upon the inhabitants, but only so long as they remained 
 kafirs or infidels. The moment they accepted the 
 Moslem formula — "There is but one God" — the tribute 
 was taken off, and they became Mahometans and free- 
 men. The civil administration of Spain was entrusted 
 to native (Gothic) clerks and leaders. The coinage, 
 which began in each country from the moment that 
 victory was assured, was always an exact imitation 
 of the previous local coinage. No change at all is 
 perceptible at first. For example, Mousa commenced 
 to strike coins from the moment that the conquest of 
 Spain was effected, and one of these pieces is still ex- 
 tant. 
 
 In A. H. 37 (a. d. 658), during the civil contest be- 
 
134 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 tween Ali and Moawiyah, the latter "bought peace of 
 the Emperor Constans by a round sum of ready money 
 and the payment of a daily tribute." In A. h. 59 (a. d. 
 679), after his repulse from the walls of Constantinople, 
 Moawiyah was fain to purchase peace from Constantine 
 Pogonatus by an annual tribute of 3,000 libras of gold, 
 fifty slaves, and tifty Arab horses.' In a. h. 67 (a. d. 
 686) Abd-el-Melik, being at that period involved in 
 civil war with the Mardaites, bought peace of Justinian 
 
 II. (afterwards called Rhinotmetus) by the payment 
 of a tribute of 1,000 gold solidi or dinars per annum 
 for ten years. Down to this time these coins were struck 
 by Abd-el-Melik, with Roman emblems and legends 
 upon them. Six years later the Arabian caliph, having 
 disposed of the Mardaite trouble, determined to assert 
 his independence of Rome, and by a token understood 
 of all the world. He struck gold coins with his own 
 effigy,holding a drawn sword, as afterwards did Edward 
 
 III. when he renounced the same dread authority. 
 Abd-el-Melik's dinars bore this challenging legend: 
 "The Servant of God, Abd-el-Melik, Emir-el-Moume- 
 nin." These coins Justinian refused to receive, because, 
 says Zonaras, "It is not permitted to stamp gold coins 
 with any other effigy but that of the emperor of Rome.'"' 
 Whereupon a war was declared by Justinian, which 
 lasted until the latter was driven from his throne by a 
 civil revolt, which occurred in A. D. 695. Justinian 
 was banished by his successor to the Crimea, where he 
 married the daughter of a Mongol chieftain. He after- 
 wards escaped to Bulgaria, where he married the daugh- 
 ter of a Gothic chieftain. Then, in a. d. 705, he 
 appeared before Constantinople with an army of bar- 
 barians, and re-entered it in triumph. Among his first 
 
 1 Freeman (pp. go, 91) says "pieces" of gold, or dinars. 
 
 2 Consult Theophanus (pp. 751-818); Cedrenus (eleventh century) 
 and Zonaras (twelfth century) on this subject. 
 
MOSLEM MONEYS 1 35 
 
 acts was the striking of a gold solidus, with which he 
 hurled back the religious challenge of the Arab. Upon 
 this solidus appears the legend: "Our Lord Justinian, 
 the Servant of Christ." 
 
 The monetary system of Abd-el-Melik consisted of 
 coins of purely Arabian type and legend. The ratio 
 between silver and gold was that oriental valuation of 
 6i for I, which marked for several centuries the line of 
 separation between the Moslem and Christian States of 
 Europe. The Arabian ratio was fixed by striking dinars, 
 each of approximately 65 gi'ains, and silver dirhems of 
 approximately 43 grains, and valuing ten of the latter, 
 in the law, at one of the former. Unless the purely 
 economical considerations, which will presently be 
 adduced, are deemed sufficient, it is difficult to discern 
 the reasons for establishing this peculiar ratio; yet 
 practical politicians will assure us that economical con- 
 siderations have never been the principal influence 
 which determined the policy of nations.' 
 
 The ratio of 6i may bave been a reaction from the 
 coinages effected under the ratio of 13, mentioned by 
 Herodotus concerning the ancient Persian tributes;^ or 
 it may have been due to the fact that in all the western 
 countries conquered by the Moslem, silver was chiefly 
 in the hands of the people, whilst gold was in those of 
 their rulers; and the great alteration which was made 
 in their relative value was a covert bribe to gain the 
 suffrages of the former and reconcile them to Moslem 
 government and religion. But it is far more likely to 
 have originated in a simpler and straightforward manner. 
 
 T "The events of the last few years on both sides of the Atlantic have 
 proved that men are not now, any more than they ever were, chiefly 
 governed by calculations of material profit and loss" (Bryce, "Holy 
 Roman Empire," p 301). 
 
 2 Thalia, p. 95. Some warrant for this hypothesis is afforded by the 
 Brazilian milreis, which, though derived from that of Portugal, contains 
 only half the same quantity of fine metal( "Hist. Money and Civilization," 
 chap, xii.) 
 
136 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 The Athenian, Persian, Egyptian and Roman govern- 
 ments had successively absorbed a large portion of the 
 profits derived from the Indian trade, by lowering the 
 value of silver (in which their tributes were chiefly re- 
 ceived) in the Occident to half its value in the Orient. 
 By making the bullion trade a strictly governmental 
 monopoly, as Cicero informs us was the case with 
 Rome, that hierarchy obtained twice as much gold for 
 silver in India as it paid for it in Europe. This policy, 
 except where it was swept away by the influence of 
 Islam, was pursued until the Roman empire expired. 
 The Arabian government was more considerate of its 
 merchants: it threw open the oriental trade to all true 
 believers; it imposed no restrictions; it was averse, at 
 least at that period, to the imposition of covert exac- 
 tions. During the seventh century of our era the ratio 
 in India was about 6i for i, and this high valuation of 
 silver in India continued substantially unchanged until 
 the fifteenth century. It was at the Indian ratio that the 
 Moslem struck their coins of gold and silver. 
 
 Whatever the true reason of this policy, it was cer- 
 tainly more profitable for the Moslem conquerors than 
 had they adopted the contemporaneous Roman ratio 
 of 12 for I. A brief computation will serve to measure 
 this profit. After consulting those Arabian authors 
 who have treated the subject, and making allowances 
 for instances where exaggeration seems to have been 
 employed, we have ventured to roughly estimate the 
 Moslem spoil of the precious metals, including the 
 tributes exacted from the conquered nations during the 
 first eighty years of the conquest, at about five million 
 marks' weight of gold and about one hundred million 
 marks' weight of silver. 
 
 In determining at what relation of value of one to 
 
MOSLEM MONEYS 137 
 
 the Other metal this mass of gold and silver should be 
 coined, Abd-el-Melik may be reasonably supposed to 
 have indulged in some such considerations as the fol- 
 lowing: 
 
 "We have a vast treasure before us to coin. At what 
 ratio of value between silver and gold shall we coin 
 it? Our armies are invincible; the populations are 
 tired of Roman rule; our conquests will extend. Arabia 
 is a commercial country, watered by three oceans — the 
 Mediterranean connects it with' the West, the Euxine 
 with the North, and the Red Sea with India and China. 
 The influx of the precious metals, due at first to our 
 arms, will be continued by means of trade. In the 
 Roman empire and its feudatories the coinages have 
 hitherto been conducted on the basis of 12 weights of 
 silver for i of gold; in the Orient the ratio is 6 or 7 
 for I. It is evident that the most profitable, perhaps 
 also the most important, part of our commerce will be 
 with what we soon hope to call our Indian empire; and 
 it is more desirable that our moneys should harmonize 
 with the Indian than with the Roman coinages. It must 
 also not be forgotten that to conform with the Roman 
 coinages would involve us in pecuniary loss, whereas 
 to follow the oriental ratio would afford us a profit. 
 Judging from the proportions of the metallic spoil thus 
 far captured, we shall secure about twenty times as 
 much (in weight of) silver as gold, and assuming that 
 we eventually secure 100,000,000 marks of silver, and 
 coin it at the Indian ratio, our fund will amount to 
 1, 120,000,000 dinars; whereas if we coin at the Roman 
 ratio, it will only come to 746! millions. Let those 
 who are learned in the art of arithmetic make the calcu- 
 lation for themselves. The only questions left to con- 
 sider are these: Can we permanently maintain this 
 
138 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 ratio of value — so different from that established by the 
 coinages of the Roman empire,a large portion of which, 
 however, is already subject to our arms? Will not our 
 gold dinars flow out and silver metal come into Arabia 
 to take its place? and, if so, will not this prove injurious 
 to our affairs? These questions can be answered very 
 readily. As we have already gained control of the 
 Egyptian, and, please Allah, will soon have control of 
 the Spanish mines, from what other country is the silver 
 metal to come which is to buy our gold dinars? An- 
 swer — No country. As we have driven the Romans 
 from the Mediterranean, and will soon control the com- 
 merce of maritime Europe, whither could our go.ld 
 dinars go outside of the influence of our own trade? 
 Answer — Nowhere. If, nevertheless, such an unlikely 
 thing should come to pass, how much should we lose 
 were our 280,000,000 of gold dinars to flow out and we 
 received for them 280,000,000 dinars' worth of silver 
 at our own ratio of valuation? Answer — Nothing. 
 Then what is the objection to the adoption of such a 
 ratio of value between silver and gold as best suits our 
 present interests and our probable future trade with 
 India? Answer — None whatever.'" 
 
 Encouraged, more than likely, by reflections of this 
 character, the Arabians commenced, under Abd-el- 
 Melik, that system of purely Arabian coinages which 
 continued until the center of their empire was virtually 
 removed to India, and they had lost control of both the 
 mines and the commerce of Europe. 
 
 These coinages were for several centuries conducted 
 on the basis of 6^ weights of coined silver as the equiv- 
 alent in value of i weight of coined gold. This was 
 
 I At the ratio o£ 6^ there would be 56 dinars and 84 dirhems struck 
 from the mark weight; at the ratio of 12 there would be 56 of each coin' 
 struck from the mark weight. The difference in the total sum would 
 amount to 373H millions of dinars. 
 
MOSLEM MONEYS 139 
 
 not only a peculiar ratio; it differed so greatly from the 
 Roman one of 12 for i that it can never fail to be recog- 
 nized wherever and whenever it existed — whether in 
 the countries of Islam or elsewhere. Moreover, when 
 found elsewhere, it is an infallible sign of Moslem con- 
 nection or influence. As in the remains of antiquity the 
 presence of silk and porcelain denotes commerce with 
 China; of spices, with India; of tin, with Britain; of 
 amber, with lestia; and of papyrus, with Egypt, so, 
 in the monuments of the mediaeval ages, does the 
 establishment of this peculiar ratio of value between 
 silver and gold in coins denote intercourse with the 
 Arabians. Wh-erever this ratio was adopted merely by 
 giving currency to Arabian coins at Arabian values, the 
 intercourse with Arabians may have been limited to 
 commerce. Where the ratio was, established by means 
 of local coinages, based on the Moslem valuation and 
 supplemented by the use of Moslem types, the former 
 implies the presence of Moslem artificers. Where to the 
 Moslem ratio and types was added the Moslem religious 
 formula, "There is but one God," this definitively 
 bespeaks the presence of Moslem influence, and a formal 
 protest against polytheism. All these will be found in 
 some mediaeval States — the Moslem ratio, type, and 
 religious formula; hence their historical significance. 
 
 When it is borne in mind that the Moslem empire 
 was a sacred one, that the Moslem coinages, like the 
 Roman or Byzantine, were employed as a means of 
 disseminating religious doctrine, and that, also like the 
 Roman, tlie legal ratio of value between coins of the 
 precious metals, once fixed, remained unchanged for 
 centuries, the importance of the Moslem ratio for solving 
 other historical problems will be better understood. For 
 example, how far did the Moslem conquest and occupa- 
 
140 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 tion of France extend? and how long did it last? are 
 questions to which a far more reliable answer will be 
 found in the Merovingian coinages than in the popular 
 story of Martel's victory.* To what extent, at a given 
 era, was, Christianity established in Gothic countries, 
 is a problem to be solved much more satisfactorily by 
 means of the coinages and valuations which prevailed 
 in those countries than by listening to the airy fictions 
 of the Quindecemviral College. 
 
 We find Moslem remains- or else marks of Moslen; 
 influence in the antiquities of England, Scandinavia, 
 the Netherlands, Frakkland (Burgundy), Spain, and 
 other Gothic or semi-Gothic States of the seventh and 
 eighth centuries. In Sicily Moslem marks continue 
 to the twelfth century, and in Spain to the fifteenth. 
 Whenever we find them we have not far to look for the 
 frontier-line of Christianity. Since the Julian era, in 
 whatever counti-y the ratio of 12 prevailed, that country 
 may be safely regarded as having been first under 
 Roman-pagan, and afterwards under Roman-Christian 
 domination ; in whatever country west of India the 
 ratio of 7 or 6i prevailed, it may be regarded as hav- 
 ing been under Moslem influence. But for the influence 
 of the archaic Gothic ratio of 8, explained elsewhere, 
 it might also be concluded that wherever any interme- 
 diate ratio between 6i and 12 prevailed, that place was 
 at or near the frontier-line between the spheres of Ro- 
 man and Moslem influence. 
 
 To those to whom the ratio of value between the 
 precious metals appears due to any other circumstance 
 than the arbitrary laws of national mints, or to those 
 whose attention to the history of this recondite subject 
 has now been drawn for the first time, the ratio may 
 
 I One of the earliest Arabian dinars, now in the Paris collection, was 
 found at Autun, with two Merovingian coins (Lavoix's Catalogue, No. 
 26). 
 
MOSLEM MONEYS I4I 
 
 seem a strange or inadequate criterion of political or 
 religious domination ; but it is precisely in such obscure 
 relations between great and little things that an all-wise 
 Creator has sheltered the truth of history from man's 
 destructive powers. The forgery of books, the deface- 
 ment of monuments, the perversion of evidences, the 
 extermination of nonconformists, the invention of fab- 
 ulous cosmogonies and superstitious fictions — all are 
 mad.e in vain to conceal or crush the truth so long as a 
 blade of grass or a breath of air remains on earth to 
 reveal it; for all Nature is united in a mysterious har- 
 mony, and to even approximately master one branch 
 of science is to gain a key which, with patience and 
 industry, may eventually unlock for us all the others. 
 The Moslem systems of money were based on the 
 dinar coin, whose weight was called a mithcal, this 
 word meaning literally "any weight with which one 
 weighs;" in other words, the mithcal of money was the 
 weight of the dinar, which was theoretically a symbol, 
 a money of account, forming part of a monetary system, 
 but palpably a single coin, containing 65 grains fine 
 gold, this having been the average contents of the Ro- 
 man solidus at the period of the first Arabian coinage.' 
 In the earliest Moslem system (period of Mahomet) the 
 mithcal was divided into g6 parts, as follows: 96 bar- 
 leycorns=48 habbeh = 24 tussuj=6 danik=i mithcal. 
 The ratio of silver to gold in this system was 12 for i. 
 Hence the silver di'achma, of which 12 went to the gold 
 dinar, contained 65 grains fine silver.^ In the system 
 established by Abd-el-Melik, about three-fourths of a 
 century after the Hegira, the mithcal was divided into 
 100 parts, as follows: 100 barleycorns=:2o karats=i 
 
 I The extant solidus of Heraclius I. weighs 69.9 grains, about 63 
 grains fine. 
 
 a Esh Shafy and Ibn Hanbal both affirm that the ratio was la in the 
 time of the Prophet. 
 
142 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 mithcal. Hence a barlej'corn of this system weighed 
 0.65, or about two-thirds of a grain, and a karat ^i 
 grains. Both the Roman binary weights and the Ro- 
 man ratio of silver to gold were now dropped. The 
 weights became decimal. The gold dinar remained 
 unchanged, but the principal silver coin was modeled 
 upon the average Sassanian dirhem of 14 karats, or 
 seven-tenths (in weight) of the dinar, and it took the 
 name of its Sassanian prototype. Hence the dirhem 
 theoretically contained seven-tenths of 65 grains=45i 
 grains. The dinar was valued at lodirhems — a valua- 
 tion derived from the ordinances of the Prophet, and 
 one which it would have been sacrilegious to alter. The 
 law of the Prophet levies a tithe on all possessions of the 
 precious metals, amounting to 5 oukias, or 200 silver 
 dirhems, or 20 gold dinars.' Here the dinar is valued 
 at 10 silver dirhems, and it remained so until the tenth 
 century. This ratio had nothing to do with the value 
 of billon, potin, copper, or glass dirhems, of which 
 we have had to speak elsewhere; it related only to gold 
 and silver coins of fine, or substantially fine, metal. 
 
 Had both the gold and silver coins of the Mahometan 
 mints continued the full theoretical weight of metal, 
 and had they been of like standard, alloy, or fineness, 
 the weights given above would have made a ratio of 
 7 silver=i gold; but the actual circumstances were 
 different. The dinars weighed 65 grains (0.979) fine; 
 the dirhems weighed 43 grains (0.960 to 0.970) fine. 
 Hence the ratio of value between silver and gold in 
 the coins was 6.52 for i.^ 
 
 There has been a good deal of confusion and misun- 
 derstanding on this subject, and it is essential to clear 
 it up in this place. El-Hassan, an 'Arabian writer (a. 
 
 T The Koran, as revised by Othman or Ali. 
 2 "Money and Civilization," p. 22. 
 
MOSLEM MONEYS 1 43 
 
 H. 22-110), calculated the theoretical ratio of value be- 
 tween the precious metals in the coinage at 3! for i, 
 which is just half of the true theoretical ratio. Berg- 
 mann, a recent writer, doubled the theoretic'&l ratio, and 
 made it 14 for i. Queipo doubled the actual ratio, and 
 made it 13 for i. These errors probably arose from 
 mistaking the number of dirhems to the dinar. El- 
 Hassan may have assumed 5 to be the correct number; 
 Queipo and, Bergmann certainly assumed the number 
 to be 20. The correct legal number was 10.' M. Syl- 
 vestre de Sacy supposed that, because there were 10 
 dirhems to the dinar, the ratio was 10 for i.^ This 
 would be true if the weights and fineness of the two 
 coins were alike, but not true as the case stood. 
 
 The average gross weight of 2,222 whole dinars now 
 extant, and dating-from A. h. 76 to 132, is 65.3 grains; 
 that of 6,982 whole dirhems of the same period is 43.36 
 grains, all of them being coins in the best state of con- 
 servation.' The legal valuation of 10 dirhems to the 
 dinar will be found repeatedly confirmed in the works of 
 Makrisi, de Sacy, Queipo, Lavoix, Sauvaire anc'' 
 Poole. The standard, or fineness, of the coins is given 
 by Sauvaire. The conclusion that the ratio was (ap- 
 proximately) 6i for I therefore stands upon very solid 
 grounds. 
 
 ' Coinage system of Abd-el-Melik, a. h. 73 (a. d. 692). Ratio of silver 
 to gold, 6.52 for I. 
 6 copper fels ^= i silver dirhem, 41.495 grains fine, 
 lb dirhems = i gold dinar, 63.635 grains fine. 
 i.i 4 dinars = i oukia. 
 
 5 oukias = I nis3.b. 
 
 ' •" Hence 240 fels == i oukia. 
 
 '''•' 'Ed. Bernard ("Mens, et Pond., " p. iS8) gives also 
 tli^ equivalent of 700 mithcals, or dinars, equal i talent; 
 
 but w^hether this applies to Abd-el-Melik's time or not 
 
 ' I ! . : i • 1 1 1 ' ' ' " ' ' ; 
 
 I Sauvaire, pp. 49 — 55- 2 Sauvaire, p, 55. 
 
 3 Sauvaire. 
 
144 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 is uncertain. The talent appears to have had only a 
 local meaning, which varied from five dinars to almost 
 any number. The original word for it in the Koran 
 is "quintar." "There are some who if thou entrust 
 them with a talent (quintar) give it back to you; and 
 some if thou entrust them with a dinar will not return 
 it" (Imran's Family, iii. ; Medina, v. 60), 
 
 Reverting to the subject of the ratio, because of its 
 great importance, both from the numismatic, the mon- 
 etary, and the historical point of view, Sauvaire, in his 
 "Matei-iaux," gives 57 eccentric valuations of the dir- 
 hem to the dinar, which are repeated by Poole in the 
 "London Numismatic Chronicle" for the year 1884. 
 Of this number thirty-one (or more) belong to Egypt, 
 and only one to Spain. These commence in a. h. 363-5, 
 and vary from 50 in the fourth century of the Hegira to 
 I3i in the sixth century. They relate not to silver, 
 but to billon dirhems, some of which — ^for example, 
 the nukrah — contained but 10 per cent of silver, the 
 rest being copper. In another instance (a. h. 815) the 
 relation is between the dinar and the so-called "pure 
 dirhem, each weighing a half-dirhem." It is evident 
 that no correct ratio of weight and value between the 
 dinar and dirhem can be deduced from coins of this 
 character. The other examples are equall}' useless. 
 From the era of Mahomet to the fourth century of the 
 Hegira there are no examples at all except one for a. 
 H. 225, which is probably a corrupted Fatimite date. 
 Jn this example there are 15 dirhems to the dinar. Some 
 examples relate to copper coins, as the Delhi tankah 
 dirhems of a. h. 823 (800 dirhems to the dinar) ; nearly 
 all of them bear the impress of miscalculation, and none 
 of them state the fineness of the coins. With the ex- 
 ception of the 12 for i in the time of the Prophet and 
 
MOSLEM MONEYS 1 45 
 
 the lo for i in Bagdad (a. h. 632), I regard them as 
 entirely worthless for the purpose of deducing the ratio 
 of value between silver and gold. 
 
 The Moslem always respected the 10 dirhems for i 
 dinar, just as the Romans respected the 12 silver for i 
 gold, and from similar motives. The relation of the 
 dirhem to the dinar was ascribed to the law of the 
 Prophet; the relation of 12 silver for i gold was fixed by 
 Julius Caesar. The former was not altered while the 
 empire of Islam lasted ; the latter remained unchanged 
 until the throne of the Ceesars was overturned. 
 
 The prototype of the dinar has been mentioned; it 
 was the Roman solidus. The dirhem, according to 
 Sauvaire's translation of El Damiry, was based upon 
 an average of the three sorts of silver coins then circu- 
 lating in the Persian dominions. Those with the effigy 
 of the king and the legend NOUCH KHOR, or "Feast 
 in Health," weighed one mithcal. Of the Samarys 
 dirhems there were two sorts, one weighing six-tenths 
 of a mithcal, the other half a mithcal. The inscriptions 
 on these coins were in Pehlvic. An average of the 
 three sorts made seven-tenths of a mithcal, and accord- 
 ingly this was the weight of the Arabian dirhem adopted 
 by Abd-el-Melik. In a. h, 1276 (a. d. 1859) a Persian, 
 named Djevad, paid into the postoffice at Constanti- 
 nople a dirhem struck at Bassora in a. h. 40. This dir- 
 hem is now in the Paris collection. Its weight is 36. 13 
 English grains, but it is somewhat worn, and it may 
 have originally weighed seven-tenths of a mithcal. It 
 has been submitted to Mordtmann, Rogers, Longper- 
 ier, Sauvaire,Waddington, and other competent judges, 
 all of whom pronounced it genuine, the only dissentient 
 voice being that of Mi". J. Stickel.' If genuine it rather 
 discredits the Arabian account of the manner in which 
 I J. Stickel, in "Handbuch zurMorgenlandischer Munzkunde, "' p. 51 
 
146 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 Abd-el-Melik got the weight of his dirhem, for it be- 
 longs to the reign of Ali, and the averaging of the 
 three sorts of dirhems, if it was done at all, must have 
 been done by him. This view is sustained by the tale 
 equivalents cited from the Koran, a work revised in the 
 reign of Othman or Ali. However, the Bassora coin 
 may have followed the Samarys dirhem of six-tenths of 
 a mithcal, in which case its original weight was 39 
 grains. 
 
 The prerogative of coining became vested in the 
 caliphate from the moment of its inception. "I have 
 left to Irak its dinar and to Syria its dirhem" is a boast 
 ascribed to Mahomet, and which, whether true or false, 
 and whether uttered by Mahomet or somebody else of 
 the same era, implies control of the coinage from some 
 center of administration, either religious or civil. This is 
 a point which will be discussed farther on. During the 
 conquest, before the central administration was organ- 
 ized, the emirs or commanders in the field struck coins. 
 This was merely to facilitate the distribution of the spoil, 
 for these coins were exact fac-similes of those already 
 in circulation, including their religious emblems and 
 legends. The division of the spoil was regulated by 
 the Koran ; in all cases one-fifth of it went to the hier- 
 archy. "Whenever ye seize anything as a spoil, to God 
 belongs a fifth thereof." (Spoils, viii. ; Medina, v. 40.) 
 This is the origin of the Royal Quinto, which the Span- 
 ish monarchs afterwards exacted from the conquerors 
 of America.^ The coins of the emirs extend from about 
 A. H. 5 to A. H. 60. In a few instances such coinages 
 continued after the administration was centralized by 
 Abd-el-Melik, but they were gradually suppressed until 
 the entire system was brought under the control of the 
 I See my previous works for full discussions on this subject. 
 
MOSI.EM MONEYS I47 
 
 caliph. We have the assurances of the Arabian numis- 
 matists and the corroboration of Lavoix that such control 
 was rigidly exercised and jealously guarded.^ No pri- 
 vate individual dared strike a coin ; no individual had 
 the right to require the government to strike a coin for 
 him ; it was a felony for any person or corporation other 
 than the State either to fabricate or destroy a coin. 
 
 In respect to the emir coinages the policy of the 
 Arabians was similar to that of the Romans during the 
 Punic wars, when the State, for reasons of convenience, 
 permitted its commanders in the field to strike coins. 
 Such was the whole foundation of that imaginary "pre- 
 rogative of the imperium," with which Mommsen and 
 Lenormant have enlivened the pages of their works on 
 the Roman monetary system. In the Roman empire 
 all suggestions of such a prerogative must certainly 
 cease from the time when Augustus organized the ad- 
 ministration ; in Islam they disappear with the coinage 
 reforms of Abd-el-Melik. In both cases the coinage 
 was really the prerogative of the State, and was only 
 exercised by the imperatores, emirs, or commanders in 
 the field, under the actual or anticipated authority of 
 the State. In both cases the coinage became the pre- 
 rogative of that hierarchy into which the State devel- 
 oped. In both cases the coins were employed, not 
 merely for money, but also as means to proclaim acces- 
 sions and to promulgate and disseminate religious doc- 
 trine. 
 
 But here the analogy ends. The Roman hierarchy 
 continued down to the time when Constantinople was 
 overthrown by the troops and allies of the Latin pope ; 
 until that event the coinage of gold was exercised solely 
 by the Basileus. 
 
 Saj's Freeman: "That the caliph of the Prophet 
 I Henri Lavoix, "Catalogue des Monnaies MVisuImanes," i8gi, 4(0. 
 
148 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 was the lawful lord of the world no true believer thought 
 of doubting; but who really was the caliph of the 
 Prophet was a question on which opinions might widely 
 differ." 
 
 It was the same with the Roman government. That 
 the Augustus was the lawful lord of the world no one 
 presumed to question; but who was the lawful Augustus 
 was often a matter of vital dispute. The difference 
 between the Roman and Arabian hierarchies — at least 
 so far as such difference affected the monetary system — 
 was of another character. In the Roman empire the 
 right to coin gold always remained with the sovereign- 
 pontifI,and was never exercised by any other authority; 
 in the Arabian empire, after the revolt of Spain and 
 Egypt from the authority of the caliph, it was lost by 
 the latter, and became vested in the independent sove- 
 reigns of those States, and was exercised by them and 
 by other Moslem sovereigns who had thrown off the 
 same authority. A belief in the unity of God is not 
 favorable to the maintenance of a hierarchy. 
 
 According to Lavoix the gold dinar was the only full 
 legal-tender coin of the Moslem in Egypt. This may 
 have been the case elsewhere in the Arabian empire,but 
 so far as we can determine, not in Spain nor in India. 
 In those States both gold and silver coins seem to have 
 been clothed with the full legal-tender function. This 
 only ceased to be true when the latter were adulterated. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 EARLY ENGLISH MONEYS. 
 
 Sterling standard — Type of the penny — Arabian coins in Gotland — 
 Offa's dinar — The mark — The mancus — Arabian moneyers in Eng- 
 land — Arabian ratio — Arabian metallurgists — The Gothic-Arabian 
 monetary system. 
 
 Our account of English moneys begins with the 
 Moslem remains which have been found in England. 
 This does not allude either to the Moorish troops whom 
 the Romans stationed at Watchtowers nor to the reputed' 
 Arabian remains in the Yorkshire Tyke (Tyrkr) dialect, 
 but to the numismatic monuments of the mediasval age.^ 
 For reasons which will presently be adduced, we venture 
 to regard the sterling standard of England as practically 
 of Moslem origin. By sterling standard we mean, not 
 the nummulary terms £. s. d., but the metallic composi- 
 tion of the silver sterlings — the alliage of all the best 
 silver coins now extant of mediaeval England. The 
 mancus and carat are certainly Moslem. The peculiar 
 ratio of value between the precious metals in mediaeval 
 England was either wholly Moslem or largely due to 
 Moslem influence. There is reason to believe that the 
 sterling alliage was also Moslem. 
 
 Although we have no Gothic-Arabian coin with an 
 
 Arabian inscription earlier than Offa, and only one of 
 
 that prince, it is probable that other Arabian types of 
 
 I Muratori III. (Dissert, xl., pp. 686-708) prints some rhymes em- 
 bodying the medical precepts o£ the Arabians, which were addressed by 
 a student at Bagdad to Edward Confessor, Rex Anglorum. The Eng- 
 lish words admiral, algebra, alkali, almanac, cotton, cypher, damask, 
 damson,sheri£f, and many others are well known to be Arabian. What is 
 alluded to in the text is an obscure dialect only spoken in Northumberland. 
 
 149 
 
150 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 coins were introduced into England during the seventh 
 century; for that period coincides alike with the earliest 
 mention of the Arabian mancus in England and with 
 the appearance of flat, thin coins of nearly pure silver 
 (and Arabian type), in place of the lumpish ones of com- 
 posite metal which preceded them. 
 
 The Moslem monuments of England may be con- 
 veniently described under the several heads of: Type 
 of the so-called penny; Arabian coins found in Scandi- 
 navia; Ofla's dinar; Arabian moneyers in England; 
 Arabian ratio in England; Arabian pre-eminence in 
 the metallurgical arts ; and the practically Arabian, or- 
 igin of sterling. 
 
 Tyfe of the so-called Penny. — This piece is a flat, 
 thin, round silver coin, about three-quarters to seven- 
 eighths of an inch in diameter; in weight, from 17 in 
 the earlier, to 2ii grains in the later, ages. It roughly 
 coincided with both the Byzantine half-siliqua, or- 
 quarter-miliaresion,and the Norse scat, but it differs from 
 them in size, composition, and design. These last-named 
 pieces, especially the scats, are thicker and smaller, the 
 diameter of the latter being usually about half an inch. 
 The standard of the so-called penny is 0.925 to 0.960 
 fine, that of the quarter-miliaresion is about 0.900, and 
 of the scats of this period indeterminable, because they 
 were not made of refined silver, but of old jewelry. 
 Pieces of the type of the so-called penny, and known 
 at the time as half-dirhems,were coined by the Arabians 
 in the seventh century, and carried by their armies 
 to the coasts of the Caspian and, during the eighth 
 century, into northern Africa, Spain, and France. Whilst 
 the Moslem were in possession of a large portion of 
 France, Charles Martel struck coins of the same size, 
 w eight, and composition as their dirhems, while Pepin 
 
EARLY ENGLISH MONEYS Igl 
 
 the Short imitated their half-dirhems. Modern numis- 
 matists call these last-named pieces deniers, or pennies. 
 The design of the half-dirhem was simply a few lines of 
 writing with arabesque work. Such,also,was the design 
 upon the so-called pennies of the Norse or Anglo-Saxon 
 kings of England. Afterwards they stamped their own 
 effigies on one side; but this was not a Moslem prac- 
 tice, for with them it was strictly forbidden both by law 
 and custom. 
 
 Although the use of the Arabian gold mancusin Eng- 
 land during the seventh century, and the hoards of Ara- 
 bian silver coins — some of them bearing an equally early 
 date — which have been found in Gotland and in many 
 other places in Scandinavia, afford reason for believing 
 that the silver dirhem and half-dirhem were employed 
 in England at the same period, yet the first certain ap- 
 pearance of what we have ventured to regard as the 
 half-dirhem type in England was during the reign of 
 Ethelbert II., king of Kent, who struck a silver coin of 
 that description. It circulated side by side with the 
 gold mancus of unquestionably Arabian origin,' thus 
 leaving but little room to doubt the Arabian parentage 
 of the former. Locally, however, the coin 'was not 
 known as the half-dirhem, but variously as the scat and 
 the penny, according to the local prevalence of Gothic 
 or Roman nomenclature. At a later period it was ap- 
 propriately called the "sterling." 
 
 Arabian coins found in Gotland, &c. — 'More than 
 
 20,000 Moslem coins have been found in various parts 
 
 of Scandinavia, chiefly in Gotland, some dated so early 
 
 as A. H. 79, others so late as A. h. 401. The presence of 
 
 I Keary assigns the first coins of this type to a still later date. ' The 
 pennies of Offa, struck about the year 760, were the first ever struck in 
 England. Their artistic beauty was not equaled for many centuries, not 
 until the period of Henry VII '' ("English Coins." p. xxii.) These so- 
 called pennies we regard as half-dirhems. The penny, or Roman 
 denarius, was of a different size, thickness, and metallic composition. 
 
152 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 such large numbers of these coins evinces an extensive 
 commerce with Arabians, and implies the currency of 
 their coins and familiarity with their ratio in Scandi- 
 navia, and probably also in Mercia and Northumbria — 
 in short, Scandinavian England, or all England north 
 of a line drawn between the Severn and the Wash.* 
 
 Offa's Dinar. — In every country which fell beneath 
 their sway, whether Syria, Irak (Persia), Egypt, Bai"- 
 bary, Spain, or Sicily, the Arabians struck bilingual 
 coins of the denominations and partly of the type of those 
 which they found in circulation. "I left to Irak its 
 dinar, to Syria its dirhem," boasted Mahomet. His 
 successors took care to observe this wise policy. From 
 the reign of Abd-el-Melik coins were struck by Arabian 
 moneyers after the type of the dinars and dirhems which 
 he prescribed. A gold dinar of this character belongs 
 to the reign of Offa, king of Mercia," and its type is only 
 to be accounted for upon the supposition that that prince 
 was obliged to employ Arabian moneyers. On this* 
 coin appears, in Arabic, the words "In the name of 
 God. This dinar was struck in the year 157" (a.d. 
 774). The reverse has: "Mahomet is the messenger 
 of God, who sent him with the doctrine and true faith 
 to prevail over every other religion," and, "There is 
 no other God than one God — He has no equal." Be- 
 tween the lines, in Latin, appear the words "Offa Rex." 
 A description of this coin by Adrien de Longperier is 
 published in the London Numismatic Chronicle," iv., 
 p. 232, and in Kenyon's "Gold Coins of England," 
 
 1 At the period mentioned Kent formed part of the Mercian kingdom. 
 Arabian coins of gold and silver have also been found eastward, in the 
 Gothic province of Novgorod, and in Great Permia. Hundreds of round 
 bronze coins with runic characters have been found in graves between 
 the Irbyht and ToboU rivers. A cut of one appears in Von Strahlen- 
 berg's valuable wok, p.' 408; see also pages no and 409. 
 
 2 Murcia was one of the names of Venus and the name of one of 
 the provinces of Spain. The gold maravedi was sometimes called obolus 
 de Murcia. 
 
EARLY ENGLISH MONEYS 1 53 
 
 1884, where a fac-simile also a'ppears in the frontispiece. 
 The coin itself was in the collection of the Due de 
 Blacas, who obtained it in Rome about the year 1840. 
 It contains about 60 English grains of fine. gold. Its 
 genuineness has never been doubted. It has been 
 asserted that towards the end of his life OfFa declared 
 or pretended fealty to the pontificate, and was sum- 
 moned to Rome, where he performed homage and 
 entered into an obligation to pay to the Holy See 365 
 mancusses a year as Rome-scat. The conversion and 
 the pilgrimage to Rome are doubtful. Longperier 
 believes that the bilingual dinar was the sort of coin 
 stipulated. Its heretical inscription, which, although 
 in Arabic, could not have remained long unread, 
 supplies a reason for its early suppression and present 
 rarity.' 
 
 The Mark. — The origin of the mark has ever been 
 a mystery to the metrologists. Agricola says it is men- 
 tioned in the earliest annals of the Cimbrian peninsular.' 
 This carries it back to the third century. Queipo de- 
 duces it from the half-rotl of Ptolemaic Egypt; De 
 Vienne, following the German metrologists, traces it 
 from Etruria; whilst Saigey discovers it in a weight 
 which he imagines was sent by Haroun-al-Raschid to 
 Charlemagne before the year 789. These metrologists 
 must have overlooked Agricola; they also forgot the 
 common custom of antiquity in using coins for weights.' 
 Instead of seeking the origin of this weight, as they 
 have dbne, by means of mere literary coincidences,haid 
 they placed in a scale two-thirds of the silver coins rep- 
 
 1 We are informed that upon OSa's return to England he built a 
 monastery at Holmhurst, near St. Albans, another at Bath, and a church 
 at Off-Church in Warwickshire, and that he was buried at Bedford 
 (Speed, p. 362, ed. 1650, fol.) Perhaps. 
 
 2 Bircherod, "Moneta Danorura," ed. 1566, p. 7. 
 
 3 See Herodotus, i., p. 63, where hair is weighed with a silver coin in 
 Egypt. 
 
154 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 resenting aRoman "libra" they would have found the 
 mark at once. In the first place it is quite evident 
 that the name "mark" is neither Egyptian, Etruscan, 
 Gaulish, nor even Arabic, but Gothic. Among the Saxons 
 it meant a collective number of men or things — a com- 
 munity, a society, a clan, a market. Applied to money, 
 it meant precisely what the Roman "libra" of the Theo- 
 dosian code meant, namely, five gold aureii, or else 
 their equivalent value in silver. Among the Romans 
 this equivalent was twelve times the weight of the gold; 
 among the Northmen it meant eight times, because the 
 ratio in Gothic coins was 8 for i; heuce the mark of 
 money was always two-thirds of the "libra" of money, 
 not of the Roman libra weight. During the third cen- 
 tury, between the reigns of Caracalla and Probus, the 
 aureus was degraded to 90 English grains fine; conse- 
 quently a "libra" of money contained 450 grains of 
 gold. The Roman equivalent of this weight of gold in 
 the silver coins with which the barbarians paid their 
 tribute was 5,400 grains. The Saxon equivalent of a 
 gold libra of this period was (at 8 for i) 3,600 grains, 
 which is the Saxon mark weight.' In short, the mark 
 was originally the Gothic equivalent at the ratio of 8 
 for I of a Roman libra." From this mark of money 
 descended the mark weight, and from the mark weight 
 the livre foid de marc (two marks) of King John of 
 France. 
 
 The mark of money is mentioned in the reign of 
 
 1 Bishop Flee.twood ("Cbron. Prec") regards the mark of money and 
 the mancus coin as identical, but in this instance the learned and vener- 
 able numismatist is hopelessly wrong. Among other proofs the lawyer's 
 fee of half a mark is still extant to refute him. 
 
 2 These were the marks alluded to by Louis IX. in his reply to the 
 Moslem demand of ransom. But, as a matter of fact, in the various 
 temporary valuations which were made in the course of changing from 
 the Moslem or the Saxon to the Roman ratio, the mark of account was 
 not always valued at two-thirds of the libra of account. There are in- 
 stances when the valuation was 150 pence to the mark, and at the same 
 time 240 pence to the "libra." 
 
EARLY ENGLISH MONEYS ' ^SS 
 
 Osbright, or Osbercht, the Norse pagan king of North- 
 umbria (848-67) ; in the Alfred-Guthrum Treaty of 
 878; in the "Formanna Sogur," vi., p. 271 (a work 
 ascribed to the tenth century); and in many other Norse 
 writings. 
 
 The Mancus, ^uarter-mancus and Half-dirhem. — 
 The gold dinar or mancus contained at first 65 grains, 
 0.979 fine, Say 63! grains fine, afterwards about 60 
 grains fine. Two heretical and exceptional mancusses 
 (so-called) of 54! and 51^ grains gross weight are men- 
 tioned elsewhere. In purity and color the mancus 
 resembled no other coin of the Western vyorld ; hence 
 it always retained the Arabian name of mancoush, or, 
 as Latinized, mancus.' Such was not the good fortune 
 either of the gold quarter-mancus or of the silver half- 
 dirhem. These being smaller and less valuable coins, 
 their superior purity and slightly different weight went 
 unheeded, and in the intercourse between Goth, or 
 Anglo-Saxon, and Roman, which took place in England, 
 they passed respectively for the gold sicilicus and silver 
 denarius. Although there was a difference in thfeir 
 purity, there was substantially none in the net contents 
 of the mancus and besant, and these also passed for 
 one another. As greater precision was obtained in 
 refining the precious metals, and in striking coins of 
 uniform weight, this practice gradually fell into disuse, 
 but not until it had left the nummulary language of the 
 p'eriod in great confusion. However, much of this 
 disappears when the weights and fineness of the two 
 classes of coins, Arabian and Byzantine, are contrasted 
 in tabulary form. It is then perceived that while there 
 was disagreement between the gross weights of the 
 
 I Wex, "Metrologie," p. 114; De Vienne, "Livre d'Argent," pp. 43 — 
 55. Without agreeing with the conclusions of either of these writers, 
 their works contain much incidental inforniation on this difficult subject. 
 
156 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 one set and those of the other, there was little or none 
 in the fine contents of the gold coins, and also that each 
 set of coins was by itself harmonious. 
 
 Arabian coins, 0.960 to o.gSo _/?«*, 
 
 Gross. Net 
 
 Eng. gr. Eng. gr. 
 
 trold dinar or mancus*^ 65.00 63.75 
 
 Gold quarter-maucus 16.25 16.00 
 
 Silver half-dirbem (0.925 to 0.960 fine) 21.50 20.00 
 
 Byzantine coins under Heraclius, about o.goafine. 
 
 Gross. Net. 
 
 Eng. gr. Eng. gr. 
 
 Gold solidus, or besant 70.00 63.00 
 
 Gold sicilicns, or skilling 17.50 iS.75 
 
 Silver quarter-drachma, or whole denarius, 
 
 or penny ly-S" 15-75 
 
 Arabian Moneyers in England. — Among the money- 
 ers of the Norse and Anglo-Saxon kings, and after- 
 wards of other kings of England, are many whose names 
 are clearly Arabian. These names are: Ahlman, 
 Ahlmund, Almuth, Alchised, Alchred, Abenel, Adul- 
 fere, Alghere, Alvyda, Abba, Aldruri, Baba, Babba, 
 Beriche, Bosa, Baee, Bofa, Bora, Buga, Buiga, Dealla, 
 Diar, Diola, Duda, Dela, Dia, Deid, Diora, Eckber, 
 Eoba, Eaba, Eana, Elda, Enodas, Gineef, Heaber, 
 Hussa, Hdiraf, Ibba, Idiga, laia, Lulla, Liaba, Ludic, 
 Lil, Messa, Nom, Osmund, Osyaef, Ohlmund, Oshere, 
 Osmere, Oba, Osmune, Oeldai, Tatel, Teveh, Tevica, 
 Tata, Tila, Tisa. 
 
 Five centuries later than this period, Edward I. was 
 obliged to send to Marseilles and Florence for artists 
 skilled in refining and coining the precious m°tals.^ 
 Indeed, this was a common practice in England down 
 
 1 The dinar was probably struck sixty to the mark weight, then of 
 1,600 to 3,777^ grains, while the besant was struck seventy-two to the 
 Roman libra of, say, 5,250 grains; the sicilicus 288 or 300 to the libra, 
 and the quarter-miliaresion 288 to the libra, or one-fourth of the whole 
 miliaresion de sportula, which was ordered to be struck seventy-two to 
 the libra (M. de Vienne). 
 
 2 Lowndes on Coins, p. 94. 
 
EARLY ENGLISH MONEYS 157 
 
 to the fifteenth century; and it is not too much to sup- 
 pose that the princes of the heptarchy sent in like man- 
 ner for Arabian moneyers. 
 
 Arabian Ratio in England. — As will be seen in 
 another place, the ratio of value between gold and silver 
 was fixed by the coinages of Ethelbert, king of Kent, 
 and Ofla, king of Mercia, and perhaps other early 
 English princes, at 6i silver for i gold. This was a 
 distinctly Arabian ratio, that of the Byzantine Empire 
 being always 12 for i. The coinages of those Mero- 
 vingian kings of France who spurned the authority of 
 Rome must be classed, like Offa's, with the Arabian. 
 The following table affords a view of various ratios of 
 silver to gold prevalent in England from the early por- 
 tion of the eighth to the twelfth century. Pepin le Bref 
 adopted the Roman monetary system in 754 or 755, 
 from which date he refrained from striking gold. The 
 ratio of valuation between his silver coins and the gold 
 solidi of the Empire was 12 for i, for the solidus is 
 valued in the texts of the period at 40 silver pence, and 
 the quarter-solidus, or fetite sou d'or, at 10 pence. 
 The ratio being 12 for i in France, it is difficult but 
 not impossible to believe that, at the same period, it was 
 successfully and permanently kept at 6^ or 6| for i in 
 England. However, there is no reason to doubt the 
 ratios deduced in the table. The influence of Pepin's 
 12 for I is seen in the coinages of our Alfred. 
 
Period A.. D. 
 
 Ratio. 
 
 650— 750 
 
 by. 
 
 723— 760 
 758— 796 
 800— 836 
 852— 874 
 874— 878 
 878- (?) 
 
 6% 
 6 
 
 b%®rA 
 
 10 
 
 (?)- 901 
 
 12 
 
 ,925— 941 
 978 — 1016 
 
 12 
 
 1016 — 1033 
 1024 — 1066 
 1066—1087 
 
 9 
 
 8@I2 
 12 
 
 1087 — I 100 
 
 12 
 
 158 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 Ratio of silver to i gold in the moneys of England from the eighth to the 
 twelfth century. 
 
 Remarks. 
 East Indian.Eastern-Arabian.and Spanish-Ara- 
 bian coins of seventh and eighth centuries. 
 Coins of Ethelbert II., king of Kent. 
 Coins of Ofia, king of Mercia. 
 Valuations of Egbert, king of VVessex. 
 Coins of Burgred, king of Mercia. 
 First coin valuations of Alfred. 
 Second " " 
 
 Third " '• 
 
 Valuations of Athelstan, son of Edward, elder. 
 " Efhelred II., king of Wessex. ' 
 
 " Canute. 
 
 " Edward Confessor. 
 
 William I. • 
 William Rufu^ 
 
 The Arabian ratio was adopted in England during 
 the seventh century. It lasted without any substantial 
 alteration until the second valuation of Alfred — :a period 
 of about two hundred years, and this in spite of its great 
 variance with the Roman ratio.' 
 
 Arabian pre-eminence in the Metallurgical Arts. — 
 Except the Byzantines and Arabs, there were few or no 
 m on eyers in Europe during the seventh and eighth 
 ceoturies who were able to reduce gold or silver to the 
 uniform fineness requisite for the coinages of new and, 
 as yet, untried mints and governments. Mr. Keary's 
 assays of the early Norse scats fully prove this view 
 with regard to English moneyers. The cutting -of steel 
 dies was another mechanical difficulty. To the Gothic 
 mints of the dark ages it was substantially insuperable. 
 
 The earliest coinages of mediaeval England are later 
 than those of France. Dr. Ruding's flourish about the 
 pontificate of pope Hadrian I. cannot weaken the asser- 
 tion that, down to nearly the beginning of the seventh 
 century, no Anglo-Saxon coins, other than the rude, un- 
 lettered products of the early mints, were struck in 
 
 I For further information on Arabian ratio and coinages, consult 
 "Money and Civilization." 
 
EARLY ENGLISH MONEYS 1 59 
 
 England. The Moslem occupation of Spain and 
 southern France, so long as it lasted, put an end' to the 
 exercise of the coinage prerogative of the Byzantine 
 emperors in those countries. The last triente struck 
 by Roderic of Spain was coined under Byzantine 
 authority, and this was followed, with scarcely any 
 interval of time, by the bilingual coins of Mousa-ben- 
 Nozier. The refining of the precious metals and the 
 cutting of steel dies for the West now fell wholly into 
 the hands of the Arabians, and, taking into account the 
 Gothic aversion to the Byzantine hierarchy, it would 
 be difficult to advance any valid proofs that the nearly 
 pure mintages of pagan gold and silver, which appeared 
 in England during the seventh and eighth centuries, 
 could, under the circumstances, have been effected 
 without the aid of Arabian artists and moneyers. 
 
 Practically Arabian Origin of Sterling. — This term 
 is now applied to distinguish coins, or bullion, of 
 a standard fineness, or alliage, of metal, equal to thatof 
 certain sterling or easterling coins, or "sterlings" of 
 the middle ages. This standard, afterwards called 
 "old sterling," was 0.995 for gold and 0.925 for silver.^ 
 There have been many explanations of the term 
 sterling,, none of which, however, are free from objec- 
 tion. There certainly existed during the eighth century 
 an important traffic along the Gothic zone, which, 
 bounded by the 50th and 60th parallels, extended from 
 Mongolia to Britain, and found its chief emporia in 
 Novgorod and Vinet, the eastern and western portals of 
 lestia.^ The money chiefly employed in this trade, as 
 we know from the vast quantities of it which have been 
 dug up in modern days, was Arabian half-dirhems. 
 This was the current money of lestia, whose cities were 
 all destroyed and whose records and monuments all 
 I Lowndes on Coins, p. 18. . 2 Von Strahlenberg. 
 
l6o HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 perished under the proscriptions of Charlemagne and 
 his successors. The earliest mention of lesterling 
 money which occurs in Western literature appears in 
 the laws of the Ripuarian Franks. Hovenden, as 
 cited in Hollingshed, attributes the term sterling (indi- 
 cating a coin) to the reign of Osbright, the pagan king 
 of Northumberland (a. d. 848-67).' It also occurs in 
 the Alfred-Guthrum Treaty, still meaning a coin. It 
 does not occur in Domesday book, where '"libra arsa" 
 and "arsura" are used to indicate the metallic fineness 
 of money, and denarius to indicate the coin in common 
 use, which, to the Arabians, was a half-dirhem, and to 
 the Gothic races, as we are persuaded, was known as 
 the iesterling or esterling. Ordericus Vitalis, an author 
 born during the reign of William I., uses the expres- 
 sion, XVlibr sterilensium," meaning, doubtless, £15 
 in silver pennies." The word sterling, meaning a 
 certain coin, crept into extant texts during the reigns of 
 the Norman and Plantagenet kings, and in the dealings 
 of the Christian Hansa of the thirteenth century. The 
 origin of its present meaning is not entirely clear; but, 
 as the degree of fineness indicated, is precisely that of 
 the Arabian coins contempoianeous with the heptarchy, 
 and was not that of any other coins (unless we go back 
 to the Roman coins of the third century), it is all but 
 certain that sterlingmeant,firstthe Arabian half-dirhem, 
 and afterwards the Arabian standard for coins. The 
 only people who struck such coins at this date were the 
 Arabians, whether in Arabia, Africa, Spain, France, 
 Persia, Parthia or Scythia; and not only did they adopt 
 a high standard for coins, they struck such immense 
 quantities of them as to fill the channels of commerce, 
 and render the standard well known and typical. 
 
 1 Chambers's Encyc. 
 
 2 Samuel Pegge, in "Gent.'s Mag.," 1756, p. 456. 
 
EARLY ENGLISH MONEYS l6l 
 
 Finally, they adhered to this standard for several cen- 
 turies,' and thus caused it to be depended upon and re- 
 garded as reliable, which, except as regards the besants 
 of the sacred Empire, is more than can be said of any 
 other coinages of the dark ages. 
 
 These marks of Moslem influence upon the early 
 monetary types of England are submitted to the indul- 
 gent criticism of archaeologists. Before the discovery 
 of these evidences it appeared strange to the author 
 that, during a period when Arabian industry and com- 
 merce and Arabian art and literature dominated the 
 Western world, no traces of Moslem civilization were 
 to be found in England — a country always famous for 
 its maritime proficiency and the intimate knowledge 
 of other maritime States which such proficiency pro- 
 moted. These evidences bring to the surface a link in 
 the chain of English history, whose long subversion 
 finds ample explanation in the circumstances of the age 
 to which it relates, and whose recovery, like a guide 
 through a labyrinth, may enable us in future to outline 
 with more assurance the still obscure history of the 
 heptarchical era. 
 
 Grafted upon the Gothic monetary system, described 
 in a previous chapter, the Moslem coins and types pro- 
 duced a hybrid system, which differed from its prede- 
 cessor chiefly in the weight and composition of the. scat 
 and in the number of scats to the ora, also in the weight 
 of the latter. At first the Gothic-Arabian system em- 
 braced the following coins and scale of equivalents, but 
 as time went on several of these were modified: 
 
iSz HISTORY OJ MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 Gothic-Arabian system (eighth century'). Ratio, 6% for i. 
 
 Coins. Money. Value in scats. 
 
 8 stycas (bronze) i scat (silver) i 
 
 3 scats I thrimsa 3 
 5 scats I ora (gold) 5 
 
 4 oras i mancus, or dinar 2o 
 Boras i double dinar (dobla)' 40 
 
 20 oras I mark of account 100 
 
 Under the Salic law/ as it was remodeled by Clovis, 
 the gold sou, solidus, or besant, then of 68 English 
 grains weight, was valued in Gaul at 40 silver deniers 
 (scats), then of 17 English grains each — a ratio of 10 
 for I. This was a mean between the Roman and Gothic 
 ratios. 
 
 The etymology of styca, scat and thrimsa is uncer- 
 tain. Lye derives styca from tha Saxon sticce, but to 
 this Ruding objects that the word sticce cannot express 
 value distinct from magnitude; and again, why not 
 sticce from styca, rather than styca from sticce? It is 
 much more likely to be derived from the oriental word 
 for a cutting instrument. Sicca (Indian), sycee (Chi- 
 nese), styca (Gothic), saiga (Prankish), siccal, or shekel 
 (Chaldean and Hebrew), zicca (Arabian), and sequin 
 (Venetian) are evidently the same word and meant the 
 same thing; that is to say, an instrument or tool for 
 clipping coins, and, by meton3-m, a mint, a coin, etc. 
 In fact, most of the coins of this period were finished 
 with the shears. As the thrimsa was valued at three 
 scats, its name was probably derived from the Latin 
 trium. The etymology of scat, scad, or shad, has been 
 already treated. During the dark ages the Roman 
 
 t Abd el-Raman spent on the mosque of Cordova over 600,000 doblas 
 or "double pieces," of gold (Calcott's "Spain," i., p. 152). 
 
 2 The law of the Salian Franks (from the river Sala, les-sel, or Yessel) 
 is believed to have been compiled after the Franks were established in 
 ihe Netherlands. None of the extant compilations are of an earlier dale 
 thnn th<" seventh century. The original compilation was in Latin; in the 
 late ■ copies there are some German words, those copies containing the 
 most German words being the most recent of all (Wiarda, "Histoire et 
 Explication de la loi Salique"). Upsala (Sweden) appears to be another 
 form of Ober les-sel (Holland). 
 
EARLY ENGLISH MONEYS 1 63 
 
 imperial fisc in Gaul was obliged to accept its revenues 
 and make its payments in rations.' If the Romans 
 were obliged to use rations for a measure of value there 
 is nothing improbable in supposing that the Norsemen 
 used herrings. Ora*, or aurar, is obviously from the 
 Latin equivalent for gold. The term is still employed 
 in the monetary systems of Scandinavia. Mancus is 
 from the Arabian mancoush, coined money, and this 
 from the verb macasha, to strike. Marcrus, manenco, 
 etc., are corrupted synonyms.^ 
 
 The scat, or properly h'alf-dirhem, of this period was 
 nearly of pure silver, thin and flat, but larger and 
 heavier than the composite scat which preceded it. 
 It contained 2i-\ grains, 0.925 to 0.960 fine. The term 
 scat is, of course, a name given to these pieces by mod- 
 ern numismatists, by some of whom they are termed 
 pennies; but, for the various reasons herein adduced, 
 these flatjthin pieces must be regarded typically as half- 
 dirhems, and of Arabian origin. Owing to their superior 
 weight and uniform standard, these scats were now 
 reckoned at five to the era instead of eight, as their 
 namesakes had previously been reckoned. The thrimsa 
 (it was not long in use) was either a coin or money of 
 account, valued at three scats, and therefore worth 
 three-fifths of the ora of five scats, or three-fourths of 
 the later ora of four scats. 
 
 The ora of this hybrid system was identical both 
 in weight and fineness with the Arabian quarter-dinar. 
 It contained about i6\ grains of gold, 0.960 to 0.979 
 fine, or nearly 16 grains fine, and it so closely tallied in 
 contents with the sicilicus, or gold skilling, as to pass, 
 at least in the south of England, for the latter. It is 
 called a scilling in the Christian chronicles, and at a 
 later period it found its way by the same Roman name 
 
 1 Guizot, "Hist, Civ.," i., p. 351. 
 
 2 Longperier, "Revista Num.," 1844, p. 292. 
 
164 HISTORY OP MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 into the Norse sagas. "Olaf (1015-28) went southward 
 across the sea from England and defeated the Vikings 
 before Williamsby. He captured Gunnvaldsborg (in 
 Seljopollar) and levied a ransom on it and the jarl of 
 12,000 gull skillingar.'" 
 
 The, gold mancus, or dinar, has been already de- 
 scribed. That this coin circulated in the Norse king- 
 doms of England the frequency of its mention in docu- 
 ments of the seventh and eighth centuries leaves no 
 room to doubt. The only Gothic-Arabian mancus ex- 
 tant is the unique coin of Offa, and this is • stamped a 
 "dinar," Of the doblas, or double dinars, there are no 
 English specimens extant, although there are plenty of 
 Spanish Arabian ones. The ratio of value between 
 silver and gold in this system is indicated by dividing 
 the fine contents of the ora (about 16 grains) into 
 that of its legal equivalent of 5 scats, say 104 grains, 
 the quotient being 6i. Whilst this was the ratio in both 
 the Indian-Arabian, Spanish-Arabian and Anglo-Ara- 
 bian monetary systems of this era, it must not be for- 
 gotten that in the coinages of Byzantium the ratio was 
 always 12; in other words, that the Christian valuation 
 of gold (in silver) was nearly double that of the Mos- 
 lem. 
 
 Such are the Moslem remains yet to be found in 
 England — remains which, being traced upon monu- 
 ments that the impassioned eyes of superstition failed 
 to perceive, fortunately escaped its merciless proscrip- 
 tions. To point out their significance and bearing 
 upon English history is a task that belongs to the phi- 
 losopher rather than the historian. 
 I Olaf's saga, c. 16. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 MONEYS OF THE HEPTARCHY. 
 
 Summary of historical evidences furnished by the materials of this chap- 
 ter — No coins of the Anglo-Saxons exist earlier than Ethelbert — 
 Pagan gold coins — Gothic coins of Ethelred — Interpolations in an- 
 cient texts — Moslem coins of Offa the Goth — Kome-scat, or Peter's 
 pence — Egbert adopts the Roman system of £. s. d. — Danish in- 
 vasions — Burgred is defeated and interned in a monastery — Guthrum 
 is baptized and reigns as Athelstan II., — Alfred of Wessex— Mingling 
 of Gothic and Christian coins and denominations— Changes of ratio 
 — Edward the Elder — Athelstan — Edmund I. — Eadred — Leather 
 moneys — Ethelred II. — Danegeld — Canute the Dane — Harold the 
 - Dane — Edward Confessor — Harold II. — Evidences derived from 
 these researches. 
 
 The monetary systems of the various Anglo-Saxon 
 States were of such essentially different structure as to 
 denote the existence of different governments and re- 
 ligions, some Gothic, others Roman, some pagan, 
 others Christian. After the era of bangs these States 
 'employed oras, scats and stycas, that is to say, native 
 coins of gold, electrum and bronze, all of somewhat 
 irregular weights, bearing no marks of a common 
 authority, and issued by pagan chieftains owning no 
 superior or overlord. The tale relations were octoniary, 
 and the ratio of silver to gold was 8 for i. At a later 
 period some features of the Arabian monetary system 
 were grafted on the Gothic: the mancus and half-dir- 
 hem — coins of sterling fineness and regular weights — 
 were issued or circulated in the various States, the tale 
 relations exhibit the influence of the Arabian decimal 
 system, and the ratio was 6i for i. 
 
 When they successively adopted Christianity these 
 States received their monetary systems from Rome. 
 
 ]65 
 
1 66 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 The coins now used were besants (5 to the libra), shil- 
 lings and pence; the denominations were £. s. d. ; the 
 weights were accommodated to these tale relations, 
 which, as between shillings and pence, were duodeci- 
 mal; the ratio of silver to gold was duodecimal; and 
 the coinage prerogative, as to gold, was exercised ex- 
 clusively by the emperors of Rome, and granted by 
 them to the English princes as to silver — practices that 
 are held to denote both the feudal form of government 
 and the Roman religion of the vassal States. Of these 
 various features of money the abstention from the coin- 
 age of gold by the converted princes, and the marked 
 difference between the Christian, Gothic and Moslem 
 ratios between the value of gold and silver, are the most 
 significant. 
 
 It will simplify the subject to observe: first, that with 
 few exceptions, which will be noticed as we go along, 
 the only English coins now extant of the heptarchical 
 period are silver scats, half-dirhems and pennies, all of 
 which, being of somewhat similar weight, are usually, 
 though erroneously, classed as pennies;' second, that 
 as the Roman ratio was always 12 for 1, the denarii 
 (of which 40 went to the Roman aureus, when the 
 latter was struck 60 from the pound weight of standard 
 gold) weighed 26^ grains gross; third, that the denarii 
 (valued at 40 to the aureus, solidus or besant, when the 
 latter was struck 72 from the pound weight) weighed 
 21^ grains gross; fourth, that the denarii (when valued 
 at 240 to the £., or 48 to the solidus) weighed about 
 19! grains gross, or i8i grains fine. There were also 
 lower weights to the denarius, explained elsewhere. As 
 this was the prevailing system of valuation in Christian 
 States of the period answering to the heptarch}', it fol- 
 
 I There is nothing but historical inference to prove what these pieces 
 were respectively called at the date of their issue. 
 
MONEYS OF THE HEPTARCHY 1 67 
 
 lows, fifth, that when any so-called denarii, or pennies, 
 belonging to such period, and being in good condition, 
 are found to contain more metal than is here indicated,' 
 they were either struck under the Gothic or Gothic- 
 Arabian systems, and were really silver scats, or half- 
 dirhems, or else, if of Christian stamp, they were valued 
 in the law, at the time of their issue, at more than a 
 penny each — a practice concerning the prevalence of 
 which we have the testimony both of Bishop Fleetwood 
 and M. Guerard. It does not, however, follow from 
 this rule that a scat, or half-dirhem, containing more 
 silver than a penny was worth more than the latter, 
 because, as Christianity and "pennies" gained ground, 
 and paganism with scats and dirhems lost ground, the 
 latter, even when heavier, were accorded a lower value 
 in the law. 
 
 The earliest coin of the heptarchical kings now ex- 
 tant is a certain unique one stamped "Ethelbert," con- 
 taining about 20 grains of fine silver. Some writers 
 ascribe this monument to Ethelbert I., but there is not 
 sufficient evidence to warrant the inference. It is very 
 much more likely to have been an issue of the second 
 Ethelbert, king of Kent (748-60), replacing the com- 
 posite scat, which by this time was disappearing in the 
 refining crucibles of the Arabian moneyers. Mr. Keary 
 prefers, indeed, to attribute it to Ethelbert, king of the 
 East Angles, who died in 792 or 793, and, moreover, 
 hints that its genuineness is not above suspicion. Of 
 this class of coins twenty went at this period to the gold 
 mancus, or solidus, of 60 grains fine, and five of them 
 to the gold ora or shilling — a ratio of silver to gold of 
 6| to I, thus 20X20=400 -=-6o=6f. In some Anglo- 
 Saxon coinages of this period the ratio was 6i to i, in 
 
 I In applying this rule some allowance must be made for the unskill- 
 fulness of early mints in striking coins of a uniform weight, ' 
 
1 68 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 others 6 to i. In other words, gold in England was 
 valued as in Asia and Arabia, that is to say, at half the 
 price (in silver) at which it was maintained by the 
 sacred empire of Rome. The adoption of the oriental 
 ratio in England, though probably due directly to the 
 influence of the Arabian coinages of Spain, may also 
 have been superinduced by the Gothic-Arabian trade 
 of this period through Russia and the Baltic. Whatever 
 the cause, the fact is believed to be indisputable, and 
 as its acceptance solves many of the otherwise inexpli- 
 cable problems of this period, it is commended to the 
 careful consideration of the reader. Similar ratios of 
 6, 6i and 6f for i will be found in the contemporaneous 
 coinages and valuations of Spain and southern France. 
 Hawkins and Keary both intimate that during the reign 
 of Ethelbert II. there was a silver penny of twelve to 
 the shilling, and leave it to be inferred that there was 
 either a silver shilling coin or a shilling of account em- 
 ployed in England at this period. A silver shilling-coin is 
 hardly worth discussing ; there is none extant and there is 
 no evidence that such a coin ever existed until the reign 
 of Alfred, and even then it is by no means certain. Ai 
 all previous dates the shilling, whenever embodied in 
 a coin, was made of gold. With regard to a supposed 
 silver "penny," of which twelve went to the shilling 
 of account, this is an inference drawn, from extant 
 copies of the laws of Ethelbert, in which such denomi- 
 nations are mentioned. But as it is quite unlikely that 
 two coins, namely, the scat and the penny, of nearly 
 similar weight and contents, circulated in the same king- 
 dom side by side, the one five, the other twelve, to the 
 shilling, we must regard the latter as an anachronism 
 introduced into copies of the law at a later period, 
 when there were indeed twelve pence to the shilling. 
 
MONEYS OP THE HEPTARCHY 169 
 
 Ethelbert's laws are unique in being written in English, 
 but the MS. is Anglo-Norman of the twelfth centui^y, 
 and the original laws have evidently been frequently 
 altered.' Bishop Fleetwood has proved several anach- 
 ronisms in the monetary terms employed in the earlier 
 English texts of laws. The ratio of 9 silver to i gold, 
 assumed by Ke^ry for the coinages of Ethelbert's reign, 
 rests upon this same literary and probably anachronical 
 penny, and must stand or fall with it. It will probably 
 be found difficult to overthrow the ratio of 6f derived 
 from the Anglo-Saxon valuation of 20 silver pence to 
 the besant. Some of the other conclusions of Mr. 
 Keary — for example, that the thrimsa was a tremissis, 
 that the pound or livre of money always consisted of 
 240 pence, and that the mark weight was (in England) 
 half a pound weight — will incidentally receive consider- 
 ation as we proceed. 
 
 The tax of Peter's pence was first collected in Eng- 
 land by the Roman pontificate from Ina of Wessex.* It 
 is also alleged that after the conversion of Offa (about 
 790) it was levied upon that prince, who testified his 
 submission to the pope by going to Rome in 793, and 
 paying him homage in person ; but this is doubtful. At 
 this period Charlemagne was at the height of his pow- 
 er. France, Germany, Saxony, Hungary, Italy and 
 even a portion of Spain acknowledged his sovereignty. 
 Pope Hadrian I. had vowed himself Charlemagne's 
 liege subject and vassal, and governed in his name. If 
 Offa acknowledged the suzerainty of the pope, it is not 
 clear whether he intended to admit or ignore that of 
 Charlemagne, the pope's political superior or suzerain. 
 Egbert, a Christian king of Wessex (800-36),' had been 
 I Sir Francis Palgrave, i., p. 44. 
 
 2 For examples of Rome-scat, see Ruding, ii., pp. 205, 210, 212, 218, 
 230, 366, etc. 3 Not Egbert, or Egfrid, son of Offa, who died in 796. 
 
1 70 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 for three years a soldier in the army of Charlemagne. 
 He obtained his kingdom through the good offices of 
 that emperor, to whom he swore fealty and did homage. 
 When Charlemagne died (814), and the weak-minded 
 Louis le Debonnaire was brought under the domination 
 of the pontificate, the latter seems to have at once 
 claimed Egbert as its vassal ; but there are no evi- 
 dences — at least not of that period — that the latter con- 
 ceded this claim. The slender remains of Egbert's 
 coinage system throw no certain light upon the ques- 
 tion. The only coin of his reign extant is the silver 
 penny of fifteen grains fine. The mutilated texts of the 
 period mention a shilling of five-pence and a pound of 
 sixty shillings, both of which may be anachronical, and 
 supplied by the copyists of the extant MS. If the shill- 
 ing was an actual coin, it was probably the old ora of 
 i2i, worn down to 11 1-6, grains fine. At fivepence to 
 the shilling, this would give the Arabian ratio of 6^ 
 for I — a result that would hardly tally with the Chris- 
 tian attitude ascribed to Egbert, for no Christian prince, 
 except the Basileus, could lawfully coin gold, and he 
 only coined it at i for 12 silver. 
 
 Following Offa on the Mercian throne were Egbert, 
 his son (heterodox, died suddenly, 796), Coenwlf, or 
 Kenulph (706-18,) Kenelm, Coelwlf, Beornwlf, Lud- 
 ica, Wiglaf (interned), Berthwlf, Burgred (interned), 
 and Coelwlf, the last of the line. The church had em- 
 ployed excommunication, female influence, monastic 
 internments, and other resources to reduce the Mercian 
 and Northumbrian princes to submission, but without 
 definite success. The Danish invasion served its ends 
 better. London was taken in 851, York fell in 867, 
 Guthrum, the East Anglican, was baptized in 878,' and 
 
 1 There are reasons for believing that Guthrum was a Christian before 
 this time. In 875 he succeeded in dividing the Anglo-Danish army, of 
 which a portion, under Halfdane, took possession of Northumberland 
 and applied themselves to agriculture. 
 
MONEYS OF THE HEPTARCHY 171 
 
 both Mei'cia and stubborn Northumberland were at 
 length brought beneath the dominion of Rome. From 
 831, when the seven kingdoms of England were merged 
 into the three kingdoms of Wessex, Mercia and North- 
 umberland, until the date of the Alfred-Guthrum 
 Treat)' cf 878, the intrigues of the pontificate and the 
 military operations of the Danes were incessant. Got- 
 fried, king of Denmark, having been poisoned in 819 
 and Harold installed in his place, the latter was baptized 
 at the court of the conqueror, Louis le Debonuaire. 
 Ridding himself of Regenfroy, his pagan rival for the 
 throne, Harold made preparations to continue on a large 
 scale the war against the English kingdoms, which had 
 been inaugurated a quarter of a century previously by 
 Ragnar Lo3brok, under king Sigurd Snogoje. This 
 circumstance, together with the suddenness of Harold's 
 conversion, and the fact that his expedition was mys- 
 teriously directed from the south of England against 
 the not yet converted kingdoms of the north, warrants 
 the suspicion that papal intrigue was at the bottom of 
 the entire pi'oject. 
 
 In 832 the Danish forces landed on the isle of Shep- 
 pey ; in the following year they overran the coasts of 
 Dorset, and in 835 those of Cornwall. At this juncture 
 died Egbert of Wessex, yielding the crown to his son, 
 Ethelwolf, at that period a subdeacon of the cathedral 
 at Winchester. In 844, at the Council of Winchester, 
 upon the instigation of the bishop of Sherborn and the 
 bishop of Wilton, and perhaps also influenced by the 
 menaces of the Danish commander, Ethelwolf, as king 
 of the West Saxons, made a donation to the church, by 
 which he granted to it "'the tenth part of the lands 
 throughout our kingdom in perpetual liberty, that so 
 such donation may remain unchangeable and freed 
 
172 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 from all royal service and from the service of all secu- 
 lar claims."^ This embraced the Three Necessities — 
 building bridges, fortifying and defending castles, and 
 performing military service. So soon as this grant was 
 duly executed the Danish forces disappeared. 
 
 A few years after this happy relief — that is to say, in 
 854 — Ethelwolf went to Rome, where he did homage 
 to the pope, and presented him with a crown of pure 
 gold weighing four pounds, a sword adorned with pure 
 gold, two golden images, two golden vessels, a service 
 of plate, and a donation of gold to the clergy and of 
 silver to the people of Rome. On his return from this 
 pilgrimage, he married Judith, the daughter of Charles 
 the Bald, of France. In the following year (855) the. 
 bishop of Sherborn played Ethelbald, one of the king's 
 sons, against the father, and won from the latter another 
 donation to the church, which donation was to last — 
 to quote its own terms — "as long as the Christian faith 
 shall flourish in the English nation." 
 
 Bearing in mind the fact that a ratio of 12 for i during 
 this period was always a mark of Roman government, 
 an attentive examination of the tables of ratios in a pre- 
 vious chapter will afford a tolerably correct indication 
 of the dates when Roman domination was thoroughly 
 re-established in the various provinces or kingdoms of 
 Britain. However, the new domination, though prac- 
 tically the same, was not altogether identical with the 
 ancient one: its appearance was changed, as though 
 viewed througli a defective glass. The ancient domi- 
 nation of Rome, so far as Britain is concerned, was in 
 great measure a military one; the re-established domi- 
 nation was practically an ecclesiastical one. Both 
 brought in their train the benefits of the ancient Roman 
 civilization and the ancient arts. This civilization dur- 
 I "Anglia Sacra," i , p. 200. 
 
MONEYS OF THE HEPTARCHY 1 73 
 
 ing its banishment had borrowed something, both from 
 the anti-hierarchical spirit of the Norsemen and the 
 scientific spirit of the Arabians. It bore a new aspect: 
 it lacked the refinement of the old imperial civilization, 
 but it was fresher, healthier and stronger. To the stu- 
 dent and philosopher who contemplates the mediaeval 
 ages, the civilization that accompanied Christian govern- 
 ment must have appeared like the face of a friend whom 
 ill-health had banished to remote climes, but who had 
 returned after a long absence — his frame the same, his 
 features bronzed, his gestures coarse, but his step vig- 
 orous, and his eye animated with a new and hopeful 
 vitality. Such seems to have been the character of 
 that Roman civilization which, cleansed in the fire of 
 Christianity, had returned to regain its wonted influence 
 upon the Western world. 
 
 Resuming our consideration of the Keptarchical mone- 
 tary systems, the appearance of the extant coins and the 
 study of the valuations accorded to them in the texts, 
 make it evident that Burgred struck silver coins of 15 
 grains fine, which were valued by Christians at one 
 penny each, with five pennies to the shilling. This 
 gives a ratio of 6 silver for i gold, but owing to the 
 varying weights of Burgred's coins, the ratio was in 
 fact more commonly 6f to 7! for i.' In 874, after Bur- 
 gred was driven from his throne by the Danes, he re- 
 paired to Rome, where he was quietly interned in the 
 convent of St. Mary's," from which, it is perhaps need- 
 
 I In Schmid's "Gesetze der Angelsachsen'' the scale of monetary 
 equivalents relating to this period is confused anddefective. Comparing 
 the anachronical money "pound" of sixty shillings, mentioned in the 
 texts of Egbert's reign, with the contemporaneous money mark of thirty 
 shillings, mentioned in those of Guthrum's reign, he deduces a money 
 pound of two money marks. Whereas, in point of fact, whenever the 
 mark and pound were contemporaneous and belonged to the same sys- 
 tem, whether they were moneys of account or weights, the former was 
 two-thirds of the latter. 3 Henry, ji., p. 71. 
 
I 74 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 less to say, he never emerged alive. We next turn to 
 Guthrum, several of whose moneyers (like those of Offa 
 and other Gothic kings of England) were Arabian. It 
 does not appear whether these officers were retained or 
 not after Guthrum's public avowal of Christianity. If 
 his monetary system accorded with the valuations in 
 his treaty with Alfred, it embraced the Saxon gull- 
 skilling (now reduced to lo grains), the Arabian gold 
 mancus of 60 grains as the equivalent of 30 silver pennies 
 (each of 15 grains), and the mark of gold (a money of 
 account) as the equivalent of 30 Saxon shillings. The 
 ratio was 'ji for i.^ 
 
 Table of supposed moneys of Guthrum, afterwards Athelstan II. 
 
 Contents, or value, in fine metal. 
 
 Moneys. Gold, gr. Silver, gr. 
 
 Penny, silver coin 2 15 
 
 Saxon shilling, or ora, gold coin 10 75 
 
 Quarter-mancus, goldj;oin 15 112^ 
 
 Mancus, gold coin 60 450 
 
 Mark, money of account 300 2,250 
 
 The monetary systems of Alfred of Wessex exhibit a 
 curious mingling of Arabian, Gothic and Roman in- 
 fluences. The standard of fineness and the old mancus 
 coin were Arabian, the ora .was Saxon, the £. s. d. 
 system and the ratio of 12 silver to i gold, in his third 
 system, was Roman. It will be remembered that after 
 the immense benefice which Ethelwolf granted to the 
 church of Rome, the Danes disappeared from Wessex. 
 This maneuver appears to have occasioned some dis- 
 satisfaction in Denmark, for we hear no more of Harold 
 the Christian, who, in 850, was succeeded by Eric the 
 pagan. Under this monarch preparations were made 
 to conquer England for the Danes, and in 85 1 a fleet of 
 
 I An eminent English numismatist says of this period that the man- 
 cus was "one-thirtieth of the pound, or thirty pence." The mancus was, 
 indeed, thirty pence, but there was no pound, and if there had been, it 
 would nothave been valued at 30, but at jY^ mancuses. The equivalent 
 in silver coins was not 900, as our authority would argue, but 225 pence. 
 
MONEYS OF THE HEPTARCHY 1 75 
 
 350 vessels landed an army on the Isle of Sheppey, 
 which soon afterwards captured and plundered Canter- 
 bury and London. In 853 the Danes invaded Mercia, 
 and upon the accession of Eric 11. (pagan) in 854, 
 they landed an expedition on the northern coast of 
 Britain. In 858 Ethelwolf died, and Ethelbald, his 
 eldest son, married Judith, his step-mother. This, and 
 some other scandalous acts of the new prince, seem to 
 have rendered the English nobles indifferent to the 
 progress of the Danes, who (in 867) took York, and 
 thus gained control of Northumbria. Two years after- 
 wards the conquerors occupied the county of Fife in 
 Scotland; in 871 they defeated the Anglo-Saxons at 
 Merton, in Surrey; in 875 they divided into two armies, 
 led severally by Guthrum and Halfdane the Black; in 
 876-7, although previously repulsed at sea, they invaded 
 Alfred's dominions by land, and before they were 
 checked took Wareham, Exeter and Chippenham. In 
 878 Guthrum publicly accepted baptism, and made a 
 treaty with Alfred, by which Britain was virtually 
 divided between these princes. In 885 Alfred turned 
 the River Lea, where a number of pagan Danish war- 
 ships were lying, and compelled their abandonment. In 
 the following year he occupied, rebuilt and strengthened 
 London. In 893 the famous viking, Hastings, with 
 300 ships, one of which was commanded by Rolla, 
 seized Appledore and Melton-on-Thames. In S94 Alfred 
 defeated Hastings' forces at Farnham, and captui'ed 
 that leader's wife and children. In 897 the pagan Danes 
 were defeated at sea, near the Isle of Wight, and al- 
 though their forces afterwards roamed through Mercia, 
 and even invaded Wales, they gave for a time a wide 
 berth to Alfred's dominions, and made no substantial 
 progress in their conquest of England. However, a 
 very considerable portion of the island was pli-paHv \r 
 
I 76 HISTORY OF MONBTARY SYSTEMS 
 
 their hand^, and, evident as was Alfred's desire to sub- 
 mi,t his kingdom in all respects to the ordinances of 
 Rome, it can hardly be supposed that, so far as his 
 monetary system is concerned, he could bring this at 
 once into harmony with the Roman system, while the 
 very different system of the Danes was employed so 
 close to his frontiers. 
 
 In arranging the coins of Alfred, Mr. Hawkins says 
 that "they seem to fall into four principal divisions, 
 struck, apparently, at different periods of his reign.'" 
 This opinion is corroborated by a study of the tale rela- 
 tions of hisdifferent moneys, which cannot be harmonized 
 without admitting at least three different coinage sys- 
 tems. The Arabian mancus was certainly in use, or 
 else its value was well understood, down to a certain 
 period of Alfred's reign, for the king himself, writing 
 of his translation of the pastoral of Gregory, says: "I 
 sent a copy to every bishop's seat in my kingdom, with 
 an aestel, or handle, worth 50 mancuses."^ The Guth- 
 rum Treaty and the writings of ^Ifric the Grammarian 
 both testify that the mancus at this period was valued 
 at thirty pence. Dr. Ruding has deduced a silver man- 
 cus of about the year 838, but no silver mancus has been 
 found, and its existence is doubtful. A silver coin, pos- 
 sibly a two-shilling piece of this reign, is mentioned 
 farther on.' 
 
 Of the silver scats or pennies of this reign there are 
 
 1 "Silver Coins of England," 2nd edition, p. 121. 
 
 2 Spelman, in Henry, vol ii., p. 58. 
 
 3 Both the mark and the ora are mentioned in the Edward-Guthrum 
 Treaty of between goi-24 (Ruding, i., p. 314). Keary says that the ora 
 is first mentioned in Guthrum's Laws, vii., and is there valued at 2^ 
 shillings. In the earliest Anglo-Saxon coinages and valuations, the ora 
 and shilling, both gold coins, were of like weight and value. The shilling 
 afterwards lost weight. The difference in the value of the ora probably 
 arose when the shilling, no longer made of gold, was represented by a 
 sum of silver pennies, the ora of gold still surviving and the ratio being 
 changed to 12. 
 
MONEYS OF THE HEPTARCHY 1^7 
 
 two sorts extant — one containing 19 to 20 grains, the 
 other about 15 grains, of fine silver. The Alfred-Guth- 
 rum Treaty values the mark of account at thirty shil- 
 lings; ^Ifric the Grammarian valued the shilling at 
 fivepence. In another text' he says'^hej" are twelve 
 shillings of twelve pennies." These last are regarded 
 as coins and valuations which belonged to Alfred's 
 third system. Bearing in mind Mr. Hawkins' opinion 
 that the light pennies of Alfred were of his first coinage, 
 his first monetary system, about 874-8, appears to have 
 been precisely the same as that supposed above of Guth- 
 rum. The contents of 60 grains fine, accorded to the 
 mancus, is a measure derived from the contemporary 
 dinars of Abd-el-Raman 11., of Cordova.^ There is 
 a silver coin of Alfred, now in the British Museum, |-f 
 of an inch in diameter, and weighing 162 grains gi-oss, 
 presumably containing about 150 grains fine — a meas- 
 ure which would exactly answer for that of a two-shil- 
 ling piece in this system. Humphreys and Hawkins 
 regard it " more in the light of a medal than of a coin" — 
 a convenient if not a convincing method of avoiding a 
 practical contradiction of their theory of the ratio, the 
 ratio being the significant and political feature of the 
 whole matter. 
 
 Alfred's Second System. — This may be conveniently 
 dated about the year 878. The principal features were 
 the coinage of sterlings, containing about 20 grains fine 
 silver, and an enhanced valuation of the foreign gold 
 coins, in such sterlings. The Arabian mancus of 60 
 grains fine was still valued at 30 standard silver pennies, 
 but as the latter were 5 grains heavier than the previous 
 penny, this valuation makes a ratio between silver and 
 gold of 10 for I. The mark (money of account) of 5 
 
 1 His translation of Exodus xxi., lo. 
 
 2 The dinars of Al-Mostain-Billah were of the same weight. 
 
1 78 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 mancuses was valued at 150 standard silver pennies.*' 
 The shilling was represented by 5 sterling pennies. If 
 the "pound" was in use it consisted of 45 shillings, or 
 225 pence. 
 
 Alfred's Third System. — This must be dated some 
 time between 878 and 901. Its principal features were 
 the adoption of the modified Roman system of 5x48 — 
 240 pence to the pound of account, and the definite re- 
 linquishment of gold coinage. This meant the eventual 
 acceptance of the Byzantium gold coins and ratio of 12. 
 By this time all gold coins, except old and greatly worn 
 mancuses, had probably disappeared from circulation. 
 As.umingthat these mancuses (really zecchins) con-* 
 tained about 50 grains fine gold, the ratio was now 12, 
 as follows: — 5 standard pence=i shilling of account; 
 6 shillings of account=i mancus or zecchin; hence 
 600 grains of coined silver equaled in value 50 grains 
 of coined gold, or 12 for \. 
 
 In the earlier portion of the reign of Athelstan III.," 
 Christian king of Wessex (925 ^i), the Byzantine shil- 
 ling was valued at 5 silver pence, in the latter portion it 
 was altered to 4 pence." This involved an alteration 
 in the value of the Gothic thrimsa, which before was 
 i\, and was now rated at 3 scats. It also involved a 
 change from 5X48=240 to 4X60=240 pence to the £., 
 while the mark of account was valued at 160, instead of 
 150 pence as before.* There can be little doubt that 
 
 1 During the mediaeval ages, the English mark of account is valued 
 variously at 80, 100, 150 or 160 actual scats or pennies. It would seem 
 that the mark of account was always two-thirds of the pound of account; 
 it was also, from the analogy of weights, counted as eight oras of account, 
 and from this it was also, though erroneously, reckoned at eight times 
 the value of the gold coin ora. The ora of ■2,% shillings has been men- 
 tioned in the text. 
 
 2 There were three Athelstans or jEthelstans. The first was a son of 
 Ethelwolf by his first wife. His father made him king of Kent, Sussex, 
 and Essex, in the year 836 (Henry, ii., p. 65), The second was the con- 
 verted Guthrum. The third was the son of Edward the Elder, and the 
 victor at Brunanburg. 
 
 3 Hawkins, pp. 268, 269. 4 Fleetwood, p. 23. 
 
MONEYS OF THE HEPTARCHY 1 79 
 
 this adjustment was made by Athelstan. At this period 
 the terms "mark" and "pound of account" were chiefly 
 employed in the valuation of "retts," taxes, and fines, 
 all of which went to the king. The adjustment, there- 
 fore, was in favor of the crown. The ordinary trans- 
 actions of trade were conducted in pennies, or scats 
 and stycas, and these were not affected by the changes 
 mentioned. Guthrum had been the first English prince 
 to assume on his coins the pretentious title of "King of 
 England." Athelstan III. improved on this style by 
 stamping his coins "Rex toticus Britanniae." It was 
 after the battle of Brunanburg, when flushed with 
 triumph and backed by an overwhelming display of 
 power, that he was most likely to have adopted this 
 measure. In one of his edicts Athelstan orders that no 
 coins except those struck or authorized by himself shall 
 pass current in England, that none shall be struck ex- 
 cept within the precincts of a town, and that no names, 
 titles, nor effigies shall be placed upon the coins except 
 those of himself. It is evident that coins were being 
 struck by rival princes independent of his authority, and 
 that the object of his edicts was to prevent the chieftains 
 whom he claimed as vassals from striking coins in the 
 name of such rival princes. 
 
 Because the extant texts of the period mention but 
 few alterations in the value of coins and moneys of 
 account, we are not at liberty to assume that no others 
 occurred. On the contrary, from the appearance of 
 the various coins, it is probable that many changes 
 occurred, the only uncertainty about the matter being 
 the precise date and manner of their occurrence. The 
 weight of the penny, the proportion of alloy in this 
 and other coins, the composition of the scat, the relation 
 between penny and scat, the number of pennies and 
 
l8o HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 scats to the shilling, the number of scats to the mark, 
 or pennies to the pound of account, and the ratio of 
 value between silver and gold in the coins, were all 
 altered. The kings of the heptarchy were no less ready- 
 to exercise the prerogative of "coining moneys and 
 regulating the value thereof" than were the Romans 
 before or the Normans after them. There were but 
 few princes, form OfTa to William 1., who hesitated to 
 avail themselves of some from of this financial resource. 
 
 A later monetary scale of Athelstan shows a further 
 intrusion of the Roman system into the moneys of North- 
 umbria and Mercia. It consisted of Roman £. s. d. 
 in the numerical proportions of 4X60=240 pence to the 
 £., and of the following Gothic coins and moneys of 
 account: — 8 stycas=i scat; 3 scats=i thrimsa; 7 
 thrimsas=i ora; 8 oras=i mark; i^ marks=£i. The 
 foregoing two classes of moneys were united by the 
 following scale of equivalents: — 4 1-6 scats^= 4 pennies, 
 or I shilling; i6opennies=i mark. Hence, 250 (ex- 
 actly 252) Gothic scats, or 240 Christian pennies= 
 I "pound" of account. Hence also, 20 pennies to the 
 ora, "Denar qui sunt XX in ora," as mentioned in 
 Domesday Book, vol. i., fol. i. The styca of this reign 
 was a small brass coin, the scat a small lumpish silver 
 coin containing about 17 grains fine, the penny contained 
 about 18 grains fine, or 22 grains alloyed, the sterling, 
 or half-dirhem, was slightly heavier than the penny. 
 The ratio of fine silver to gold in the coins of Athelstan 
 was 12 for I.' 
 
 During the reign of Edmund I., king of Wessex 
 (941-46), the silver pennies contained from 16^ to 22^ 
 grains fine.'-' We are aware of no alterations in the val- 
 
 1 The mark of silver was reduced to two gold mancuses, whereas pre- 
 viously it was worth five. This was mainly due to the rejection of the 
 Arabian and adoption of the Byzantine valuation of gold, an act which 
 lowered the value of silver to a moiety. 
 
 2 Ruding, i., p. 292. 
 
MONEYS OF THE HEPTARCHY l8l 
 
 uation of money during the reign of Edred, king of 
 Wessex. The reign of Edgar, king of Wessex, is 
 marked by the issuance of leather moneys and an 
 effort to unitize the numerous and heterogeneous 
 coinages of England — an effort which proved futile. 
 The sterlings of this prince contain i8 to 20 grains of 
 fine silver, but we do not know at what valuations they 
 passed. Many of these coins were surreptitiously re- 
 duced by clippers to half their weight. After executing 
 a batch of these criminals, a new coinage was ordered, 
 and it was probably to fill the void thus temporarily 
 created in the circulation that the leather moneys were 
 issued. [See table on page. 182. J 
 
 Ethelred II. (the Unready) has left us silver 
 "pennies" of three different weights, containing respec- 
 tivel3' 20, 25 and i8i grains fine, which were struck 
 respectively about A. d. 978, 990,* and 1016, and valued 
 respectively at five, four and twelve to the shilling, 
 there having been three systems of £. s. d.,with respec- 
 tively forty-eight, sixty and twenty shillings to the 
 pound of account, the latter payable with five gold 
 besants. When the last-named system of £. s. d. was 
 fully established the heavy penny, or scat, of 25 grains 
 fine, and belonging to the 4x60=240 system, un- 
 doubtedly went for three halfpence. 
 
 Contemporaneously with these systems, Gothic-Ara- 
 bian moneys were employed by the Danish population 
 (which, previous to the massacre of St. Bride's, had 
 become very numerous), and valuations in such moneys 
 were employed in the laws, treaties and other texts of 
 the period, also for the payment of Danegeid. In 
 Brompton's translation of the laws of this reign, fines 
 
 I The type of this coin (silver scat) is said to have been imitated by 
 Hacoof Norway (977-95), and for this reason we have dated the issue 
 by Ethelred at about 990, 
 
1 82 
 
 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
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MONEYS OF THE HEPTARCHY 1 83 
 
 are expressed not only in £. s. d., but also in marks, 
 oras and scats. These appear to have been related as 
 follows: — 8 bronze stycas==i silver scat (probably the 
 heavy "penny" mentioned above'); 8 scats=i Danish 
 gold ora; 3 oras=i Arabian mancus; 5 mancuses=i 
 mark.^ The "mancus" of this scale was evidently not 
 a mancus, but a gold zecchin, or ducat, weighing 50 to 
 54 grains. There is a specimen of this coin extant, 
 with the effigy of Ethelred, weighing 5 li grains. It 
 is heretical, and was probably struck without authority 
 of the king.^ In this system thirty (light) pence went 
 to the zecchin.' Regarding the penny as containing 
 i8i grains and the zecchin 5 li grains, this would imply 
 a ratio of lof for i. 
 
 There is little room to doubt that the middle term 
 shilling was changed from forty-eight to sixty, and 
 afterwards to twenty, to the pound of account. The 
 first proportion rests upon the authority of Fleetwood 
 (p. 23) and Anderson (i., p. 98), and the third upon 
 ^Ifric Grammaticus, the translation of Exodus xxi., 
 10, and the "Historia Eliensis." Both Guerard and 
 De Vienne testify to the same practice at the same period 
 in France. Shifting the middle term affords the best 
 proof that the ora was now too valuable to pass for a 
 shilling, and that the latter was merely a money of 
 account, payable in silver pennies. 
 
 Canute, the Christian but anti-papal liing of Denmark 
 and England, has left us a greater variety of coin-types 
 
 1 In Anderson's "History of Commerce," Mr. Lampard, theantiquary, 
 is relied upon to prove that a thrimsa of this period was valued at three 
 shillings; but this is evidently a blunder and means three scats. 
 
 2 Zikkah, the Arabian word for stamp, die, coinage and mint, gave the 
 name to the zecchin. sequin, ducat, florin, etc , all of which were different 
 names for a gold coin, varying from 50 to 54 grains, something between 
 the .ancient dinar and the maravedi. The standard varied from 22 to 23 
 carats fine. 
 
 3 Mlitic the Grammarian. 
 
184 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 than any other English prince before the Plantagenet 
 dynasty. His Gothic coins and valuations were 8 
 scats=i ora; 3 oras=i mancus; 5 mancuses=i mark 
 of account. His Christian coins were valued in £. s. 
 d. on the scale of 5X48 — 240 pence to the £.' The 
 pence vary in weight from 12 to 18, and the scats from 
 20 to 24 grains each, and are all about eleven-twelfths 
 fine, the lighter weights, or the pennies, greatly pre- 
 dominating. The intervaluation between the two sys- 
 tems was 30 silver pence, each of 16 grains fine, equal 
 to I "mancus," really a zecchin, of 50 to 54 grains, 
 bespeaking a ratio of about 9 for i. However, his 
 Danish coinages render this ratio uncertain. 
 
 The accession of Edward Confessor marks the decline 
 of Danish power and influence in England — an event 
 long celebrated by the Catholic portion of the popula- 
 tion in the religious festival of Hokeday. This prince's 
 friendship for Normandy and his fealty to Rome man- 
 ifested itself in the appointment of Norman favorites to 
 office, in the quarrel with Godwin, the incarceration of 
 Edgitha, the welcome which he accorded to William of 
 Normandy, and his removal of Godwin's hostages (his 
 son Ulnoth and grand-nephew Haguin) to William's 
 court. Although the quarrel with Godwin was patched 
 up, the hostages remained in Normandy. After God- 
 win's death (in 1053), when his son Harold, now the 
 head of the family, sought to recover these hostages, he 
 was refused by William. Upon the death of Edward 
 (in Januarj', 1066), Harold usurped the throne, and 
 until the fatal battle of Hastings reigned for a brief 
 period as Harold H. 
 
 The following scale of equivalents will illustrate Ed- 
 ward's system of moneys: — Five light silver pennies 
 containing variously from 12^ to 18^ grains fine=i 
 I "Chron. Preciosum," p. 23. 
 
MONEYS OF THE HEPTARCHY 1 85 
 
 sliilliug, and 48 shillings equal i pound of account; four 
 lieavy silver pence (scats), containing from 20 to 25, 
 but for the most part about 20, grains fine=i shilling; 
 and 60 shillings=i pound of account. The shilling of 
 four pence appears to have survived that of five pence. 
 Thus there were successively two classes of pounds, 
 shillings and pence, and it is not improbable that there 
 were three, the third consisting of the factors 12x20 
 = 240 pence to the £., and based on a degraded penny 
 containing about 8i grains fine silver. Edward's coins 
 were of uneven and oft-changed weights, and owing to 
 the disturbed state of the government, they were also of 
 uncertain and fluctuating value. The gold besant of 
 Constantinople was in circulation, and, according to Dr. 
 Henry, was valued at eight shillings, each of five silver 
 pence. During another portion of Edward's reign the 
 besant was valued at nine shillings.^ 
 
 There is some reason to suspect that about this time 
 the payment of Danegeld by the people to the king's 
 officers was made in the degraded coins above men- 
 tioned, but the evidences are not sufficiently conclusive 
 to entirely warrant the inference. However, the impo- 
 sition of this tax was abolished by Edward, and it was 
 not imposed again until the reign of William I. The 
 Gothic moneys of -Edward Confessor were valued as in 
 Canute's reign. There is too much uncertainty about 
 the weights and value of coins in this reign to make any 
 reliable inferences concerning the relative valuation of 
 gold an4 silver. The gross weight of a heretical 
 zecchin ascribed to this reign, as given by Kenyon, is 54^ 
 grains. The ratio may have been any figure between 
 7i and 11 for i. It was probably often changed.^ 
 
 I Henry's "Hist. Brit.," ii., p. 275. 
 
 2 For allusions to mint laws of Edward Confessor, see Kemble, pp. 
 67-9; for "Treasure Trove," see Ruding, i., p. 390. 
 
1 86 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 Harold II. only reigned nine months, yet his coins 
 are very numerous, nearly one hundred varieties of 
 moneyers' names having been found upon them. It is 
 quite probable that in the confusion of the times the 
 chieftains and the prelates who supported Harold's pre- 
 tensions to the crown took occasion to coin money for 
 themselves, the profit upon such coinage varying from 
 a twelfth to a tenth of the metal coined, sometimes 
 more. Harold's silver scats weigh about 22 grains, and 
 contain about 20 grains of fine silver. There is no rea- 
 son to believe that he changed the previously existing 
 system of £. s. d., nor that any of the coins previously 
 in circulation — such as the Arabian zecchin, the besant 
 and its fractions, or the Gothic stycas, scats and oras — 
 were decried or interdicted. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 ANGLO-NORMAN MONEYS. 
 
 Norman, Anglo-Saxon, early Gothic, Moslem, Byzantine, and other 
 coins circulating in England — Difference in the silver value of 
 heretical and orthodox gold coins — Scats, sterlings, and pennies — 
 Efforts of the Norman princes to escape the monetary supervision 
 of Rome — Receipts and payments made in different moneys — 
 Counterfeiting — Barter — Permutation — Fairs — Taxes and rents in 
 kind — Bills of exchange — The monetary systems of the Norman 
 princes exhibit a strange condition of political affairs. 
 
 During the Norman dynasty the coins in circulation 
 consisted chiefly of five classes, namely: Norman, 
 Anglo-Saxon, early Gothic, Byzantine and Moslem. 
 
 Norman Coins. — These "sterlings," or flat, thin, 
 silver coins of the half-dirhem type, containing about 
 20 grains of silver 0.925 fine, or about \%\ grains of 
 fine silver. In modern numismatic works these are 
 always called "pennies." No less than twelve thousand 
 of the "pax" sterlings of William I. were discovered 
 at Beaworth, in Hampshire, in 1833, besides other 
 lar^e hoards elsewhere. Twelve of these sterlings 
 went to the Norman shilling. 
 
 It has been assumed by numismatic writers that the 
 sterlings were always valued at one penny each ; but 
 in face of a contrary practice in France at this period, 
 where the sterling was sometimes rated at three half- 
 pence, two pence, etc., and of the twopenny sterlings, 
 and threepenny sterlirigs cited elsewhere in the present 
 work, this is by no means certain. 
 
 Anglo-Saxon Moneys. — The best Anglo-Saxon silver 
 sterlings (scats) were valued at four to the Saxon shil- 
 ling of account, while sixty Saxon shillings were counted 
 
 187 
 
l88 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 to the pound of account. These relations were not dis- 
 turbed by William, who continued to employ them in 
 all payments under the Anglo-Saxon laws, or in refer- 
 ence to Anglo-Saxon rents and contracts. There were, 
 therefore, two moneys of account employed during his 
 reign, namely, the Norman 12x20=240 pence to the 
 pound of account, and the Saxon 4x60=240 pence to 
 the pound of account. 
 
 Early Gothic Moneys. — The ora is valued in Domes- 
 day Book at 20 pence, from which it would appear that 
 Edward the Confessor's base pennies were meant, or 
 else that William's sterlings actually went for twopence 
 each. It has been suggested that the ora here meant 
 was either the ora weight of 45 grains (one-eighth of 
 the Gothic mark), or else a gold coin of about that 
 weight, say the Moorish obdus de Murcia or mai'avedi, 
 but in 37 Henry III. (a. d. 1252), the maravedi of 
 Moorish Spain was valued at 16 pence^ — a fall in value 
 which, if it related to a weight of gold bullion, would 
 be difficult to account for, but which, if to an actual 
 gold coin, might have been due to its having been re- 
 duced by abrasion or "rounding," or else to its hei'eti- 
 cal stamp. But, in fact, at the period of Domesday 
 Book, the maravedi was a new coin ; therefore we 
 regard the first hypothesis as more reasonable. The 
 composite or electrum scat had disappeared ; the silver 
 scat is mentioned under the name of a penny. The 
 brass stycas, so common during the Gothic era, do not 
 ippear to have remained in circulation during the Nor- 
 man one, for no mention is made of them in extant texts. 
 They were replaced by Roman bronze coins. 
 
 Moslem Moneys. — The Spanish-Arabian dinar (6c- 
 to 66 grains fine) and the zecchin (50 to 55 grains fine), 
 
 1 The maravedi of this period weighed about 43 grains (nearly) fine. 
 
 2 Kuding, i , p. 316. 
 
ANGLO-NORMAN MONEYS 189 
 
 circulated in England under the misnomers of besant 
 and mancus. Norman sterlings of the half-dirhem or 
 sterling type, and containing i8 to 20 grains fine silver, 
 had taken the place of the half-dirhems coined in 
 Arabian- Spain. Valued in these Norman sterlings, the 
 dinar was worth 34 to 36 sterlings, and the zecchin 30 
 to 31 sterlings — a ratio of 9 or 10 for i. The mark of 5 
 zecchins, afterwards of 5 maravedis, was valued at 160 
 sterlings. The other Moslem coins which circulated 
 in England during this period were the gold half-mith- 
 cal and a few of the old silver dirhems and half-dirhems. 
 
 Byzantine Moneys. — These were the gold besants of 
 65 grains, valued at 40 sterlings — a ratio of 12 for i.' 
 The besant of this period was a thin and slightly 
 "dished" gold coin, or "scyphus," with a rayed image 
 on one side. It was the direct descendant of the sacred 
 aureus of Augustus and the sacred solidus of his suc- 
 cessors, the sovereign-pontiffs or emperors of Rome. 
 
 Other Moneys, — Besides these coins the circulating 
 money of England included the silver coins of France, 
 Venice and other States. These were rated, by official 
 proclamation, at something near their bullion value. 
 Roman bronze coins of varied types and designs also' 
 circulated among the common people, and, according 
 to Sir John Lubbock, thgy continue to circulate among 
 them, in the remoter parts of England, at the present 
 day. 
 
 The legal status, history and tale value of bronze or 
 
 copper coins, and an investigation of the authority under 
 
 which they were struck, during the interval between the 
 
 establishment of Christianity in the provinces and the 
 
 fall of the Sacred Empire in the thirteenth century, is 
 
 a domain of numismatics upon which so little certain 
 
 I It results that the ratio for Moslem or heretical gold was 9 or 10 
 silver, and for Byzantine or orthodox gold, 12 silver. 
 
1 9© HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 light has hitherto been shed, that it would perhaps be 
 unsafe to make it a basis for historical induction. There 
 is strong reason to believe that the Roman Senate never 
 parted with its authority to strike copper, and that dur- 
 ing the dark and mediaeval ages the Christian provinces 
 were supplied with copper coins struck by moneyers 
 appointed by the Senate, first of Rome and afterwards 
 of Constantinople. It is certainly a remarkable fact, 
 one well worthy the profoundest attention, that, except 
 when at rare intervals they ventured to disregard the 
 authority of the Empire, the Christian princes of Eng- 
 land struck no copper coins until after the fall of Con- 
 stantinople. 
 
 The Anglo-Norman kings coined no gold at all. The 
 coinage of gold ceased when Christianity was intro- 
 duced, and the last gold coins known to have been 
 struck in England previous to the reign of Henry III. 
 were the dinars of OfEa, before his alleged submission 
 to the yoke of the gospel.' 
 
 A good deal of learning has been spent upon that 
 passage in the Black Book of the Exchequer (ascribed 
 to William of Tilbury, in the reign of Henry II.), which 
 states that a custom was introduced by William I. of 
 requiring payments into the treasury to be made ad 
 scalam (by weight). Lowndes treats this custom as 
 general, and ascribes it to the universal prevalence of 
 clipped and counterfeit coins; but this explanation, in 
 view of the valtiations based on the Byzantine ratio, 
 and in view of the large hoards of full-weighted sterlings 
 which have been found in modern days, is not satis- 
 factory. Madox — who if less concise, is more practi- 
 cal — assures us that coins were received in the exchequer 
 by deducting sixpence from each twenty shillings, for 
 
 I Two or three heretical exceptions to this rule have been already 
 mentioned. 
 
ANGLO-\OUMAN MONEYS Ipl 
 
 light coins: this was payment ad scalam. When the 
 coins were unusually light they were only received as 
 standard bullion: this was payment ad -pcnsum. When • 
 their purity was in question they were received as crude 
 bullion and sent to the refiners and assayers: this 
 was pa3'meDt by combustion. In brief, this means 
 that payments into the exchequer, when made in 
 light or debased coins, were, as nearly as possible, 
 subjected to precisely the same regulations that they 
 are to-day. 
 
 There is no reason for supposing that the phrase 
 "payments into the treasury" meant anything more or 
 less than what it literall}' conveys. Notwithstanding the 
 theory of Lowndes, it may be asserted with confidence 
 that it did not include other payments, such as payments 
 out of the treasury, nor payments between merchants, 
 nor between merchants and nobles. For all these classes 
 of payments the king, at times, assumed the right to 
 prescribe different sorts of moneys — a right which he 
 invariably relinquished when admonished by the sacred 
 college that he was exceeding his powers. In view of 
 this tendency of the crown it would be absurd to sup- 
 pose that when clipped or counterfeit coins were re- 
 ceived at the treasury by weight, they were re-coined 
 or paid out by weight. Nothing of the sort. The 
 revenues came from comparatively few sources, whilst 
 payments were made to a vast number of people; and 
 payment by weight would have been simply impracti- 
 cable. On the other hand, if the clipped and counterfeit 
 coins received into the treasury had been re-coined, it 
 would have taken but a comparatively short time to 
 reform the entire currency; but no such reformation 
 appears to have been undertaken. The fact is that (he 
 crown practically legitimized clipped and counterfeit 
 
192 HISTORY OF MONET ART? SYSTEMS 
 
 coins, not by receiving them into the treasury ad scalam, 
 but by paying them out of the treasury ad numero. 
 Some of the numismatists have patriotically paraded 
 one custom, and carefully suppressed the other; but the 
 evidences of its practice appear plainly enough in the 
 course of this work to satisfy the ordinary demands of 
 reason. The power that scrupled not to receive and 
 pay by different weights, would scarcely have hesitated 
 to receive and pay with different coins, and it may be 
 confidently believed that this was the practice.' 
 
 The sterlings assigned by numismatists to William 
 Rufus are slightly heavier thaa those supposed to have 
 been struck by his predecessor,and described at the out- 
 set of this chapter. The fineness is the same, and the 
 two types and designs are so much alike that none but 
 the most expert can distinguish them. No other coins' 
 are known of the reign of William Rufus. 
 
 The sterlings of Henry I., are of about the same 
 weight as those of William I. but not quite so fine. 
 These were followed by emissions of debased pieces, 
 which it was afterwards pretended were counterfeits. 
 Upon instructions — no doubt from the Roman ^pontifi- 
 cate — a re-foinage was ordered in 1 108, and the severest 
 sentences were threatened to false coiners. In 1123, 
 to lend effect to these threats, the power of Rome was 
 invoked in aid of the crown, and the penalties of the 
 canon law were added to those of the civil. It is the 
 indifference that was manifested toward these solemn 
 injunctions, coupled with circumstances mentioned 
 elsewhere, which leads to the suspicion that much of 
 the base coining was done by a class of people who 
 knew too much about the crimen majestatis to stand in 
 fear of impeachment.^ 
 
 1 This practice (elsewhere) is alluded to and condemned in the Koran. 
 
 2 In 1362 the abbot of Missenden was convicted of co ining and clip- 
 
ANGLO-NORMAN MONEYS 1 93 
 
 In 1 125 the current coins had become so corrupt that 
 a large proportion of them would not pass even from 
 hand to hand, and ninety-four accused persons, among 
 them several privileged moneyers, underwent mutilation 
 for false coining. Some of the numismatic writers have 
 credited Henry I. with "abolishing the oppressive tax 
 of moneyage;" but the fact is that he had no right even 
 to levy such a tax. Its abolition must be credited, not 
 to Henry, but to his suzerain, the pope. 
 
 The only coins of Stephen are the sterling pennies 
 of the regular Anglo-Norman weight and fineness. 
 There were debased coins struck in Stephen's name, 
 but they cannot be traced to the royal mints. Other 
 debased coins were struck by Stephen's illegitimate 
 brother, Henry, bishop of Winchester; by his illegiti- 
 mate cousin, Robert, earl of Gloucester; by his two 
 sons, Eustace and William, as well as by Roger, earl 
 of Warwick, and numerous other prelates and nobles. 
 In 1 139 the sum of forty thousand marks, probably in 
 debased silver pennies, was captured in the castle of 
 the Devizes, from Roger, bishop of Salisbury. In 1181 
 silver coins, nominally valued at eleven thousand 
 pounds, and foreign gold coins, amounting in value to 
 three hundred pounds, were found in the treasury of 
 Roger, bishop of York,^ 
 
 Ratio. — In the reigns of Stephen, Henry II., and 
 John, embracing the period 1140 to 12 16, there occur 
 several entries in the Exchequer Rolls where silver 
 bullion appears to have been paid for gold bullion at 
 the ratio of 9 weights for i, and this ratio is supposed 
 by some writers to have been adopted in the coin val- 
 uations of the first three Norman kings; but such is not 
 
 ping groats and sterlings; in 1369 the canon of Dunmore was accused 
 of counterfeiting gold and silver coins; and in 1371 the canon of St. 
 Gilbert de Sempingham was charged with secretly conveying coins 
 abroad contrary to law (Ruding, ii., pp. 199-208). 
 I Dr. Henry, "Hist. Britain," iii., p. 311. 
 
194 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 the fact — the coin ratios were 12 for li' In France, 
 also, during the same period, the ratio of silver to gold 
 in the official valuations of coins was always 12 for i, 
 and the constant valuation of the mark coin in England 
 at 13s. 4d. affords reason to believe that the Roman 
 ratio of 12 to I was reflected in the legal valuations 
 given to other coins in England. 
 
 In dealing with this period it shguld not be forgotten 
 that there were but four classes of people who had any- 
 thing to do with public affairs — the imperial authorities, 
 the royal authorities, the nobles, and the ecclesiastics. 
 The adulterations of money were committed chiefly by 
 the two last-named classes. During the reign of Stephen 
 castles, monasteries and fortified retreats sprang up on 
 all sides, some of them supplied with implements to 
 fabricate counterfeit money. A large number of these 
 retreats — called in official language "robbers' dens" — 
 were destroyed by the first Plantagenet king, but no 
 mention is made of counterfeiting, and it was probably 
 not common. 
 
 "Up to the year 958 the Flemings, Germans and 
 Sarmatians dealt mostly by permutation of merchan- 
 dise." In 959 Baldwin III., earl of Flanders, observ- 
 ing that the scarcity of money was an obstruction to 
 the trade with France, established markets and fairs, 
 at which merchandise could be permuted without money, 
 and declared trade free of export or import dues. ^ Fairs 
 
 1 See entry in the Exchequer Rolls 17 John, 1215, where certain 
 besants of Constantinople were valued at 3s. 6d. silver each (Madox.ii., 
 p. 261). Making allowance for difference of standard between the gold 
 and silver coins, and for the probably abraded condition of the former, 
 this evidently means a ratio of 12 for i. At the same time the ratio 
 for bullion was 9 or 10 for i. We are not here alluding to the com- 
 promise ratios in the coinages of the Gothic kings of the heptarchy, 
 shown elsewhere, but to the actual ratios for bullion, in 5 Stephen, 2 and 
 16 Henry II., and 15 and 17 John (Madox, i., p. 277 and ii., 261 u.) The 
 subject has already been alluded to. 
 
 2 "Annales Flandriae," year 958, printed at Frankfort 1580, cited in 
 Anderson's "Commerce," i., p. 98. 
 
ANGLO-NORMAN MONEYS 1 95 
 
 were held in England throughout the entire period of 
 the Roman empire; they were encouraged in 1071, 
 tallaged in 1195 (or before); they fell gradually into 
 disuse after the discovery of America, and were abol- 
 ished during the present century as "nuisances." The 
 still lingering fairs of Beauclaire, Leipzig, Nijni Nov- 
 gorod, etc., are moribund examples of this now almost 
 extinct but once indispensable institution of European 
 industrial life. Nor do we believe with some authors 
 that the permutation practiced at fairs was simply barter. 
 The exchanges were too numerous and important to be 
 made by barier. It therefore seems likely that permu- 
 tation was a system of clearings. The goods were 
 bought and sold on a credit which was to last duri ng 
 the fair. The prices were couched in £. s. d. or other 
 monej'S, and when the fair closed the clearing was 
 made, thus obviating the use of any other money than 
 the final sums needed to effect a balance. 
 
 It is commonly asserted by continental writers that 
 bills of exchange are of mediaeval origin, and were 
 first used in England during the reign of Henry III. 
 This is entirely erroneous. There are examples of their 
 use in India and China backward to remote historical 
 eras; in ancient Babylon; in Pontus during the fourth 
 century before our era ; and probably also at the same 
 time in Greece; in Athens and Rome {tempo Cicero) 
 and probably also for centuries before and afterwards; 
 in Constantinople and Carthage about the year A. d. 
 321; at Alexandria, Venice, Amalfi, Sienna, Florence, 
 Barcelona, etc., during the Arabian epoch; and in all 
 the cities (including the English "staples") of the pagan 
 and Christian Hansas. Bills of exchange were in 
 common use in Hamburg in 1188, and it can scarcely 
 
 I Madox, i., p. 703. 
 
196 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 be doubted that they were known at the same time, and 
 indeed long before, in England.' 
 
 Blanqui says that at least the device of endorsement 
 was unknown during the middlfe ages; but this is also 
 incorrect. An instance of assignment by means of writ- 
 ten endorsements is given in Madox, i., p. 242, and 
 relates to a transaction between two Jews in iSEdwaid 
 I., year 1289. It appears on the ancient Exchequer 
 Rolls relating to Jewry, and is not mentioned as a 
 novelty. Being written upon the dorsal portion of a 
 "membrane," or parchment, it afterwards came to be 
 known as an endorsement.^ 
 
 Sir Matthew Hale(" Sheriffs' Accounts") proves that 
 during the Norman era farms were let variously upon 
 a money rent [numero) or a bullion rent (l>]avc), but 
 that in both cases the actual payments were made in 
 kind. Even the payments into the exchequer — which 
 Madox would lead us to infer were always made in 
 silver ad scalam, ad -pensum, or by combtistion — were 
 often made with goats and pigs. Lord Liverpool's 
 researches led him to the same conclusion. He says 
 (chapter x.) that in the reigns of William L and 
 William II., and during a great part of the reign of 
 Henry L, the king's rents, arising from his demesnes 
 (which formed at that time an important part of the 
 royal revenue) though reserved in money, were really 
 answered in cattle, corn and other provisions, because 
 money was then scarce among the people. ' The rents 
 
 1 On the early use of bills of exchange consult Lenormant. "La 
 Monnaie," i, p. 118; "U. S. Com. Rel.," 1858, p. 311; ,M. Courcelle 
 Seneuil, "Diet. Polit. Econ.,"l8s3, art., "Lettre de Echange;" Savary; 
 Blanqui; Garni; Thompson's "Polit. Econ.;" Del Mar's "History of 
 Money in Ancient States," pp. 26 and 106; Eggleston's "English 
 Antiquities," p. 122; Cicero's Letters; Anderson's "Hist. Com.," i., p. 
 171; Eusebius. "Ecc. Hist.," x., c. 6. 
 
 2 The expression "dorse of the membrane" is twice used in Madox, i., 
 p. 239. 
 
 3 However, they were commuted for money by Henry L (And. 
 "Com." i., p. 248-55) This was probably after his various coinages 
 hacl rendered money sufficiently plentiful. 
 
ANGLO-NORMAN MONEYS 1 97 
 
 of private landholders continued to be paid in kind 
 down to a still later period. The best evidence with 
 respect to this matter is given by the writer of the Black 
 Book, or Liber Niger Scaccarii, cited elsewhere, who 
 avers that he had conversed with men who saw the 
 rents brought in kind to the king's court. 
 
 Such are the monetary monuments, and such were 
 the monetary systems, of the Anglo-Norman kings. 
 That attempts were made to harmonize the diverse 
 materials of which they were composed — Roman, early 
 Gothic, Moslem, Anglo-Saxon, Carlovingian and By- 
 zantine — is proved by the intervaluations of Domesday 
 Book, and the gradual suppression and disappearance 
 of some of these materials, chiefly the early Gothic and 
 Moslem ; but it is equally evident that the attempt was 
 only partially successful, and that there yet remained — 
 as, for example, in the mark and pound — an incongruous 
 medley of pagan and Christian denominations, and in 
 the divided authority to coin — for example — to the Basi- 
 leus gold, and to the kings, nobles and prelates silver 
 (upon conditions) — another medley, which faithfully 
 reflected the general confusion of a period whose his- 
 tory was one of personal wars, personal combats and 
 personal displays of heroism, chivalry or religious devo- 
 tion. Coeur de Lion is its false ideal; Froissart was its 
 true historian ; and all attempts to deduce from such 
 materials an independent national existence or policy 
 for France, England, Germany or Spain" -during this 
 early period have been both unsuccessful and mislead- 
 ing. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 EARLY PLANTAGENET MONEYS. 
 
 Purity of the coinage before the fall of Constantinople — Corrupt state 
 afterwards — The change was due to the destruction of the sacerdotal 
 authority, the disappearance of the sacred besant, and the assump- 
 tion of certain regalian rights by the kings of England — Whilst con- 
 tracts could be made in gold besants,there was no profit in tampering 
 with the silver coinage— Afterwards it became one of the com- 
 monest resources of royal finance — Coinage systems of Henry II. — 
 Richard I. — John — Henry III. — Edward I. 
 
 The evidences which will be brought together in 
 this chapter may be conveniently formulated as fol- 
 lows: — Previous to the fall of Constantinople there were 
 but few tamperings with the English coinage,afterwards 
 such tamperings became numerous and continual — a 
 proof that some event had occurred meanwhile to render 
 them practicable and profitable, such event having been, 
 in fact, the acquisition by the king of the coinage rights 
 which the Basileus had lost. Previous to the fall of 
 Constantinople no king of England had ventured to 
 strike a gold coin, whereas soon after that event, and 
 following the example of other princes of the West, a 
 gold coin was struck by Henry HI. ; and although this 
 coin was recalled and melted down, it was followed by 
 another one struck by Edward HI. The issuance of 
 this coin, the gold noble, or half-mark, is regarded as 
 the definite declaration of England's independence. 
 
 Reference to other portions of this work must con- 
 vince the reader that from William I. to Henry II. 
 
 an interval of nearly a century — the coins issued by 
 the kings of England were substantially free fron»deg- 
 
 ]98 
 
EARLY PLANTAGENET MONEYS 1 99 
 
 radation and debasement. In other words, the Norman 
 kings rarely tampered with the coinage. The coins 
 were all of one class — silver pennies, sometimes includ- 
 ing half-pennies, but usually pennies only. These did 
 not constitute the only money in circulation, but the 
 only money issued by the king. In addition to the 
 silver pennies, there were coins issued by the "nobles 
 and ecclesiastics, commonly base silver coins, of local 
 course and circulation, and the gold coins of the Basil- 
 eus, valued by the Basileus always at one for twelve 
 weights of silver, and made and accepted as legal ten- 
 der for any sum in all parts of the kingdom.' Other 
 foreign coins had only a permissive circulation, at 
 valuations announced from time to time by the king; 
 the gold coins of Constantinople constituted the back- 
 bone of the circulation, and kept the rest of it straight. 
 So long as contracts could lawfully bQ made in these 
 coins, the king could make no profit by tampering with 
 the silver pennies; accordingly he struck the latter, as 
 nearly as he could, to contain exactly the same quantity 
 of fine metal as the gold shilling, or quarter-besant, of 
 Ae Empire. As previously shown, the besant contained 
 about 73, afterwards 65, grains fine. The gold shilling, 
 therefore, contained i8i, afterwards i6i, grains fine; 
 and this was exactly the contents of silver in the two 
 classes of silver pennies of the heptarchy and of the 
 Norman kings; twelve such pennies being valued at 
 a shilling and forty-eight at a besant. 
 
 With the reign of Henry II. (Plantagenet) com- 
 menced those tamperings with money which announced 
 the advent of independent sovereign power in England, 
 and presaged the extinction of imperial control. Plan- 
 tagenet inherited from his mother the States of Nor- 
 mandy and Maine, and from his father Touraine and 
 
 I Tlf6 subject of Roman copper coins during the mediseval period is 
 alluded to in the last chapter. 
 
200 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 Anjou; from his wife Eleanor, who had been divorce J 
 from Louis VII., he received Poitou, Saintonge, Angu- 
 mois and Aquitaine; in a word, he became possessed 
 of the entire western half of France from the Channel 
 to the Pyrenees. After adding these domains to the 
 crown of England, he acquired Nortnumberland by 
 treaty with the king of Scotland. Ireland he acquired 
 by a grant from Pope Hadrian IV., in 1154. The 
 productions and trade of these extensive domains, to- 
 gether with his share of that additional trade and wealth, 
 which, in common with other Christian princes, the 
 king of England derived from the suppression and spoli- 
 ation of the Spanish-Arabian empire, are indicated to 
 some extent by the vastly increased revenues of crown 
 and mitre, the splendor of the court, and the number 
 and wealth of the churches. To this period belong 
 some of the finest specimens of ecclesiastical architec- 
 ture yet existing in England. Yet the monetary mon- 
 uments are still those of a vassal and feudal State. An 
 important part of the coinage was struck, valued and 
 made part of the circulation by one foreign prince (the 
 Basileus), whilst an important part of tlie revenues were 
 collected and enjoyed by another (the pope). The 
 influx of besants, the efflux of Peter's pence, the defiant 
 issues of baronial and ecclesiastical mints, which in- 
 cluded leather and tin coins, all betray the impotency 
 of the king to preserve the national measure of value 
 from degradation and derangement. 
 
 Of old sterlings there were probably ffew or none in 
 circulation when Henry II. came to the ihrone; whilst 
 of the base and adulterated coins issuea Dy the robbers 
 and forgers, who flourished during the weak reign of 
 Stephen, there were many. Among Henry*s early cares 
 was the suppression of these moneys ana the issuance 
 
EARLY PLANTAGENET MONEYS 20I 
 
 in their place of a new coinage (about the year 1156). 
 This coinage in violation of the king's commands was 
 made below the standard — a fault for which he severely 
 punished the moneyers. 
 
 About the year 1180' Henry II. sent to Tours for 
 Philip Aymarj', a French moneyer, and committed to 
 his charge the striking of a ne.w stamp of sterlings. 
 These were issued, and the previous sterlings retired. 
 After executing this work,Aymary was himself charged 
 with fraud, and'dismissed to his own country; yet the 
 appearance of the coins supposed to have been minted 
 under his superintendence, great numbers of which are 
 extant, afford no support to this accusation. The pieces 
 are indeed badly executed, and may thus have formed 
 a ready temptation to rounders and clippers; the weights 
 are also irregular. Perhaps it was on these accounts 
 that the foreign artist was so summarily treated. 
 
 The rates of exchange established b}' the mint between 
 the new sterlings and the old ones — whether the base 
 ones of 1 156, or the rounded and clipped ones is un- 
 certain — -prove that the latter were inferior in value to 
 the former by about 10 per cent; at all events, this rate 
 probably marks the degrees to which clipping extended 
 at this period. For £375 3s. gd. of old clipped money 
 the mint paid £343 15s. 6d. of new; for £100 old, £89 
 6s. 8d. new; for £100 old, £83 6s. 8d. new, and so on 
 (Madox, i. , p. 278). This nova moneta is known to 
 numismatists as "short-cross pennies," and these be- 
 came so popular that they continued to be struck in the 
 name of " Henri" until the middle of the reign of Henry 
 III. (1247), although the reigns of Richard I. and 
 John Lackland intervened. This, however, does not 
 necessarily imply that Richard and John struck such 
 
 I "The Norman Chronicle" states that the new sterling money was 
 struck in 1175 (Madox, i., p. 278). 
 
202 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 coins. The extant coins of Henry belong solely to the 
 last issue. A hoard of these coins was found at Roylston 
 in 1721. Other pieces, to the number of 5,700, were 
 found at Tealby, in Lincolnshire, in 1807. They were 
 as fresh as when they left the mint. According to 
 Keary, the fineness is 0.925, and the contents in fine 
 silver of the most perfect specimens, i8i grains. Dr. 
 Ruding's valuable but antiquated work gives what seems 
 to be a wholly different account. He says that 5,127 of 
 them weighed 19 lbs. 6 oz. 5 wts. Th's is an average 
 of 22 grains each, or (assuming the fineness as equal 
 to sterling) 2oi grains fine; but as he says nothing of 
 the remaining 57 pieces found at Tealby,it may be that 
 the average of the whole corresponded with Keary 's 
 assays. 
 
 With regard to tin money of the nobles, mention of 
 albata, or white money (argenlum blancum) occurs in 
 the Exchequer Rolls pertaining to the fourth year of 
 this reign, where it is expressly distinguished from silver 
 money (argcnti). In the fifteenth year Walter Hose 
 paid one shilling in the pound for the bianco jirmcB of 
 Treatham ; in the seventeenth year twenty shillings were 
 paid in argento bianco; in the twenty-third year Walter 
 de Grimesby forfeited a lot of the same metal; in the 
 twenty-sixth year the sheriffs of London and Middlesex 
 paid in, from the effects of a coin clipper, £9 5s. 4d. 
 in silver pennies and five marks in "white money." In 
 order to determine the meaning of "white money," it 
 is to be remarked that the term '^argento bianco exam- 
 inato'''' was used when silver bullion was meant. For 
 example, in the thirtieth year of Henry II. the sheriff 
 of Devonshire paid 8s. gd. in bullion (argento bianco 
 examinato), made up of divers old coins, and in the 
 thirty-third year the same sheriff paid twenty-six pen- 
 
BARLY PLANAGENET MONEYS 203 
 
 nies in bullion (argento bianco examinato), made up of 
 numerous coins dug up from the earth. Sir Charles 
 Fremantle was of opinion that the trial of the pix men- 
 tioned in the Lansdowne MS. related to this reign.' 
 In this opinion the author finds himself unable to con- 
 cur, but believes that it relates to the reign of Edward 
 I. Some consideration of this subject will appear further 
 on. 
 
 Turning from the monetary system of Henry to that 
 of his successoi, we find it marked by the same charac- 
 teristics — a full legal-tender gold coinage issued by the 
 Basileus, and constituting the basis of the system; a 
 silver coinage (pennies) issued by the king, as nearly 
 as practicable of even weight with and exactly one- 
 twelfth the value of the Byzantine sicilicus; and a base 
 coinage of local circulation, issued by the nobles and 
 ecclesiastics, the gold coinage being never, the silver 
 coinage rarely, and the base coinage frequently, 
 altered. 
 
 Although there are no native coins extant of Richard 
 I., the evidences that he exercised the usual coinage 
 rights of provincial kings are so numerous as to leave 
 little room to doubt the fact. In 1189, upon his acces- 
 sion to the throne, Richard weighed out more than 
 100,000 marks from his father's treasure at Salisbury; 
 in an ordinance of the same year moneyers at Winches- 
 ter are mentioned; in the same year he granted a local 
 coinage-license to the bishop of Lichfield; in 1190, 
 while at Messina on a crusading expedition, he found 
 it necessary to command and exhort his followers to 
 accept his money — a tolerably sure indication of coin- 
 age; and in 1191, Henry de Cornhill was charged in 
 the exchequer accounts with £1,200 for supplying the 
 cambium, or mints of England (except Winchester), 
 I British Mint Report, 1871, p. 12. 
 
204 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 and with £400, the profits of the cambium for a year. 
 The names of Richard's moneyers in his mints at War- 
 wick, Rochester and Carlisle appear in several texts 
 relating to his reign. Coins which were struck in 
 Poitou under his authority are still extant. Finally^ as 
 will presently appear evident, he granted and revoked 
 licenses to nobles and ecclesiastics to strike tin an^ other 
 base coins. All these prerogatives were such as were 
 common to provincial kings; but Richard struck no 
 gold, and made no attempt either to interdict the circu- 
 lation of the Imperial coins or to alter the sacred valu- 
 ation of gold and silver which was laid down in the 
 constitution of the Empire. 
 
 With regard to his ransom, the inference of new 
 coinage is totally wanting. In 1192 Richard was taken 
 prisoner on the continent, and handed over to Henry 
 VI. of Germany. In 11 94 he was ransomed for about 
 the same amount of money that he is said to have in- 
 herited from his father. This ransom was collected in 
 England and from the possessions of the English crown 
 in France. From the particulars of its collection — to 
 be found in the pages of Madox — it appears to have 
 been contributed in coins. Caxtonsays that plate "was 
 molten and made into money." Stowe makes a similar 
 statement. Altogether ten ancient texts agree in stating 
 that the ransom was paid in money, and that the same 
 was answered in "marks weight of Cologne," which 
 latter was natural, that being the standard of weight 
 with which the German emperor was most familiar. 
 Notwithstanding this testimony, it may be safely con- 
 jectured that there was no new coinage, for such an 
 operation would have been needless, tedious and ex- 
 pensive. The old coin and bullion was probably melted 
 down, refined, cast into bars, assayed, weighed, and 
 
EARLY PLANTAGENET MONEYS 20^ 
 
 delivered to the German emperor's legate — a supposi- 
 tion that precisely agrees with Polydore Vergil's ac- 
 count of the affair. 
 
 In this same year (1194), according to Trivet and 
 Brompton, the king decried the divers coins of the 
 nobles and ecclesiastics which remained in circulation, 
 and ordained one kind of (silver) money to be current 
 throughout his realm.' Among these various coins were 
 those of tin. Camden would have us believe that the 
 coinage of tin was a term used to denote merely the 
 payment of that forty shillings per one thousand pounds 
 weight which was the heirloom of the dukes of Corn- 
 wall; but this can only relate to a subsequent period, 
 for there were no dukes of Cornwall in the reign of 
 Richard I. 
 
 In 1 196 Henry de Casteillun, chamberlain of Lon- 
 don, accounted to the king for £379 is. 6d., received 
 for fines and tenths on imported tin and other merca- 
 tures, also for i6s. lod., the chattels of certain clippers.^ 
 In the. same year £1 19s. id. were allowed to Odo le 
 Petit in his account for the profit of the king's mint for 
 erectipg therein a hutch and forge ([/a^r/c«j and utensils 
 for making "albata silver," or albata money (dealban- 
 dum argentum), also £2 4s. for a furnace and other de- 
 vices for working the same. These coins, though 
 struck in the royal mint, were not of royal issue, and 
 could have had only a local and limited course within 
 the domains' of the noble for whom they were made. In 
 the same year the sheriff of Worcestershire accounted 
 for £40 13s. 6d. albata, or album, money, the balance 
 
 1 In this same year (ii94)occurs what has been regarded as the earliest 
 mention in extant texts of the mark, valued at 13s. 4d. (Fleetwood, p. 
 30, from M. Paris); but, as shown in a previous chapter, the mark of 13s. 
 4d. is three or four centuries earlier. The mark of 1 194 was composed 
 of five gold maravedis; 13s. 4d. was its value in silver, at the Christian 
 ratio of 12. 
 
 2 Madox, i., p. 775. 
 
2o6 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 of his ferm of the county. Of this sum he had paid £i2 
 in album money to the archbishop of Canterbury, and, 
 owed £28 13s. 6d. in album money to the exchequer, 
 besides enough more to make up the difference between 
 £12 silver money and the like sum album money, paid 
 to the aforesaid archbishop. In explaining the use of 
 the term "3/a«c," Madox confuses blanc silver and 
 blanc money. The former was silver bullion, the latter 
 a white money, sometimes called album, made wholly 
 or for the most part of tin. The -meaning of album 
 money is clearly indicated in several of the Exchequer 
 Rolls, which he himself cites.' 
 
 In the same year (1196) the king granted a coinage 
 license to the bishop of Durham. In 1198 William de 
 Wroteham accounted at the exchequer for the yearly 
 ferm and profits of the mines of Devonshire and Corn- 
 wall, partly in money and partly in tin bullion. This 
 bullion appears to have been sold for tin marks, for in 
 the 13th and 14th John, who succeeded Richard I., 
 this same William de Wroteham accounted to the king 
 both for his ferm and for the marks obtained from the 
 tin (de marcis frovenientibus de stanno). It niay be 
 safely inferred that in all cases these base coinages were 
 issued b}' the nobles or ecclesiastics, and were of limited 
 course.^ 
 
 The albata money of Richard's time was either a 
 composition of tin and silver — a good deal of tin and 
 very little silver — or else merely tin coins blanched with 
 silver. The clippers, whose chattels were confiscated 
 to the exchequer by Henry de Casteillun, must have 
 practiced their art upon the royal coins, for there could 
 
 1 Madox., i., p. 280 
 
 2 The writers who allude to these corrupt coinages are Tindal ( "Notes 
 to Rupin." i., p 258); Leake ("Historical Account of English Money," 
 p. 58); Nicholson ("Eng. History," lib. i., p. 254); and the modem 
 special writers on tin and base coins. 
 
EARLY PLANTAGENET MONEYS 20'J 
 
 have been but small profit from exercising it upon those 
 of the nobles. 
 
 Although, immediately after the payment of his ran- 
 som, Richard, decried all other coins but his own, his 
 edict became a dead letter ; indeed, he was probabiy 
 glad enough to see the base coins remain in circulation. 
 The population of England and Plantagenet France 
 dui'ing the reign of Richard I. was probably not over 
 four or five millions, and the. total money not over as 
 many shillings, or, say, £250,000. Richard's ransom 
 therefore stripped the kingdom of probably one-third 
 or one-fourth of its measure of value, and but for the 
 album money of his nobles, this circumstance might 
 have brought on far greater calamities than the release 
 of the king was expected to avert. 
 
 The main defect of the tin coins was not the low cost 
 of the material of which they were composed. The gold 
 and silver obtained from the spoliation of the Moslem 
 and the Jews were cheaper than tin, for they cost noth- 
 ing to produce beyond the labor of cutting so many 
 pagan and infidel throats, whilst tin ore had to be dis- 
 covered, excavated and reduced to metal. But there 
 was no world-wide demand and no world's stock in 
 hand to enhance and steady the value of tin, whilst as 
 to gold and silver there was; and this is chiefly what 
 has always rendered these metals preferable for coins. 
 Tin coins were also easily counterfeited, the material 
 was exposed to rapid oxidation^ and the condition of 
 society and government was wholly unfitted for the use 
 of coins of any material which could not conveniently 
 and without substantial loss be buried in the earth, or 
 otherwise hoarded for use in future and safer times. 
 
 There are no English coins extant of John. It is 
 stated' that this king sent for certain Easterling artists 
 
 I Anderson's "History Commerce," i., p. 199. 
 
2o8 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 to refine his silver coins. These may have been the 
 coins he struck in Ireland, as lord paramount of that 
 country, specimens of which still remain. On the other 
 hand, they may have been English sterlings, of which 
 no specimens have yet been found.' John lost most of 
 his French possessions to Philip II., and thus, almost 
 at the outset of his career, gained the name of Lack- 
 land. His return to England was marked by the im- 
 position of fines and aids, which, because they extended 
 to the monasteries, earned for him the curses of the 
 archbishop of York and a defamation of character 
 which extends to the present time. This being probably 
 in great measure unjust,'' should enjoin caution in 
 weighing the events of his reign, Camden ascribes to 
 this period the leather money attributed to John, but 
 though belonging to his reign, it may have been issued 
 by his vassals ; at all events it wholly failed to secure 
 public appreciation. In 1205 John publicly decried all 
 cpins which were clipped more than an eighth ; severely 
 denounced and threatened all clippers, particularly the 
 Jews, whom he affected to believe were the chief 
 offenders ; forbade the re-blanching of old pennies, which 
 could have been none other than the tin coins of his 
 nobles; and fixed the rate for exchanging "fine and 
 pure silver at the king's exchanges of England, and at 
 the archbishop's exchange of Canterbury, at sixpence 
 in the pound." This could not have meant the exchange 
 of new coins for old ones by tale, because the latter 
 were much worn and clipped. It probably meant the 
 exchange of new coins, weight for weight, for old 
 ones. 
 
 1 The "Encyc. Brit.," art. "Coin," states that since Richard I. all 
 coining has been confined to the Tower of London and the provincial 
 mint of Winchester. This is a double error. Sir Matthew Hale's ac- 
 count of this matter is the correct one. 
 
 2 Anderson's "History Commerce," i., p. 193. 
 
EARLY PLANTAGENET MONEYS 209 
 
 More important, however, than the king's coins were 
 those of the Basileus. The form used in expressing 
 large sums of money proves the still common use of 
 gold besants and Byzantine trientes and shillings. For 
 example, in the previous reign, where £ioo of old coins 
 are bought for £83 '6s. 8d. of new, the sum is thus 
 written in the Great Roll of the Exchequer: "quartor 
 XX 1 & IXVj, s. & Viij d." meaning four score libras, 
 sixty-six solidi and eight denarii. The former were 
 , evidently composed of actual besants and thirds, and 
 quarter-besants. In the Magna Charta of this reign 
 (Art. 2), where "centum solidus" is mentioned as the 
 price of a knight's relief (a sort of succession duty), it 
 is usually translated as "one hundred shillings." Were 
 these shillings merely mone3's of account, as is com- 
 monly held, it would be difficult to explain why they 
 vvere not expressed in "libras" or pounds of account, 
 like the sums which precede them in the same text. 
 They were evidently actual quarter-besants, or shillings, 
 and, therefore, belonged to the gold issues of the Basil- 
 eus. The vassaliail coinage of tin, which characterized 
 the preceding reigns of Plantagenets, appears to have 
 been also permitted b}' John, for in the thirteenth year 
 of his reign (121 1) William de Wroteham paid into the 
 Exchequer £543 5s. od., and in the following year 
 (1 212) £66;^ I2s. gd., for the money which he was per- 
 mitted to strike from the tin of Cornwall and Devon. ^ 
 The meaning here given to this record finds corrobora- 
 tion in the allowance of one-eighth for clipped coins 
 contained in the decree of 1205, which would have been 
 excessive and impracticable in relation to sterling silver, 
 but which, when applied to tin or albata coins, was rea- 
 sonable. 
 
 Two years after John had taken his humiliating oath 
 I Provenientibus de Stanno Cornubise et Devoniae Madox, ii., p. 132. 
 
2IO HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 of vassalage to the pope he revoked from his servitude, 
 and in the Great Charter which he sealed at Runny- 
 mede, June 15, 1215, he assumed powers which only 
 belong to an independent monarch. With the fickleness 
 that marked his entire career, he violated this charter 
 in the following August, and in September it was for- 
 mally annulled by his master, the pope. Soon after 
 this John was poisoned to death. He was a weak 
 prince, but brief though his reign and irresolute his pur- 
 pose, he earned the glory of executing an instrument 
 which has served as the model of every Bill of Rights 
 won by Anglo-Saxons from that day to the present. 
 Though disclaimed by John and denounced by the 
 pope. Magna Charta was not dead, but lived on, and 
 both in its inception and repeated confirmation it marks 
 the slow and toilsome steps by which our race has won 
 from hierarch, king, and noble its present inestimable 
 liberties. 
 
 The only silver coins of the reign of Henry HI. now 
 extant are the sterlings struck in 1248, originally of the 
 usual weight and fineness, but for the most part much 
 worn, rounded and clipped. In addition to these issues, 
 certain base coins were in circulation, which are 
 reputed to have been of foreign fabrication ; but which 
 are more likely to have been struck by or for English 
 nobles and ecclesiastics. Some of these were probably 
 coined in the abbey of St. Albans. When complaint 
 was made of them, the transgressors were permitted to 
 avail themselves of a technical defense, and so escaped 
 punishment.' Heme states that he had one of these 
 base coins in his possession, and describes its compo- 
 sition.^ 
 
 The presence of tin money, also struck by the nobles 
 and ecclesiastics, is evinced by several contemporaneous 
 
 1 Madox, i., p. 759, note x. 
 
 2 W. Henningford, preface, p. xlv., cited in Ruding, ii., p. 74. 
 
EARLY PI.ANTAGENET MONEYS 211 
 
 references which point lo the use of the metal for coin- 
 age. The following passage from Matthew Paris 
 (sub anno 1247) is an example: — 
 
 "As the money was now adulterated and falsified 
 beyond measure, the king began to deliberate on some 
 remedy for this, namely, whether the coins could not 
 be advantageously altered in form or metal; but it 
 seemed to many wise persons that it would be more 
 advantageous to change the metal than to alter the 
 shape, since it was for the sake of the metal, not the 
 shape, that the money was subject to such corruption 
 and injury." As a matter of fact, however, the king 
 did not change either the metal or the shape. 
 
 In the 30th Henry III. the sheriff of Devonshire 
 paid into the exchequer 25s. id., the profits of his con- 
 tract for mining the black metal (nigra viincra), which 
 we take to be tin, that being its usual color in the ore 
 (oxide). He also accounts for 79s. received from the 
 sale of dealbanda and tin. Dealbanda seems to ha\e 
 been a composition of tin, like album or albata. He 
 also accounts for £6 13s. 8d,, profit upon an issue of 
 small coins, and of £54 15s. 3d. upon an issue of large 
 coins (de exita majoris amei), both of which were evi- 
 dently of tin, and were emitted by some local magnate. 
 The comparatively small profit thus derived by the 
 crown from the issue of tin coins in one of the principal 
 tin-mining districts of England, implies a dwindling of 
 this coinage. It is true that we have no accounts from 
 Cornwall, and none from the mints, of tin coined dur- 
 ing this reign, so that quantitative conclusions drawn 
 from this single entry are apt to be misleading. 
 
 Although, as is shown in another chapter, this' reign 
 is marked by the issue of a native gold coin — the first 
 one ever struck by a Christian king of England — the 
 
212 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 issue was almost immediately retired, and matters re- 
 mained apparently as before; so that the besants of the 
 sacred mint continued to form the basis of the English 
 monetary system. But though in shrinking from the 
 coinage of gold the king was afraid to definitively re- 
 pudiate the suzerainty of the sacred Empire, the nobles 
 and the burghers were not. The General Council of 
 1247 resolved to lower the standard of royal silver 
 coins — an act which by itself is almost sufficient to mark 
 the fall of the sacred Empire, and the declining author- 
 ity of Rome.' Corrupt coins made their appearance in 
 all directions — counterfeit coins at St. Albans; tin coins 
 in Cornwall and Devon; base and clipped coins every- 
 where.^ It is now evident that at this juncture the besant 
 began to disappear from circulation, and that its agency 
 in regulating the English monetary system was sensibly 
 diminished ; but in the era of the Plantagenets no such 
 explanation offered itself. In that age the solution of 
 all monetary problems was found in torturing the Jews. 
 Henry had resorted to this measure before the decision 
 of the General Council.' He now resorted to it again. 
 It was a pretty theory, a furtive belief in whose efficacy 
 is not yet wholly effaced from the minds of men; but 
 it did not work. With the second persecution of the 
 Jews, the besants became still scarcer, and as, for lack 
 of besants, contracts could no longer be discharged with 
 them, the use of other coins was i-endered unavoidable, 
 and the multiplication of base or over-valued ones was 
 thus encouraged. One of the last contracts in which 
 the consideration is specificallj' expressed in besants is 
 still extant. It is a Hebrew bond and mortgage executed 
 during the reign of Henry III., a complete English 
 translation of which, by Dr. Samuel Pegge, the anti- 
 
 1 The profitsof this coinage are shown in Ruding, ii., p. 67. 
 
 2 Ruding, ii., p. 74. 3 The second massacre of the Jews was in 1264. 
 
EARLY PLANTAGENEt MONEYS 2I3 
 
 quarian, appeared in the "Gentleman's Magazine," 
 ^756' P" 465- The besants are therein called laku of 
 gold, in allusion to the rayed figure which is stamped 
 upon them, laku being the Hebrew form of the Greek 
 lacchus and Roman Bacchus. 
 
 The division of the pound of account into twenty 
 parts, and each of these into twelve, was in this reign 
 extended to the pound weight, used for the assize of 
 bread. Still more strangely it was imitated in the sub- 
 divisions of the agrarian acre. By the Act 51 Henry 
 HI. (1266) it was provided, among other things, that 
 "when a quarter of wheat is lad. per quarter^ then 
 waste] bread of a farthing shall weight £6 i6s. ;" by 
 which we suppose was meant 6^ pounds weight.' A 
 similar enactment was made as to acres. The acre was 
 divided into 160 pence, or 320 halfpence, or 640 farth- 
 ings, so that it tallied with the subdivisions of the mark 
 of account.^ Thus denariatus terrcB (a penny of land) 
 meant a rod or perch, for the perch was the i6oth part 
 of an acre, as the penny was the i6oth part of a mark. 
 So the obolus, or half-penny, of land meant half a 
 perch, and the quadrante, or farthing, of land, meant 
 a quarter of a perch, or 4^ square feet. The expression 
 40 perches of candles" quoted in Anderson's "History 
 of Commerce" (i, p. 178), and the use of "shillings" 
 for ounces in the mint accounts of Henry HI., are puz- 
 zling.' This application of the divisions of moneys to 
 weights and measures was not peculiar to England. It 
 is to be found in all the kingdoms which grew up from 
 
 I Martin Folkes' "Table of English Silver Coins;" Harris on Coins, 
 i., p. 51. 2 "Chronicon Preciosum," p. 40. 
 
 3 Ruding, i., p. 179. The term • shilling" appears to have been also 
 used in the mint accounts o£ this reign for an ounce weight (Fleetwood, 
 p. 23; Ruding, i.,p. 179, etc.) The origin of this practice is obscure. 
 Twelve sterlings (value one shilling) weighed less than iialf an ounce, 
 so it could not have been derived from this analogy. Perhaps it was 
 due to the use of tin or albata pennies, of which twelve may have roughly 
 weighed an ounct, 
 
214 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 Roman provinces; for the custom is as ancient as the 
 Empire itself. Wine measures were based on the Ro- 
 man ace, which was the integer, and consisted of twelve 
 cyathi. Thus a cup of two cyathi was called a sextans, 
 three cyathi a triens, four cyathi a quadrans, etc., after 
 the names of Roman coins.' 
 
 Many modern economists and writers on money have 
 argued that because by this law a £ meant a pound 
 weight, as applied to bread, therefore it meant a pound 
 vi'eight of silver as applied to coins; that because an 5 
 meant the twentieth of a pound weight as applied to 
 bread, therefore it meant the twentieth of the pound 
 weight of silver as applied to coins; and that as a (^ 
 meant the two-hundred-and-fortieth part of a pound 
 weight as applied to bread, it meant the two-hundred- 
 and-fortieth part of a pound weight of silver as applied 
 to coins. This mode of reasoning, if applied to the 
 sub-divisions of the acre, would lead to very startling 
 results. For example, because by law a mark meant 
 the whole and a penny the one-hundred-and-sixtieth 
 part of an acre, therefore when applied to coins the 
 mark meant an acre of silver, and the penny a perch of 
 that metal! 
 
 Another fallacy of money — one of practical import- 
 ance at the present time — derives its origin from the 
 monetary issues of this period. Jevons, in his "Money 
 and Exchange," avers that the "standard" of England, 
 from the reign of the Plantagenets to that of the House 
 of Brunswick, was silver, and afterwards gold. This 
 is one of a host of modern sophistries which have 
 sprung from the Act of 1666, and which no one before 
 that period ever stumbled upon. It will be found in 
 Harris's "Essays on Money and Coins," printed in 
 1757, and possibly in somewhat older books, although 
 
 1 Adams, p. 396. The custom is accounted for by M. de Vienne. 
 
EARLY PLANTAGENET MONEYS 215 
 
 neither so old as the Dutch prototj'pe of the Act of i8 
 Charles II., nor as that story of the disputative knights 
 and the shield, which on the one side was of yellow 
 metal and the other of white. In the case of money, 
 the shield was neither of one metal nor the other. The 
 term standard, as here used, can only mean measure, 
 and neither gold nor silver metal was ever the measure 
 of value in England until 1666, while since that date it 
 has been such only to a limited extent, and under the 
 operation of that Act as affected by subsequent legis- 
 lation. Down to 1666 the "standard" of England was 
 the whole number of £. s. d. in the kingdom, whether 
 of gold, silver, tin, copper or leather, and the whole 
 number of £. s. d. was whatever the combined coinages 
 of BasHeus, king, barons and prelates happened to make 
 it. In the course of this history many instances have 
 been given when tlie king altered the measure or 
 "standard" of value by simple decree, and without in- 
 creasing or diminishing the quantity of either gold or 
 silver — an irrefragable proof that the standard was not 
 either of those metals, nor any other metal, but merely 
 the whole number of £. s. d., whether coined or exist- 
 ing by the king's will. Had either gold or silver been 
 the standard of value, that standard would have been 
 beyond the pcwer either of Basileus, pope or king to 
 alter. It needs but a cursory perusal of the annals of 
 the time to be convinced that such was not the case, 
 and that, in fact, gold and silver metal had very much 
 less to do with measuring value than the imperial and 
 royal constitutions and edicts. 
 
 EdWard I , Longshanks, found the coinage of Eng- 
 land in great confusion and very corrupt. The sterlings 
 of Henry III., badly executed, and so much worn and 
 rounded or clipped that they contained but half theit 
 
2l6 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 original weight of silver; the base silver coins of the 
 nobles and ecclesiastics, which had in great degree 
 replaced them in the circulation ; the gold besants and 
 maravedis, which the Jews and goldsmiths hoarded for 
 export; and the numerous foreign silver coins which 
 had crept into the circulation, combined to form a me- 
 lange of money which was impossible to replace and 
 troublesome to improve. Before making any effort in 
 this direction, the king commenced to fill his treasury 
 by robbing the Jews and the goldsmiths, putting great 
 numbers of the former to a cruel death, and throwing 
 the latter into prison. In the reign of Edward III. 
 there were few or no Jews left to kill,so the king robbed 
 the Lombards; in that of Charles I. there werenoLom- 
 . bards, so the king robbed the goldsmiths. Edward 
 Longshanks' apology for slaying the Jews was that 
 they circulated base money; but, in fact, everybody 
 did this, including the king himself, for there was at 
 one period practically little other money in circulation. 
 Their real crime was the hoarding of gold, which the 
 king coveted. 
 
 Edward's raid upon the Jews and goldsmiths was 
 made in 1279, the eighth year of his reign. As a make- 
 weight to this transaction, he affected great concern for 
 the purit}- of the silver coins purchased with this inno- 
 cent blood. In the ninth or tenth year of his reign, he 
 ordered the barons of the exchequer to "open the boxes 
 of the assay of London and Canterbury, and to make 
 the assay in such a manner as the king's council were 
 wont to do.'" Nothing is said in these instructions about 
 the base coins minted at St. Albans, nor the coinage of 
 tin in Devon and Cornwall, nor the issue of leather 
 moneys at Conway, Caernarvon and Beaumaris, nor 
 the pollards and crockards valued in other royal edicts, 
 
 I Madox, i. , p. 291. 
 
EARLY PLANTAGENET MONEYS 217 
 
 nor the light coins, called from their devices mitres and 
 lions, nor the cocodones, rosaries, stepings and scald- 
 ings,' nor the three sorts of copper coins which this 
 king issued after cunningly plating or washing them 
 with silver. Lowndes, with some intemperateness,attrib- 
 utes to this reign "the most remarkable deceits and 
 corruptions found in ancient records to have been com- 
 mitted upon coins of the kingdom." Nothing is said 
 of these matters in Edward's instructions concerning 
 a trial of the pix ; and nothing is said of them in modern 
 numismatic works. ^ Yet these corruptions of money 
 have the highest historic value. Just, as in after times, 
 the New England shilling first .announced the stern 
 resolution of her people to be free, and the "Continen- 
 tal" note proclaimed and asserted that freedom, so did 
 the leather notes and base coins of Edward's reign 
 mark the parting of that mighty cable which held the 
 province of Britain to the sinking ship of the Empire. 
 The laws of politics, like those of pathology, are not 
 gained by study of the healthy or the normal, but by 
 observing the diseased and the abnormal. 
 
 In 1289 an indented trial-piece of "old sterling" 
 (0.925 fine)was ordered to be lodged in the exchequer, 
 and "every pound weight troy was to be shorn at 
 twenty shillings and three pence, according to which 
 the value of the silver in the coin was one shilling and 
 eightpence farthing an ounce." So says Lowndes 
 (p. 34), citing the Red Book of the Exchequer, but this 
 citation only conveys part of the truth, the remainder 
 being supplied by Dr. Ruding. This conscientious 
 author states, with reference to sterling coins,that from 
 the Conquest down to the year 1527, the royal mints of 
 England bought bullion by the pound troy (5,760 
 
 2 Fleetwood, pp. 39, 47. 
 
 3 For leather issues bf this reign, consult Ruding. ii., p. 130, and 
 "Money and Civilization," p. 64. 
 
2l8 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 grains), and sold it by the pound tower (5,400 grains); 
 so tliat even when the buying and selling price was the 
 same, there remained to the crown a profit of about 7 
 per cent.' The weight of Edward's sterling pennies, 
 many of which, in a perfect state of preservation, are 
 still extant, corroborate this statement. If we assume 
 with the Red Book that Edward paid 243 sterling 
 pence per pound troy for stealing silver bullion — which 
 is doubtful, for there were probably deductions made 
 from this price to cover the cost of coinage — the coins 
 prove that he sold it at 260 pence per troy pound, or, 
 which is the same thing, 280 pence per tower pound. 
 According to Keary'sassays,the extant sterling pennies 
 weigh 22i grains, eleven-twelfths fine, equal to about 
 2of grains net; but these are exceptionally heavy spec- 
 imens. 
 
 In the same year (1289), says the Black Book, Ed- 
 ward sent for foreign moneyers, to teach him how to 
 make and forge moneys. Forging here means simply 
 sti'iking. It does not relate to the forged coins which 
 were current in this reign, and which Edward's apolo- 
 gists imputed to the foreigners and the Jews, but which, 
 it is much to be feared, were made with the connivance 
 and for the profit of that ingenious prince. However, 
 the Jews suffered for the forgeries all the same, for in 
 the very next year Edward plundered and banished the 
 remainder of them from the kingdom.^ In 1298 (27 
 Edward I.), it was commanded "that all persons, of 
 whatever country or nation, may safely bring to our 
 exchanges' any sort or sum of good silver coins or bul- 
 
 1 The statute of the Pillory and Tumbrel and of the Assize of Bread 
 and Ale, 51 Henry III. (i:;66), provides punishment for those "that sell 
 by one measure and buy by another" — a proof that the royal example 
 had become contagious. 
 
 2 See forgery, confession, and pardon of Sir William Thurington, in 
 reign of Edward VI. 
 
 3 Offices in the mint for exchanging coins (Madox, i , p. 291). 
 
EARLY PLANTAGENET MONEYS 2ig 
 
 lion, which shall be valued or reduced by the assayers 
 according to the 'old standard' of England. Silver 
 bullion, when assa3-ed and stamped with its value' at 
 our exchanges, may be used as a medium of barter — 
 that is to say, as money." This was similar to a Spanish- 
 American regulation of the sixteenth century,^ and it 
 proved quite as impracticable and futile. It was also 
 provided by 27 Edward I. "that no bullion shall be 
 exported out of the country without special license." 
 This prohibition was repeated by Edward II., in 1307, 
 thus implying that it had meanwhile been successfully 
 evaded. This, and some other acts of the Plantagenets, 
 which encroached upon the imperial prerogatives of 
 Rome, must be recognized as efforts on the part of these 
 kings of England to throw off their allegiance to the 
 Empire. But it was not yet thrown off entirely. In 
 1299 (28 Edward I.j it was provided "that silver 
 plate shall be of no worse standard than coins. Gold 
 plate shall be no worse than the 'touch' of Paris. All 
 plate shall be assayed by wardens of the craft, and 
 marked with a leopard's head. The wardens shall visit 
 the goldsmiths' shops, and confiscate all plate of a lower 
 standard." This was a new exercise of royal authority. 
 With regard to the pollards, crockards and other base 
 coins of the reign, Dr. Ruding assumes (apparently be- 
 cause they were base, or because their coinage does not 
 appear to be provided for in the laws or mint indentures) 
 that they were of foreign fabrication and surreptitious 
 circulation ; but this does not follow. Base issues were 
 the rule, not the exception, of this reign. It is mere 
 prejudice to heap them upon Phillip le Bel and other 
 French kings, and omit them from the records of the 
 English monarchy. Base coins were quite as common 
 
 I This could only mean the value with reference to gold, which the 
 coins of the Basileus still imposed. 
 
 z "Money and Civilization," pp. 17, 78, 146. 
 
220 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 in England as in France; they were due to similar cir- 
 cumstances; they were attended by similar social phe- 
 nomena; they had similar results; and no good can 
 come of their suppression, concealment or false ascrip- 
 tion by modern historians. Pollards and crockards 
 appeared in the circulation so early as 1280. In 1303 
 (32 Edward I.) the custodes of the ordinance for the 
 money at Ipswich were charged upon the Exchequer 
 Rolls with £14 4s. I id. for pollards and crockards.' 
 If these were foreign and unlawful coins it is difficult 
 to account for their use in the royal treasury and their 
 appearance and recognition in the royal accounts. In 
 2 Edward II. there is an entry of a relief granted to 
 the king's sherifls and bailifTs who had received these 
 coins at a penny each, which "by the king's proclama- 
 tion were fallen from a penny to a half-penny."" Does 
 this look like a reference to foreign or discredited coins ? 
 The king's officers are first required to receive them at 
 a penny and afterwards at a half-penny each, and royal 
 relief is granted to them for such of this class of coins 
 as had accumulated in their hands during the royal 
 alteration in their legal value. That they were in use 
 during the whole of the reign of Edward I., and part 
 of that of his successor is of itself almost sufficient proof 
 of their legality. Sir Matthew Hale says that. they were 
 decried in 1300 (29 Ed. I.) It is possible that this was 
 the date when they were lowered by proclamation, 
 but the entries above quoted prove that they actually 
 continued in use for years afterwards. As to their 
 omission from the laws and mint indentures, there are 
 no such instruments extant. With a fragmentary and 
 unimportant exception, all instruments relating to the 
 coinage previous to 18 Edward III., if any existed 
 (which is doubtful), have been lost or destroyed. 
 I Madox, i., p. 294. 2 Ibid., i., p. 294. 
 
EARLY PLANTAGENET MONEYS 221 
 
 The extant sterlings asci-ibed to the first and second 
 Edwards are not distinguishable one from the other. 
 Numismatists assign those with the name composed of 
 the fewest number of lettei's, as "Edw.," to Edward 
 I.; those with more letters, .as "Edwa.," to Edward 
 II.; and those with the full name, "Edwardus," to 
 Edward III. This classification is attributed to Arch- 
 bishop Sharpe, a numismatist of the last century, whose 
 reasons for its adoption are, however, far from con- 
 vincing.' In respect of the groats, Bishop Sharpe's 
 capricious arrangement was as capriciously reversed, 
 for there the full-spelt "Edwards" are ascribed to Ed- 
 ward I., and the abbreviated Edwards to his successor. 
 For the reason that Lowndes' citation from the Red 
 Book merely relates to the buying piice of silver at the 
 exchequer, and as there is no certainty that any of the 
 extant coins were struck by Edward I., and, finallj', 
 because it is incredible, in such a condition of sociely 
 as existed during this reign, that sterlings should have 
 remained in a circulation filled with tin, copper and 
 leather coins, we should deem it quite likely that no 
 sterlings at all were issued during this reign were it not 
 for a circumstance recorded by Bishop Fleetwood, 
 namely, that Edward's sterlings were valued at the time 
 at two, three, or four pence, or sterlings, each — a cus- 
 tom quite common, both in England and France, during 
 the whole period from the thirteenth to the fifteenth 
 centuries, but commonly ignored or suppressed by 
 modern writers on the subject.^ 
 
 Among his other issues Edward struck silver coins 
 weighing 80, 85, 92, 116 and 138 grains each, which 
 are regarded by various writers as groats, shillings, 
 medals, etc., but which might have passed as half- 
 
 1 Ruding. ii., p. 123; from "Bib. Top. Brit.," No. xxxv . p. 25. Per 
 contra, see Leake, p. 8, and Folkes. 
 
 2 Fleetwood, pp. 34, 35, 39, etc , and "Present State of Eng'and." 
 
222 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 marks, or even marks, for all that can be learnt from 
 the few records now left of his numerous issues and 
 their capricious valuations. The whole sum of money 
 coined during this reign is estimated by Dr. Ruding at 
 less than £16,000, but as this calculation leaves out of 
 view the enhanced legal valuation of the sterlings, it is 
 of little worth/ The native mines produced some small 
 amount of silver in this reign. Those of Martinstowe, 
 in Devonshire, yielded 370 lbs. weight of silver in 1294, 
 521 lbs. in 1295 and 704 lbs. in 1296, after which time 
 they seem to have been abandoned as unprofitable.^ An 
 assay of silver from the mine of Byrlande, in Devon, 
 was made in 24 Edward I.' The assumption of control 
 over the mines which the rendition of these accounts 
 implies, was also a newexercise of royal authority.* The 
 system of £. s. d. remained unchanged, but what con- 
 stituted a pound of account was now quite within the 
 king's newly assumed powers to determine at pleasure. 
 The king's prerogative to raise or lower moneys, or to 
 enhance or diminish their value, or to reduce them to 
 bullion — a prerogative which had only been assumed by 
 Henry II., when the sacred empire drew to its close, 
 and was only asserted after it had expired — developed 
 during the course of Edward's reign into a very prac- 
 tical form. 
 
 t Consult Humphreys, p. 140; Sir M. Hale in Davis' Reports, ed. 
 1674, p. i8l Drier's Rep., 7 Ed. VI., fol. 82; Madox, i., p. 294; "Money 
 and Civilization," p. 65; Ruding, ii., p. 129. 
 
 2 Jacob, "Hist. Prec. Met.," Phil. ed.,p. 195. 
 
 3 Madox, i., p. 291. 
 
 4 Mines Royal were first asserted in Spain by Alfonso in the "Partidas." 
 Cuesta, "Castilla practica," Burdeos, 1838. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 LATER PLANTAGENET MONEYS. 
 
 No mint indentures prior to Edward I. — No statutes of any kind previous 
 to Magna Charta — Sudden beginning of frequent monetary changes 
 in the reign of Edward II. — Significance of this movement — ■Pro- 
 gressive assumption of regalian rights — Lowering of pollards and 
 crockards — Interdiction of commerce in coins and bullion — Lower- 
 ings -of sterlings — Establishment of a maximum — Coinage of base 
 money by the king — His death — Accession of Edward III, — New 
 monetary ordinances — Black money — Mercantile system — Tin 
 money — Review of the gold question — The maravedi of Henry III. 
 — Preparation of Edward III. to issue gold coins — Permission from 
 the emperor — Convention witli Flanders — Authority of parliament — 
 Issue of the double florin — Its immediate retirement — Fresh prep- 
 arations — Issue of the gold noble or half mark — Its great signifi- 
 cance. 
 
 No written annals so plainly mark the steps by which 
 England gradually developed from the provincial to 
 the national phase of its existence as those which are 
 stamped upon the coinages of the second and third 
 Edward. Before describing these issues, one or two 
 observations are necessary. 
 
 With the exception of the statute 28 Edward I., already 
 cited, not a single indenture of the mint, from 1066 to 
 1346, is extant at the present day, nor is there any 
 reason to suppose that any ever existed. If negative 
 evidence were admissible in an inquiry of the present 
 kind, this fact would be conclusive. It furnishes the 
 inference that, down to the era of the PIantagenets,the 
 princes of England did not enjoy control of the coinage, 
 and had neither occasion nor authority to prescribe its 
 regulations. The continued coinage and circulation of 
 the gold solidus by the Basileus, its recognition by the 
 Latin pontificate, and the prescriptive ratio of 12 silver 
 
 223 
 
224 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 for I gold, rendered the coinage of silver by the king 
 a mere perfunctory act. The silver penny coined by 
 Christian princes had to be of the same weight as the 
 gold shilling coined by the Basileus. When the penny 
 failed to conform to this rule, it failed to circulate; and 
 the sacred college had the power to seal the prejudices 
 of the public with its official condemnation of the heret- 
 ical coin. But no sooner was the»powerof the Basileus 
 extinguished than all this began to change; and every 
 prince of Christendom stretched out his hands to grasp 
 the coveted prerogative of coinage. The Gothic and 
 Saxon princes, as usual, were the foremost. It was a 
 Gothic prince of Leon who, next after the emperor 
 Frederic, struck the first Christian coin of gold, and 
 a Gothic prince of Denmark who first openly repudiated 
 the suzerainty of pontifical Rome.' It need hardly be 
 added that in such a cause the Saxon kings of England 
 were not behind their compeers. Gold coinage began 
 with Henry III., and mint indentures with Edward 
 III. 
 
 Not only are there no mint indentures before the 
 fourteenth century, there are no national laws of any 
 kind previous to the fall of Constantinople. The earliest 
 entry in the Statutes at Large is an altered copy of 
 Magna Charta, not drawn from any official registry, 
 but fished out of an antiquarian collection. Hardly 
 more creditable is the appearance of the ordinances 
 which follow it down to the reign of Edward III.^ They 
 have all the appearance of having been "restored" in 
 modern times. If the kings of England previous to 
 Edward III. were not vassals, why have we none of 
 their ordinances? and if the pope or the Emperor was 
 not their suzerain, why do the marks of the latter's 
 
 1 See letter of Walderaar in the preface to Boulainvillier's ' 'Life of 
 Mahomet." 
 
 2 These ordinances are not in the English, but the Roman language. 
 
LATER PLANTAGENET MONEYS 225 
 
 superior authority appear in this, as they do in every 
 kind of literary record, except, indeed, upon the pages 
 of recently written history ? 
 
 However, it is not alone upon literary evidence that 
 the argument relies ; it stands also upon the far more 
 certain evidence of coins and the nummulary grammar. 
 Many of these evidences have been already adduced. 
 Those which will now be furnished relate chiefly to the 
 sudden and frequent alterations of money which began 
 after the fall of Constantinople, and culminated in the 
 reign of Edward III. There are, indeed, many modern 
 writers who either affirm or assume that no such altera- 
 tions took place; but the evidence on the subject is 
 overwhelming. From the accession of Edward I. to 
 the coinage of gold by Edward III. is a period which 
 corresponds with the reigns of Philip le Hardie, Philip 
 le Bel, Louis Hutin, Philip le Long, Charles le Beau, 
 and Philip Valois, when, we are taught, that hundreds, 
 almost thousands, of alterations were made in the mone- 
 tary system of France, of which country a part still re- 
 mained subject to the kings of England. In 1346 
 (reign of Philip Valois) there are recorded no less than 
 ten alterations of the ratio between gold and silver in 
 the French coinage. As to the debasements and deg- 
 radations of Philip le Bel, every historical work is full 
 of them. Yet all this time, while a furious storm of 
 monetary changes and financial shifts was raging across 
 the Channel, and whirling into every nook and corner 
 of the English possessions in France, the* political econ- 
 omists assure us that England lay in the midst of a dead 
 calm, and that nothing of the sort happened there. How 
 utterly unfounded is the inference upon which they rest 
 so confidently will be seen when the positive evidence 
 of the extant coins is unfolded. 
 
226 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 The wave of monetary alterations which distinguishes 
 this period began in Gothic-Spain, whence it flowed into 
 France and England. The changes which began in 
 France with Philip le Hardie and became so numerous 
 under Philip le Bel and his successors, have rarely 
 been correctly described and never fully understood. 
 Even Mr. Hallam, one of the ablest and most impartial 
 of historical writers, must have failed to grasp the sig- 
 nificance of these transactions when he stigmatized them 
 by the coarse names of fraud and robbery. "The ra- 
 pacity of Philip le Bel kept no measure with the public. 
 Dissatisfaction and even tumults arose in con- 
 sequence. . . . The film had now dropped from 
 the eyes of the people, and these adulterations of money, 
 rendered more vexatious by continued re-coinages of 
 the current pieces, upon which a fee was extorted by 
 the moneyers, showed in their true light as mingled 
 fraud and robbery.''* The fidelity of this description is 
 discredited by Mr. Hallam himself, who elsewhere 
 says "these changes seemed to have produced no dis- 
 content" — an admission that ill-agrees with the imagi- 
 nary dissatisfaction and tumults above set forth. That 
 the crux of the situation is misunderstood is evident 
 from the absence of all allusion to the fall of the Em- 
 pire, and the recent acquisition of its coinage preroga- 
 tives by the Christian states of the West. 
 
 If we turn from Mr. Hallam's condemnation of Philip 
 le Bel to his approval of his contemporaries, the 
 princes of England, we shall find even less cause to be 
 satisfied with his opinions on this subject. In the former 
 case they find some apolog}' in the defamation with 
 which the medijeval ecclesiastics pursued Philip for 
 curtailing their privileges and restraining their rapacity; 
 I Hallam's "Middle Ages," chapter ii. 
 
LATER PL ANTAGENET MONEYS 227 
 
 in the latter, he is left with the poor defense of patriotic 
 partiality. Says the historian : "It was asserted in the 
 reign of Philip le Bel as a general truth that no subject 
 might coin silver money. The right of debasing the 
 coin was also claimed by this prince, as a choice flower 
 of the crown." Whilst, a little farther on in the same 
 paragraph, he says: "No subject ever enjoyed the 
 right (I do not extend this to the fact) of coining silver 
 in England without the royal stamp and superintend- 
 ence — a remarkable proof of the restraint in which the 
 feudal aristocracy was always held in this country." If, 
 in fact,the nobles and ecclesiastics of England exercised 
 the privilege of coining silver, as we know they did, it 
 is difficult to see wherein they were under greater re- 
 straint than the same classes elsewhere. But this is not 
 all; Mr. Hallam's flourish goes farther. It implies that 
 the right to coin, which he represents to have been so 
 sadly abused by Philip, was more rightfully or more 
 justly exercised by his contemporaries, the English 
 princes. 
 
 Such is not the opinion of the earlier English writers. 
 Our Matthew Paris says that the coins of his own time 
 were adulterated and falsified beyond measure. Holin- 
 shed (ii., p. 318) says that,notwithstanding the baseness 
 of the father's coins, the son, Edward II., proclaimed 
 them to be good and current money. Stowe (p. 326) 
 says that Edward II. ordered that his father's base 
 coins should not be refused on pain of life and limb; 
 and Carte prefers a similar accusation.' Indeed, the 
 text of the proclamation (4 Edward II.) which con- 
 tains this mandate is extant, to justify the mediaeval 
 chroniclers. Lowndes (eighteenth century) says that 
 the greatest deceits and corruptions known to history 
 
 I History England, ii., p. 308. 
 
228 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 were committed in the coinages of Edward I. ; and 
 Lord Liverpool — who wrote during the present cen- 
 tury — reluctantly confesses, in a letter to the king, the 
 adulterations of money which were inaugurated by the 
 Plantagenets." 
 
 We shall presently offer even better testimony than 
 the opinions of historians, namely, the evidence of the 
 coins themselves. It will then be seen, not only that 
 England fully kept pace with France in the wildest ex- 
 cesses of a now unrestrained right to coin, but also 
 that these excesses, in which Mr. Hallam only perceives 
 fraud and robbery, really constitute our most valuable 
 proofs of England's approach toward national auton- 
 omy. They are the unsteady steps of tutelage, which 
 preceded the firm march of an actual and independent 
 sovereignty. 
 
 The year 1307 (i Edward IL ) is the most probable 
 date when the value of the pollards and crockards was 
 lowered one-half. In effect it was decreed that that 
 which was yesterday a penny, to-day shall be but a 
 half-penny, and that which yesterday constituted a 
 pound, shall be to-day but ten shillings." In the same 
 year was also enacted an explicit interdict against the 
 exportation of either coined money or bullion from 
 England.' A similar interdict was made in 1326.* It 
 does not appear to have occurred to the crown that the 
 Jews, banished to the continent, had it largely within 
 their power to prevent the shipment of foreign moneys 
 to England by paying for English merchandise with 
 bills of exchange, drawn against foreign merchandise 
 shipped to England. In this way they could, and 
 doubtless did, intercept and prevent the shipment to 
 
 1 Letter to the King, chapter ix. 3 Eggleston, "Antiq.," p. 196. 
 
 2 Madox, i., p. 294. 4 Ruding, ii., p. 136. 
 
LATER PLANTAGENET MONEYS 229 
 
 that country of some of the coins or bullion which 
 would otherwise have been remitted to it to pay for its 
 exports. Many people, even at the present day, simi- 
 larly fail to comprehend the operation of exchange. 
 Their view is that unless every nation makes its money 
 of the same material as other nations, it will place itself 
 in the position of being unable to pay its foreign debts. 
 A lesson from practical bill-drawers would greatlj' tend 
 to alleviate such an apprehension. 
 
 In 13 10 the Commons petitioned_and represented to 
 the king that the coins were depreciated (meaning 
 probably, not in value, but in contents of silver) more 
 than one-half.' Nevertheless, the king made procla- 
 mation the same year that the coins should be current 
 at the value they bore under Edward I., and that no 
 one should enhance the price of his goods on that ac- 
 count. This is the edict of which Holinshed, Stowe, 
 and Carte, complain. Mr. Jewitt^ says that the petition 
 of the Commons set forth that coins (probably meaning 
 the old sterlings) were clipped down to one-half. This 
 was very likely, because unless the silver coins were 
 cut down so as not to contain any more silver than the 
 base coins of like denomination, they would probably 
 have disappeared. But this time it could not have been 
 ■the Jews who committed the offense, for there were no 
 Jews now in England. Nor should the Caursini, 
 Peruchi, Scali, Fiscobaldi, Ballardi, Reisardi, or other 
 Roman clans or families, who filled their places in the 
 English marts and exchanges, be suspected, for these 
 were all good Catholics, and therefore presumably loyal 
 subjects. Clippers and counterfeiters had been con- 
 demned to excommunication by the Council of the Lat- 
 
 1 Rolls of Par., i., app. p. 444. Consult 4 Edward II. ,m, in 12 dors. 
 (Ruding, ii., p. 133.) 
 
 2 "Antiq.," p. 146. 
 
230 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 eran in 11 23, and were subject by a statute — attributed 
 to Edward I. — to the penalty for treason.* Earth de- 
 nounced such sacrilegious criminals, and heaven for- 
 bade them to approach its holy precincts. We are 
 therefore at a loss to look for the transgressor, unless, 
 indeed, he was to be found in the royal sanctuary itself. 
 It may have been with the object to more effectually 
 keep his base money afloat that the king, by proclama- 
 tion in 13 10, forbade, under heavy penalties, the im- 
 portation of false moneys. If these false moneys were 
 close imitations of the king's base coins, and contained 
 the same proportion of fine silver, the practice of im- 
 porting them infers that prices had not risen to the level 
 of the debasement. 
 
 In 131 1 the Lords Ordainers enacted that no changes 
 should be made in the value of the coins without con- 
 sent of the barons in parliament assembled. This start- 
 ling declaration amounted to a claim on the part of the 
 nobles for a share in those regalian rights whicR the 
 king was daily acquiring from the falling power of 
 Rome, but it was successfully resisted by Edward, who, 
 in 1321, repealed the ordinance, at York. There are 
 no records relating to its operation in the interval. Ac- 
 cording to the Roll of 9 Edward II. the king com- 
 manded Richard Hywysh, sheriff of Cornwall, by writ, 
 to pay on his account £372 14s. 4d. to Antony di 
 Pessaigne of Janua, out of the profits of the tin coinage 
 (coignagio stagminis).^ Indeed, tin money and gold 
 money appear to have been struck by the Western 
 princes at the same time, and owing to the same parent 
 event, the fall of the Basileus. Thei-e being then a 
 great deal of false money in circulation, a writ was 
 issued in 1318 to the barons of the exchequer, com- 
 
 1 Ruding, ii., pp. 214-226. 
 
 2 Madox, i., p. 386. 
 
LATER PLANTAGENET MONEYS 23 I 
 
 manding them to order the sheriffs of England to make 
 proclamation that "no man should import into the realm 
 clipped money or foreign counterfeit money, under 
 great penalties, and that such persons as had any dipt 
 money in their hands, should bore it through in the 
 middle, and bring it to the king's cambium to be re- 
 coined.'" This proclamation must have had some other 
 than its professed object, for in the same year Edward 
 complained to Philip le Bel of France that "merchants 
 were not permitted to bring any kind of money out 
 of France into England, for that it was taken from 
 them by searchers." When it is remembered that the 
 coins of Philip le Bel were greatly debased and over- 
 valued, it appears more likely that the clipped and 
 "foreign" counterfeit coins mentioned in the procla- 
 mation were fabricated in England. This view finds 
 further corroboration in the fact that, in 1318, "an assa}' 
 was made of the money minted in the exchanges of 
 London and Canterbury ... to wit, of £40,730 
 minted in the said exchanges within the said time" 
 (about two years), and "upon this assay it was found 
 that the said money was too weak and ofa greater alloy 
 than it ought to have been by £258 55. lod."^ 
 
 The classification of bullion into domestic and foreign 
 first occurs in the reign of Edward II., and was con- 
 tinued in that of Edward III., after which no traces of 
 it appear in the mint records. Nature does not admit 
 of such classification, because all bullion of the like 
 metal and when refined is alike. Domestic metal can- 
 not be distinguished from foreign. It was clearly im- 
 practicable to prevent foreign bullion from being im- 
 ported, indeed, the complaint of the times was that 
 foreign clipped and counterfeit coins were imported, 
 
 1 Madox, i., p. 294; "Statutes at Large," vol. i. 
 
 2 Madox, i., p. z9i. 
 
232 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 and if practically coins could be imported, so also could 
 bullion. Nor was it the policy of the crown to prevent 
 the importation of bullion ; on the contrary, it did 
 everything in its power to promote such importation. It 
 is therefore difficult to see what object was aimed at by 
 classifying silver into cismarinum and transmarinum 
 (Ruding), except a further assertion of that newly 
 acquired imperial prerogative of entire control over the 
 coinage and the materials of coinage, which the king 
 had in his mind and seemed determined to proclaim to 
 all the world. Whatever his plans, they wei-e defeated 
 by the rebellion of his wife, Isabella, and the nobles 
 whom he had previously curbed and resti-ained. These, 
 fleeing to France with the infant son of the king, there 
 organized an expedition, which landed in England 
 during the autumn of 1326, defeated and captured the 
 Jcing, threw him into a dungeon, and there dispatched 
 him. 
 
 Edward III. was crowned January 25th, 1327. To 
 the numerous and sudden alterations of money which, 
 like an exhibition of fireworks, celebrate the emanci- 
 pation of the Western princes from the thraldom of 
 Cassar's empire, but introduced the greatest confusion 
 into nummulary denominations and relations, England 
 contributed an additional element of confusion. At all 
 events, it was far less common in other countries. This 
 was a marked difference between the contents of a coin 
 as provided by law or mint indenture and its actual 
 contents, as found by weight and assay, of perfect spec- 
 imens still extant. For example, the mint indenture 
 of 1345 provided that the pound tower of silver, 0.925 
 fine, should be coined into 22^ pennies. This would 
 make the gross weight of each penny 24 grains, and 
 the contents of fine silver 22.2 grains, whei-eas the 
 
LATER PLANTAGENET MONEYS 233 
 
 actual coins in good condition weigh but 20 grains, 
 and contain but i8i grains of fine silver. Similar 
 differences are to be found in other coins of the period. 
 In choosing between the conflicting evidences of the 
 statutes, the mint indentures, and the actual coins, the 
 author has observed the following order of preference : — 
 first, the actual coins; second, the mint indentures; 
 third, the Acts of Parliament, which in many instances 
 were only intended for show or deception, and in such 
 cases were practically a dead letter. Even in the actual 
 coins there is room for error, because they vary Con- 
 siderably. Mr. Keary*s weighings are those of the 
 heaviest, and because this practice is regarded as mis- 
 leading, we have not always been guided by that 
 author. Among the earliest statutes of the new reign 
 were those of 1327, against the importing of light and 
 counterfeit coins, and of 1331, against the exportation 
 of either coins or bullion. The penalty for the latter 
 was at first made death and the forfeiture of all the 
 offender's profit, but two years afterwards it was les- 
 sened by proclamation to mere forfeiture of the money 
 so attempted to be exported, and in 1335 the Act was 
 extended to "religious men" as well as others. The 
 conviction which must enforce itself upon all persons 
 in authority that such ordinances can never be prac- 
 tically executed, the actual failure of similar ordinances 
 in the preceding reign, and the language and tone of 
 the present ones, all combine to produce the impression 
 that the latter were intended as a cover, to account for 
 the melting down of the "old sterlings" in the king's 
 mints, and to furnish an apology for that emission of 
 black money which soon afterwards made its appear- 
 ance, and was probably fabricated at the king's behest. 
 That he was not above the art of issuing insincere edicts 
 
234 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 is Strikingly proved by his proclamation of 1341, 
 wherein he avows that in his previous Interdict of Usury 
 he "dissembled in the premises" and "suffered that 
 pretended statute to be sealed," which he now revokes 
 and declares void/ 
 
 Dr. Ruding naively enquires if the Turonensis nigri, 
 mentioned in the statute of 1335 as being "commonly 
 current in our (the king's) realm," meant copper coins 
 struck at Tours? We think not. There are no proofs 
 that copper coins of Tours circulated in England at this 
 period, but many prpofs that English black money 
 did ; for in the same statute it was provided that all 
 manner of black money in circulation should cease to 
 be current in one month's time after it is decried.* Yet 
 but a short time afterwards the king's council in parlia- 
 ment at York authorized new black money to be made, 
 containing one-sixth part of alloy.' In 1338 various 
 proclamations were made, which denote that black 
 money was still in circulation, and in 1339 one was 
 made which authorized the circulation of black "tur- 
 neys" (Tournois) in Ireland.* Black money was not 
 peculiar to Edward III., but had been used by both his 
 father and grandfather. Edward I. (in 1293) agreed 
 to pay to the emperor Adolphus 300,000 "black livres 
 tournois," and in 1297 to certain nobles of Burgundy 
 30,000 "small black livres tournois."' To the earl of 
 Guelders Edward promised to pay 100,000 "black livres 
 tournois,"" and it is not likely that at this period he 
 
 1 "Statutes at Large'' (Ruding, ii., p. 251). 
 
 2 "All manner of black money which hath been commonly current 
 of late in our realm" shall cease to be current within a month after it is 
 decried ("Statutes at Large," 9 Edward III., 1335). 
 
 3 A great part of this statute is not printed in the modern editions of 
 the 'Statutes at Large." Consult 9 Edward III in Statutes folio ed. 
 (1577), black letter. 
 
 4 Consult 4 Edward III.,pt. ii.,35 dors (Rymer, "Foedera," v., p. 113). 
 
 5 Anderson's "History Com.," i., p. 250; "Foedera," ii., p. 778. 
 
 6 Anderson, i., p. 251; Rymer's "Foedera," ii. , p. 675. 
 
LATER PLANTAGENET MONEYS 235 
 
 would have stipulated to pay so large a sum in a coin 
 which he did not himself fabricate. 
 
 In the royal ordinance authorizing the establishment 
 of a mint at Calais, after the capture of that city in 
 1347, the king (Edward III.) commanded "white 
 money" to be made there similar to that which was 
 struck in England.' In 1354 the moneyersof Aquitain 
 were allowed threepence in the mark for all money 
 coined by them for the king, whether "white or black," 
 except gold.^ We repeat that these black moneys, 
 which the historians usually evince much anxiety to 
 keep out of view, are really the proofs of England's 
 dawning independence; for while she remained a fief 
 of Rome, and the mints of the Basileus supplied her 
 with besants, nobody was obliged to use silver, and the 
 fabrication of black money would have brought the 
 king no profit, and therefore none was coined. The 
 coinage of black money and the abrogation of the 
 sacred besant mean the same thing — the refusal and 
 rejection of any further allegiance to the Empire. 
 
 In 1341 a great mass of sterling coins and silver-plate 
 was collected in London by private parties for exporta~ 
 tion. In 1342 a similar event occurred at Boston.' It 
 is difficult to see the motive for these attempts to export 
 silver, unless the circulation consisted of royal money 
 overvalued, and unless there was no further use for 
 sterlings and silver bullion in the hands of private 
 owners. In 1342 the king's rents in Guernsey, Jersey, 
 Sark and Alderney were exacted in sterlings, while his 
 payments were made in light coins worth but ten shil- 
 lings in the "pound."' This may have been clipped 
 coins or black money, of which each penny piece had 
 
 1 Rot., France, 22 Edward III. m. 19 (Ruding, ii., p. 182, n.) 
 
 2 Rot., Vase., 28 Edward III. m. i (Ruding, ii., igs)- 
 
 3 Ruding, ii., pp. 150-2- 4 Ibid., ii., p. 152. 
 
236 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 but a half-penny's worth of . silver in it, and therefore 
 the nominal "pound" but ten shillings' worth. 
 
 In 1343 the council in parliament advised the king 
 to issue what would now be termed a Convention gold 
 coin, to be current, with permission of the Flemings, 
 both in Flanders and England, that no silver should 
 be carried out of the realm except by noblemen, and 
 that these should be limited to the carrying out of silver 
 plate for use in their houses. The first part of this 
 ■ proposal introduces one of the most important subjects 
 connected with the regalian rights of the English 
 crown. Down to the year 1204, or practically to 1257, 
 the gold coins lawfully circulating in England had 
 been supplied exclusively by the Basileus, and consisted 
 as before stated, of the besant and its fractions. When 
 in that year Henry resolved to invade the prerogative 
 of the Sacred Empire, he struck, not a solidus nor a 
 fraction of a solidus, but a Moorish maravedi — a piece 
 which commerce with the Spanish-Arabians had ren- 
 dered familiar to Englishmen under the various names 
 of "maravedi," "new talent," "obolus de Murcia," 
 "gold penny," etc. The maravedi of that period con- 
 tained 40 to 43 grains of fine gold; it circulated in 
 England, not, like the besant, by force of law and im- 
 memorial usage, but merely because it was a justly- 
 minted and well known coin of regular weight and 
 fineness, and preferable to the adulterated and clipped 
 coins which had made their appearance when the besants 
 began to disappear in the reign of John. The mara- 
 vedi had filled the circulation in continually increasing 
 proportions. Its low valuation in silver (10 for i) proves 
 that it had no standing in the law. As the common 
 circulation of the maravedi in England may seem in- 
 credible to a certain class of numismatists, it has been 
 
circulated 
 
 . Regnal period.' 
 
 1 176 
 
 23 Henry II. 
 
 "93 
 
 5 Richard I. 
 
 1215 
 
 17 John. 
 
 1250 
 
 35 Henry III. 
 
 1252 
 
 37 Henry III. 
 
 1257 
 
 41 Henry III. 
 
 1269 
 
 53 Henry III. 
 
 1283 
 
 12 Edward I. 
 
 1293 
 
 22 Edward I. 
 
 1347 
 
 21 Edward III. 
 
 LATER PLANTA GENET MONEYS 237 
 
 deeiTied useful to bring together some of the texts in 
 which it is mentioned. It will be seen at a glance that 
 its era agrees substantially with that of the Plantagenet 
 dynasty. 
 
 Table showing the texts which mention the maravedi, or obolus de Murcia, 
 as circulating in England. 
 
 Year when 
 
 Remarks. 
 Madox, ii., p. 367, valued at 20 sterlings. 
 Madox, i., p. 278, valued at 10 for i. 
 Madox, ii., p. 261, valued at 21 sterlings. 
 Madox, re Philip Lurel. 
 Ruding, i., p. 316, valued at 16 sterlings.' 
 Weight 41^ grains fine, coined by the 
 
 king, valued at 20 sterlings. 
 Same, valued at 24 sterlings. 
 Madox. 
 Madox. 
 Sir M. Hale, in Davis' Reports. 
 
 The maravedi was first coined in Spain, during the 
 dynasty of the Almoravedis, hence its name. One of 
 these coins, struck in Murcia, a. h. 548 (a. d. 1153), 
 during the interregnum between the Almoravedi and 
 Almohade dynasties, is called by Queipo a "Mour- 
 danish," which we are inclined to believe is a mis- 
 nomer. This piece, in a very good state of conserva- 
 tion, is now in the cabinet of Gayanos, and weighs-44i 
 English grains. It tallies in "weight with the siliqua 
 weight, or the yl-g- part of the Egypto-Roman pound of 
 5,243! English grains, with the gold maravedi, with 
 the silver dirhem and with two sterling pennies.* The 
 true Mourdanish should rather be found in the half- 
 mithcal, a specimen of which, struck during the first 
 years of the Almohade dynasty, is now in the cabinet 
 of Cerda. This coin is also published by Queipo, who 
 accords it its true name, the "Mourdanish of Murcia," 
 
 1 From Henshaw's translation of Domesday Book, vol. i., fol. i. The 
 pence were light ones. 
 
 2 The siliqua weight must not be confused with the siliqua coin, which 
 weighed scarcely more than a. third as mucli. 
 
238 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 and jives its weight at 34! grains, the state of conser- 
 vation being very good. The use of the gold mithcal 
 in Spain can be traced back to the eighth century, 
 when Hachem I. settled upon his brother Suleiman a 
 life annuity of 70,000 "mithcales or pesantes" as an 
 equivalent for his estates in Spain.' In the tenth cen- 
 tury the mithcal was called bj' the Christians the 
 "dobla," probably in reference to its being the double 
 of the more popular and better known half-mithcal or 
 "Mourdanish."'' Abd-el-Raman III. (912-61) settled 
 a life annuity of 100,000 " doblas of gold" upon Ahmed- 
 ben-Saia for his capture and plunder of Tunis/ The 
 annual revenues of Alhakem II., besides the taxes in 
 kind, were "twelve million mithcals of gold.'"* The 
 piece we are considering is therefore not the half- 
 mithcal, but the maravedi, and its period is not that of 
 the early but of the later caliphs of Spain, the contem- 
 poraries of the Plantagenets. 
 
 The weight of Henry's gold coins was 43 grains 
 (0.965 fine), equal to about 41^ grains fine. They 
 were probably intended to weigh exactly the same as 
 one gold maravedi, or two silver sterlings. These 
 coins he called "oboli," and ordered them to pass for 
 twenty silver sterlings, or half-dirhems— a ratio appar- 
 ently of 10 for I, but really of 9 for i, because his ster- 
 lings weighed less than 20 grains, and were only 0.925 
 fn-. It is alleged that these gold coins were objected 
 to, on commercial grounds, by the merchants of Lon- 
 don. This is hardly credible, because the coins were 
 really undervalued. They could be bought with nine 
 
 2 The contents of the dobla de la vanda in "Money and Civilization," 
 qi deduceM from the assumption that the castellano coin was as 
 
 heavv IS the castellano weight, are given erroneously. In other words, 
 the dobla of the period mentioned above was a heavy dinar; afterwards 
 it was a double maravedi. 
 
 3 Calcott, i., p. 223. 4 ID«1-. >-. P- 249. 
 
LATER PLANT AGENET MONEYS 239 
 
 weights of pure silver, whereas they were worth twelve, 
 which was the ratio of the time in all Christian States. 
 This- conclusion is strengthened by the circumstance 
 that these same "oboli," after being temporarily de- 
 monetized, were raised, by Henry's command in 1269, 
 to 24 pence — a ratio of 12, and that at this ratio they 
 actually passed current without objection. As to their 
 mechanical execution, the author is able, from personal 
 examination, to declare that they were far superior to 
 any other coins, English or French, of that day. The 
 only valid reason that can be assigned for the objection 
 made to them was the superstitious repugnance to accept 
 gold coins not stamped with the authority of the Sacred 
 Empire. This repugnance may have been enhanced 
 by the fear that the coins would not be currently ac- 
 cepted in England, or, if in England, not in other 
 Christian states. 
 
 Bearing in mind the example and failure of Henry 
 HI., Edward did not venture to strike coins of gold 
 until he had acquired that full degree of sovereignty 
 which the Basileus had involuntarily bequeathed to the 
 Western princes. In November, 1337, Edward was ap- 
 pointed, and he accepted the appointment of Vicar-Gen- 
 eral to the German emperor, with power to coin gold and 
 silver. Though this formality now seemed needless, yet 
 that it was entered into with the view to prepare the way 
 for the coinage of gold is evident from several circum- 
 stances. In 1 340 the king's council in parliament enacted 
 that all shippers of wool should undertake to bring in 
 for each bag two marks' worth of gold or silver (Ruding, 
 ii., p. 149)- Again, in 1342 the king ordered still 
 more pointedly that all corn exported to foreign coun- 
 tries should be sold for gold coins or bullion. Another 
 preparation — a futile one to be sure — consisted in em- 
 
240 HISTORY OF MaNETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 pluying Raymond Lully, oi' some other alchemist, for 
 whom a laboratory was fitted up in the Tower, which 
 should enable that impostor to transmute gold from 
 baser metals.' Was it an excess of caution, lest the great 
 step he meditated might miscarry at the last moment, 
 that the king found a means to prompt the advice of 
 his council in parliament that he should coin gold? At 
 all events, such seems to be the character of the insinu- 
 ation that the Flemings sold their goods only for Flem- 
 ish gold florins, which were valued so highly in Eng- 
 lish silver coins as to render payment in the latter 
 unprofitable to English merchants. "In other words," 
 said the king, "by paying gold florins with silver coins 
 our merchants continually lose; kt us, therefore, ena- 
 ble them to pay with gold ones." 
 
 Such appears to have been the genesis of the famous 
 ordinance of 1343. Upon the king's information, the 
 king's council advised the king, in case the Flemings 
 were willing, to issue a convention gold coin, and it 
 was provided, in such event, that such coins should be 
 unlimited legal tender between merchant and merchant, 
 "as money not to be refused;" that all other persons, 
 great or small, might accept them if they pleased, but 
 not otherwise; that all other (foreign) gold coins should 
 be melted down ; and that no silver should be carried 
 out of the realm, except by noblemen, and then only 
 silver-plate for use in their houses. This advice was 
 carried into effect in 1344 by the coinage of a gold 
 double-florin, weighing 50 to the pound tower and 23^ 
 carats 0.979^ fine, the old, "standard" for gold.' 
 
 I As this was the first issue of gold coins by any Christian king in 
 England, or any king of all England, except the abortive maravedis of 
 Henry III., the expression "old standard" in the mint indenture could 
 only refer to the Byzantine or the Arabian standard. The former was 
 about 0.900, the latter was 0.979 i 6 fine (23^ carats). Therefore, "old 
 standard" in reference to gold meant the Arabian standard. 
 
LATER PLANTAGENET MONEYS 24 1 
 
 Thus, each piece would contain 105^ grains fine. It 
 was ordered to be current at six shillings (each of 12 
 sterlings). Two or three specimens of this piece are 
 extant, both found in the river Tyne. The best one 
 weighs 107 grains gross. There were also florins and 
 half-florins of the same issue, now extremely rare. At 
 first — and differing from the advice of the council in 
 parliament — the double florins were made full legal 
 tenders, in "all manner of payments," afterwards op- 
 tional legal tenders, and finally they were demonetized 
 all within the same year. They were the first English 
 coins of any kind upon which were stamped the words 
 "Dei gratia.'" Down to that time the kings of Eng- 
 land coined by the grace of Caesar, or, as in John's 
 case, the pope, his successor. Edward III. first Coined 
 by the grace of God. 
 
 Previous to 1344 the sterlings of Edward III.^ con- 
 tained 2of grains 0.925 fine= 19^ grains fine silver. 
 Hence the ratio between the double-florin and sterling 
 was about 12.6 for i — too high for gold and too low 
 for silver. As the Flemings were evidently unwilling 
 to accept gold at this valuation, and the double-florins 
 found no welcome with the merchants, the king, bent 
 upon the successful issuance of this significant procla- 
 mation and token of national independence, ordered a 
 new gold coin to be struck, and he decried the first 
 one. The second issue, which was made in the same 
 year as the first, was of nobles weighing 39^ to the 
 pound tower, same fineness as the double-florins, hence 
 containing 133.8 grains fine, and valued at 6s. 8d. — a 
 ratio of 11.06 for i. These were made legal tender 
 for all sums of 20s. and upwards, but not for any sum 
 below. The obverse of this coin represents the king 
 I Ruding, ii., p. 212. 2 "Old Sterlings" (Lowndes). 
 
242 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 Standing in a ship in mid-channel, obviously in allusion 
 to its international character. Some of the numismatists, 
 however, make it typify the strength of the English 
 navy in 1359, fifteen years later date; others a victory 
 over corsairs in 1347, three years after; and others a 
 naval victory over the French in 1340, four years be- 
 fore. Mr. Keary gives the weight of an extant noble 
 of this issue at 138^ grains standard. This is evidently 
 exceptionally heavy. He also gives the weight of the 
 later issues of 1346 at 128^ grains standard, and the 
 still later ones of 135 1 to 1360 at 120 grains standard, 
 the legal value being always 6s. 8d. The king's seign- 
 iorage upon these coins was £1 for each one pound 
 tower weight of gold, and the charge of the Master 
 of the Mint was 3s. 4d. — together, £1 3s. 4d. As the 
 tower pound weight was coined into £13 3s. 4d. of ac- 
 count, the merchant received back but £12, or scarcely 
 more than. 91 per cent of the gold deposited at the 
 mint. In the following year the merchant's proportion 
 of the £13 3s. 4d. coined out of his pound weight of 
 gold was raised from £12 to £12 13s. 4d., thus leav- 
 ing to the Crown and mint only 4 per cent.' 
 
 When the Crown came to deal with the Flemings it 
 found that people less compliant than it had wished. 
 They agreed to accept gold nobles provided they were 
 coined (under the king's letter of authority) in Flanders, 
 and also provided they could agree upon a proper di- 
 vision of the profits from the coinage.^ To determine 
 this proportion and superintend the issuance of the 
 coins, commissioners were sent to Ghent, Bruges, and 
 
 1 Ruding, ii., pp. 165, 174. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 194. The Flemish ratio of the time was evidently 10 for i; 
 and to warrant the acceptance of the gold nobles in Flanders at Ed- 
 ward's valuation, the Flemings must have demanded the entire abandon- 
 ment of the seigniorage, to which, of course, the English commissioners 
 would not assent. 
 
LATER PLANTAGENET MONEYS 243 
 
 Ipre, but the result of the negotiations is not defin- 
 itively known. Froissart and Grafton both state that 
 gold coins with the name of Edward were struck at 
 Antwerp in 1337, but such coins are not extant; neither 
 are there any of the Anglo-Flemish gold coins pro- 
 posed in 1344. In a mint indenture of 1345 the weight 
 of the noble was reduced. The pound tower of gold, 
 23! carats fine, was to be coined into 42 nobles, each 
 valued at 80 sterlings. In 135 1 the noble was reduced 
 to 120 grains standard without alteration of nominal 
 value, which continued as before at 6s. 8d., or 80 ster- 
 lings. 
 
 One thing more. This coin convention with the 
 Flemings is the earliest, or among the earliest, inter- 
 national monetary treaties known to history since the 
 establishment of the sacred Empire. If the "king- 
 doms" of France, Spain, Portugal, England, Burgundy, 
 etc., were as independent as the modern historians of 
 those countries would fain pretend, why is it that they 
 have not been able to produce the evidence of any in- 
 ternational conventions between them previous to the 
 fall of Constantinople, and why is it that such conven- 
 tions took place immediately after that event, and have 
 continued to take place down to the present day ? 
 
 Down to the issuance of the gold nobles, the mone- 
 tary systems of the English monarchy belonged to the 
 Empire: they conserved no local or national principles; 
 they contain no lessons for Englishmen. But from 
 this moment they assume an entirely different phase 
 and bearing: they become imbued with life; they par- 
 take of the spirit which had begun to animate the nation 
 to which they belong; they occupy a distinct position 
 in the British constitution ; and they bear upon them 
 the marks of those endless struggles and vicissitudes 
 
244 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 through which the Anglo-Saxon races have borne the 
 
 standard of religious and political liberty.' 
 
 I If it be asked why I have not continued the history of money in 
 England beyond the Plantagenet period, the answer is that it was ray 
 design to illustrate the development of money in one of the Roman 
 provinces during its provincial and inchoate national period, until its 
 autonomy was established beyond all question. The subsequent de- 
 velopment of money is deemed to be sufiSciently illustrated in the 
 monetary histories of the various States included in my former works and 
 in that of Scandinavia, Germany, the Netherlands, etc., included in the 
 present one. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 BVOLUTION OF THE COINAGE PREROGATIVE, 
 
 Impetus afforded to the development of British national independence — 
 
 The great Interregnum — Assertions of British spvereign authority 
 
 Assumption of royal or national control over the precious metals and 
 money — Assumption of Mines Royal — Assumption of treasure trove 
 — Royal coinage of gold — Interdict of the besant — Trial of the pix — 
 Royal monetary commission — Suppression of episcopal and baronial 
 mints — Export of precious metals prohibited — First complete na- 
 tional sovereignty of money — Prohibition of tribute to Rome. 
 
 The gold coinage of Henry HI. proclaimed an as- 
 sumption of sovereign power which Henry's weak and 
 faithless character was not fitted to support by force 
 of arms. It bears about the same relation to England's 
 declaration of independence as the coinage of Pine 
 Tree shillings did to that of America: it was the trum- 
 pet-sound of a coming event; not the event itself. The 
 latter was embodied in the magnificent gold coinage 
 of 1344, upon which Edward is portrayed with drawn 
 sword, and standing on the deck of a man-of-war as- 
 serting his readiness to defend the new-born liberties 
 of his country if necessary against the world. 
 
 The interval between the coinages of Henry and 
 Edward was filled with significant events. Prominent 
 among these was that Great Interregnum' which marked 
 the fall of the German mediseval empire, and the dis- 
 solution of that political partnership, which had joined 
 the prayers of Leo III. to the dripping swords of Pepin 
 and Charlemagne. Frederick II. died in 1250, and, 
 as Mr. Bryce pithily remarks, "with Frederick fell the 
 
 I The name given to the interval between the death of Frederick II. 
 and the acceptance of the so-called "imperial crown" by Rudolph of 
 Hapsburg in 1293. 
 
 245 
 
246 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 empire." The brief and eventless reign of Conrad IV., 
 and the assassination of Conradin, by the connivance 
 and with the approval of Clement, ended the Suabian 
 line of "emperors," but furnished no basis for a new 
 dynasty. In vain did the See of Rome urge Richard 
 of Cornwall, Alfonso of Castile, and others, to fill its 
 puppet-throne of empire. In vain did it urge upon 
 the Western princes the necessity of choosing an im- 
 perial sovereign. It met with nothing but respectful 
 apathy. Edward was not the only prince who, during 
 or shortly after the Interregnum, drew an independent 
 national sword. The chuixh had extinguished both 
 the Basileus and the "emperor;" there was no longer 
 any Empire, neither sacred nor holy, neither Eastern 
 nor Western. The edifice which Caesar had erected 
 had often given way, and had been as often propped 
 up, patched, and repaired. This time it went to pieces, 
 and many of these pieces disappeared in the void of 
 the Interregnum. The pope remained master of the 
 field, but the field was a desert. The princes of Europe, 
 the pro-consuls, dukes, and kings of the Roman pro- 
 vincial states were free. Nay, more; the people were 
 also free, and the Commons once more assembled to- 
 gether as a political body, with political rights and 
 functions. 
 
 Yet, though long since condemned by the united 
 voice of Europe, though dismembered and past all hope 
 of resuscitation, there was still enough vitality in the 
 empire to make a show of authority. The pope of 
 Rome, who had been its executioner and was now its~leg- 
 atee, was anxious to revive its prestige, in order that he 
 might inherit that as well. He possessed sufficient re- 
 sources to make a strong effort in this direction, and 
 resolved to embark them in a contest with the Western 
 
EVOLUTION OF THE COINAGE PREROGATIVE 247 
 
 princes. This struggle did not come to a close until 
 the reigns of Philip le Bel and Edward III. Boniface 
 VIII. had written to Philip, claiming him as "a sub- 
 ject both in spirituals and temporals." To this Philip 
 replied, "We give your Foolship to know that in tem- 
 porals we are subject to no person.'" And with this 
 contemptuous retort was blown out the last spark of 
 Caesar's empire. 
 
 From this period commenced a new era in the de- 
 velopment of European liberty. Previously the move- 
 ment against Roman suzerainty was directed against 
 the "emperor" and the pope, and, therefore, was di- 
 vided and weakened. It had now only to contend 
 against the pope, and the result was that it won many 
 important victories. 
 
 Among the great political signs which mark the 
 birth of the independent English monarchy was the as- 
 sumption by the Crown of entire conti'ol over the pre- 
 cious metals. This was accomplished by various steps — 
 the assertion of mines royal; treasure trove; coinage 
 of gold; demonetization of the Imperial besant and 
 other coins; control over the movement of the precious 
 metals; the suppression of episcopal and baronial mints; 
 the trial of the pix; the regulation of the standard; and 
 the doctrine of national money. All these steps were 
 accomplished at this period. 
 
 Control over such supplies, as mining and commerce 
 afford, of the material out of which money is to be made 
 by the sovereign power, is a necessary corollary of the 
 sovereign right to create money, and the two preroga- 
 tives will always be found in one hand.' The doc- 
 
 1 Brady, "Clavis Calendaria,'' ii., p. 84. 
 
 2 Consult my "Money and Civilization" on this subject A proper 
 adjustment of the rights of governments to mines of the precious metals, 
 both in England, France, Spain, and America, still awaits the dispas- 
 sionate consideration of thii great principle, 
 
248 HISTOTiY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 trine of mines royal holds that all mines producing such 
 materials belong of necessity to the Crown. Down 
 to the fall of the sacred Empire the only material out of 
 whifch the princes of Europe could lawfully create money 
 was silver;' after that period such material or materials 
 included gold. The earliest extant assertion of the 
 doctrine of mines royal, including gold as well as sil- 
 ver, by any Christian king was made by Louis IX. of 
 France. He was followed by Henr}' III., who in 1262 
 asserted, for the first time in England, a similar doc- 
 trine and prerogative. But Henry — though in this, 
 as well as in other respects, he frequently assumed an 
 attitude of independent sovereignty — was easily bullied 
 out of it by the effrontery and swagger of the pope; 
 so that, Efccording to Matthew Paris, the independ- 
 ence of England was asserted and surrendered many 
 times during his weak reign. The heroic example- of 
 Frederic II., in defying the impudent claims of the 
 Vatican, was thrown away upon this superstitious and 
 faithless voluptuary, who saw his countr}- again and 
 again led captive to the foot of a foreign throne rather 
 than brave a single curse from the lips of a scheming 
 pontiff. The prerogative of mines royal was, therefore, 
 practically abandoned until the period of the issue of 
 gold coins by Edward III., when, without any for- 
 mality, it again came into force, and has so remained, 
 with apparently little change, down to the present time. 
 However, in point of fact, the institution of private 
 coinage has dragged the prerogative of the mines down 
 with that of the royal coinage. 
 
 The prerogative of treasure trove was adopted, held, 
 and subsequently relinquished by the sovereign-pontiff of 
 Rome, who, in the reign of Hadrian, equitably divided 
 I With regard to cojjper, see elsewhere herein. 
 
EVOLUTION OF THE COINAGE PREROGATIVE 2.19 
 
 it between property and discovery. This right after- 
 wards fell into the hands of the Roman proconsuls, 
 vassal kings, and great lords. What disposition they 
 made of it does not appear in the chronicles of the 
 mediaeval ages, but we need no chronicle to inform us. 
 The chance discovery of a hidden treasure was not, like 
 the opening and working of a mine, a public and on- 
 erous enterprise, involving outlays of capital, the co- 
 operation of numerous persons, and the permission of 
 the State authorities. On the contrary, the finding of 
 hidden treasure was of a secret and furtive character, 
 and in the mediaeval ages treasure trove belonged to 
 him who could keep it. The earliest public notice of 
 the subject in England relates to Edward Confessor, 
 who declared that all of the gold and one-half of all 
 silver treasure trove belonged of right to the king. It 
 will be borne in mind that the England of this prince 
 embi-aced only a portion of the present kingdom. We 
 next hear of treasure trove in the reign of Louis IX. of 
 France (1226-70), who declared: "Fortune d'or, est 
 au roi; fortune d'argent, est au baron," thus claim- 
 ing gold treasure trove for the Crown and relinquish- 
 ing silver to the nobles.' The same doctrine in Eng- 
 land belongs to the reign of Henry III., and it was not 
 until the following century that the Crown claimed both 
 the gold and silver of treasure trove. 
 
 The coinage of gold, first timidly attempted by 
 Henry, then boldly and resolutely begun by Edward, 
 has been sufficiently treated in this work. It is only 
 necessary to repeat that it forms, and has always 
 formed, practically the most striking, notorious and 
 unequivocal assertion which it is possible to make of 
 sovereign authority and power, and that its entire re- 
 I "Etablissements," liv. i., chap. 15. 
 
250 HtSTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 linquishment and avoidance by the Western Christian 
 princes is to be accounted for on no other sufficient 
 grounds than that the Basileus was universally con- 
 ceded by them to be the lawful successor of Constantine, 
 and therefore the lawful suzerain of the Empire to 
 which in certain respects they owed fealty. 
 
 An intermediate step between the acts of Henry and 
 Edward III. was taken by Edward I., who in 1291, or 
 thereabouts — the date being uncertain — ordered that 
 no foreign coins should be admitted into the kingdom 
 except such as might be in use by travelers and others 
 for casual expenses; and as to these, he provided pub- 
 lic offices where they might be exchanged. This law 
 may have been intended to include and aim at the bes- 
 ant, then the most important "foreign" coin in circu- 
 lation: for, with regard to other foreign coins,, they 
 appear to have been as numerous and as commonly 
 employed in England after this enactment as before.^ 
 
 The policy of regulating, or attempting to regulate, 
 the import and export movement of the precious metals, 
 which, as we may see from Cicero, Pliny, and other 
 authors, was systematically pursued by the Roman 
 State, both as it approached, and after it had assumed, 
 the condition of an Empire,^ was also first adopted by 
 the king of England during the Plantagenet period. 
 It is true that Mr. J. R. McCulloch was of opinion that 
 this policy was pursued in England before the Norman 
 Conquest;' but as he has offered no proofs to support 
 it, and the coinage and other legislation respecting gold 
 contradicts it, the author is compelled, though with re- 
 luctance, to differ in this instance from that distinguished 
 economist. 
 
 I Jacob, "Hist. Free. Metals," p. 204. 
 
 ■i At that period, for reasons which thereaaersof this work will under- 
 stand, it was confined to gold. 
 3 "Polit Econ.," p. 27. 
 
EVOLUTION OF THE COINAGE PREROGATIVE 25 1 
 
 The same policy of regulating the movement of gold 
 and silver, now erroneously known as the mercantile 
 system, was assumed by all the States that rose on the 
 ruins of the empire, but not until they had shaken off 
 its claims to their allegiance. The sudden assumption 
 of this regalian right implies a previous interval of over 
 thirteen centuries, during which, save the Empire itself, 
 there was no permanently independent sovereign State 
 within the domain of Christendom with power to exer- 
 cise it.' 
 
 Analogous to this right was that of purging the king- 
 dom of episcopal and baronial mints, with the view to 
 concentrate the prerogative of providing a unital meas- 
 ure of value for the whole kingdom, and placing it in the 
 hands of the sovereign. Such right was evidently at- 
 tempted to be exercised by means of the Monetary 
 Commission of 1293 (22 Edward I.), which was ap- 
 pointed to examine the various coins employed through- 
 out the kingdom, and report the same to the king. The 
 text of the instructions. to this commission is preserved 
 in Madox's "History of the Exchequer," i., p. 293, 
 note F. 
 
 Another assertion of regalian rights during this period 
 was the trial of the pix, which is first specifically men- 
 tioned in the Exchequer Rolls relating to the 9th or 
 loth Edward I., about 1280 or 1281.' 
 
 1 This view is amply supported by Mr. Bliss in his recently published 
 , 'Papal Registers." 
 
 2 The regulation of weights and measures — an obscure subject await- 
 ing elucidation at the hapds of scholars — seems to have been in ancient 
 times connected with the coinage, and exercised as an ecclesiastical func- 
 tion. With the organization of the Roman empire it fell into the hands 
 of the .sovereign-pontiff, and continued to be exercised by his successor, 
 the pope. The ninth decree of the council assembled by Athelstan. at 
 Gratanlea, forbade the holding of fairs on Sundays, while the tenth 
 exhorts the bishops "to keep the standards of the weights and measures 
 of their respective dioceses, and take care that all conformed to these 
 standards." The acts of this council, or parliament, were evidently 
 made in conformity with orders or advices from Rome (Henry, "Hist. 
 Brit. II.," i., p. 262). 
 
252 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 ■ The regulation of the standards of weight and fine- 
 ness is necessarily connected with the prerogative of 
 coinage. So long as the sacred Empire remained, the 
 coinage prerogative of the Basileus — which the princes 
 of Christendom had never presumed to violate — acted 
 as a continual check upon any desire or tendenc}' on 
 their part to adulterate or lower the coinage. Any- 
 body could balance a quarter-besant against a silver 
 penny, and so settle out of hand the question of weight. 
 That of fineness, though not susceptible of so satisfac- 
 tory a solution, was almost as readily determinable with 
 the aid of the touchstone. By these means the ten- 
 dency of the vassal princes of the Empire to adulterate 
 their silver coinage was effectually defeated. That 
 such was their desire and tendency, and that they often 
 attempted to indulge it, has been abundantly proved ; 
 and to rid themselves of the serious restraints which the 
 ancient prerogatives of the Basileus imposed upon their 
 fiscal operations, they would probably have been glad 
 to enlist in a dozen crusades, instead of five. But whilst 
 the faineant Empire of the Basileus actually lasted — 
 and this it did so long as the pope hesitated to destro}' 
 it — the Christian princes had to return sooner or later 
 to the ratio of value and the standards of weight and 
 fineness imposed upon them by its senile but venerable 
 authority. The moment the Empire fell all restraint 
 flew before the winds. The standards then, and for 
 the first time, began to permanently vary, and they 
 continued to vary until all sight of the originals was 
 lost. Indeed, nothing more curiously, yet unerringly, 
 mai'ks the emergence of the Christian princes from the 
 position of vassals to that of independent monarchs than 
 the open, flagitious, and radical alteration, debasement, 
 and degradations of the coinage which began in all 
 
EVOLUTION OF THE COINAGE PREROGATIVE 253 
 
 parts of Europe after the fall of Constantinople, and 
 Which, unlike all previous alterations, parted completely 
 from the original Roman standards and never returned 
 to them. 
 
 In all its aspects money is the most certain indication 
 of sovereignty, but in none of them so absolutely as in 
 the practical and continued assertion of the principle 
 that that is money which the State declares to be money^ 
 This principle was asserted by the ancient Common- 
 wealth, preserved by Paulus, and enshrined forever in 
 the Digest of the Civil Law. It was practically ob- 
 served and employed by every sovereign of the Empire, 
 but, until the downfall of the Empire, by no other prince 
 of Christendom; then, like all the other prerogatives 
 left by the defunct Basileus, this one was assumed by 
 the princes who had shaken off his ancient but dis- 
 honored claims of suzerainty, and we first hear of it 
 in England during the reign of Edward III.' 
 
 If we turn from the prerogatives of the Basileus to 
 those of the pope, to mark the end, as we have already 
 marked the beginning and progress, of those practical 
 assertions of sovereignty which constitute the birth of 
 the independent monarchy of England, we shall find 
 it in 1366, the fortieth year of the glorious reign of 
 Edward III. In that year it was ordered that Peter's- 
 pence should no more be gathered in England nor paid 
 to Rome.' 
 
 I Plowden's "Com.," p. 316; Polydore Vergil; Pari. Rolls, 21 Edward 
 III., fol. 60; Chief Justice Hale's opinion in ''State Trials," ii., p. 114. 
 
 I Cooper's "Chronicle," fol. 245; Stowe, p. 461; Fabian's "Chron." 
 40 Edward HI,, in Nicholson's "Hist. Lit.;" Statute, 25 Henry VHI., 
 c. 21 (1533); Ruding, ii., p. 205. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 SAXONY AND SCANDINAVIA. 
 
 Fish, vadmal, baugs, and coin's — Ratio — The mark— Imitations of Roman 
 Coins— The pagan Hansa — Charlemagne— The Christian Hansa— 
 Great fair of Novgorod — Ruric— Harold Hardrade — Christian II.— 
 The tyrant's "klippings," — Massacre of Protestants— Mens- 
 Gustavus Vasa — "Klippings" of freedom— Marks, talents,- and 
 dalers — Private coinage — Rundstyks — Copper plates — Assignats — 
 Transport notes — Bank of Stockholm — Gbertzdalers, or mynt-saicen 
 — State AoteS — Banks of Copenhagen — Inconvertible notes — Silver 
 dalers — Demonetization of silver — Gold "standard" of 187?. 
 
 Ancient Saxony consisted of the southern shores of 
 the Baltic and North Seas. It was situated between 
 Germany and the ocean. Its inhabitants were Goths, 
 that is to say, a mixture of the Sacae and the native 
 tribes whom they had conquered, and with whom they 
 had amalgamated.' Their original seat of government 
 was Vinet.or Julin. In the eighth century the Goths 
 were destroyed or dispersed by Charlemagne. Those 
 who survived an almost exterminating war, escaped for 
 the most part to the Cimbrian and Norwegian peninsu- 
 lars, where they united the fylkis, and founded new 
 kingdoms. The pritacipal ones were Danmark, Got- 
 land, Upsala, and Halgoland, now called Denmark, 
 Sweden and Norway. Collectively these are known 
 as Scandinavia.' 
 
 In very early ages, and in later ages among the more 
 remote, isolated, or primitive communities of ancient 
 Saxony and Scandinavia, fish, cattle, vadmal, and linen- 
 cloth were used as money; but as society became more 
 numerous and its affairs more complicated, the equity 
 
 I Scanda was the name of a Getic city in Colchis, and Scandea that of 
 a Getic seaport at the extremity of Cythera, a large island off the 
 southern coast of Greece. Pausanias in ' 'Laconics," 2f^ 
 
 254 
 
SAXONY AND SCANDINAVIA 255 
 
 oi exchanges, rentals, and heritages demanded a 
 measure of value more refined than commodities; and 
 this — as appeared in the customs and institutes of China 
 and India to the eastward, and Greece and Rome to 
 the southward, with all of which States the Goths were 
 in communication — was money. The earliest moneys 
 found in Saxony and Scandinavia are coins of Tyre 
 and Sidon. After these come native baugs and Greek 
 and Roman coins. Between the era of baugs and the 
 ninth century the Goths were obliged to use foreign 
 moneys, and they often compelled captured cities to 
 strike coins for them.^ During this period they succes- 
 sively used five classes of moneys, only two of which 
 were of native fabrication. First, native baugs ; second, 
 oriental coins; third, Greek and Roman coins; fourth, 
 native and rude imitations of Roman coins. For 
 example, a Gothic imitation of a Roman imperial 
 gold coin was found with a skeleton at Aareslen, in 
 Odense, amt Fyen, an island about 86 miles from 
 Copenhagen ; while a similar imitation of a Byzantine 
 coin of the fifth century was found at Mallgard, in Got- 
 land." Fifth, Moslem coins of the seventh and eighth 
 centuries, of which immense numbers have been found 
 all over Scandinavia and the shores of the Baltic, from 
 Esthonia to the Netherlands. It is possible there was 
 a sixth class, silver sterlings, struck in Saxony before 
 the Carlovingian period; but there are none in the 
 British Museum collection nor in the collections of 
 Paris, Copenhagen, or Christiania.' 
 
 1 Thompson's "Social Science," p. 157. 
 
 2 Da Chaillu,i.,pp. 262,275. 
 
 3 The Gothic kings struck coins in Spain from the Roman to the 
 Moslem period, that is to say, from a. d. 411 to 711. Other Gothic kings 
 struck coins in England from Ethelbert II. to Harold, that is to say, 
 from A. D. 748 to 1066. Specimens of these coins are extant ("Ancient 
 Britain," chap. xix. ) Under such circumstances it is difficult to believe 
 that the Goths of the Baltic struck no coins before the Carlovingian era; 
 yet this is what some numismatists maintain. 
 
256 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 Baug means literally a ring or bracelet. In the 
 former sense the term is still used in France; in the 
 latter sense it is retained in the bangles of India. Baugs 
 were used as money in the Northern lands at a very 
 remote date. They were mentioned by Caesar as be- 
 ing in use when he landed in Britain ; and they have 
 been found in graves of apparently a far higher date. 
 On the other hand, they continued in use long after 
 coins were introduced, and only disappeared when 
 th'e superior efficiency of the latter, as a measure of 
 value, was universally recognized, or else when the 
 use of the former was forbidden. As baugs thus passed 
 from use as money, they were employed as relics and 
 ornaments — a circumstance which appears quite plainly 
 when the texts of the sagas are examined with atten- 
 tion. 
 
 Egil, having been paid two chests of silver as indem- 
 nity for his brother's life, returned thanks in a song, in 
 which he calls the indemnity a"gul-baug."' In this pas- 
 sage "gul" cannot mean, as "argentum" did in Latin 
 and "argent" does in French, money generally, be- 
 cause it is coupled with "baug;" nor can it mean gold 
 money, because it was actually paid in silver. It can 
 only mean a money payment, that perhaps was once 
 made with gold baugs, and was now commuted with 
 silver coins, of which a "chest" was a known number. 
 
 "If a leudr-man wounds another he has to pay 12 
 baugr, each of 12 aurar, valued in silver." Twelve 
 aurar to the baug is an alteration of rather low date. 
 Aurar was the name of the Gothic ounce weight of 
 450 English grains, derived from the weight of a "libra" 
 of gold, or five Roman aureii, of the time of Caracalla 
 to Probus. It was also the Gothic name of a gold coin, 
 
 1 Egil's saga; Du Chaillu, ii., pp. 16, 476-7. 
 
 2 "Frothstathing Law,"iv., 53. 
 
SAXONY AND SCANDINAVIA 257 
 
 the sicilicus, or skilling, containing from 30 down to 16 
 grains. Still later it became the name of a Gothic silver 
 coin, eight times the weight of the gold one. Du Chaillu 
 (i., p. 549) regards the aurars mentioned in the last pas- 
 sage as weights. If they were, it would follow that the 
 indemnity for wounding a man was equal to 18 marks' 
 weight of silver, which at the period of this law would 
 have been a preposterous penalty. They are far more 
 likely to have meant gold skillings, payable in silver 
 coins. 
 
 "Olaf II. (1015-28) went southward across the sea 
 (from North Britain or Norway to the continent), and 
 defeated the vikings before Williamsby. He captured 
 Gunnvaldsborg, in Seljopollar, and laid, ransom on it 
 and the jarl of twelve thousand gull skillingar. This 
 was paid by the town.'" 
 
 Gold baugr have been found at Baugstrop, with Ro- 
 man coins of the third and fourth centuries — a circum- 
 stance that marks the contemporaneous use of baugs 
 with Roman imperial coins. ^ Some of the baugs found 
 in graves consist of small spiral i"ings, strung upon a 
 large loop, like keys upon a modern key-ring. If the 
 spiral rings were used as money, the loop was probably 
 the "silver aurar." But I am inclined to believe that 
 these particular baugs were not money. 
 
 In the following passage the baug was evidently used 
 for sacerdotal or ceremonial purposes: "Egil fastened 
 a baug on each arm of the dead Throlf, and then buried 
 him."' "A baug was paid for a bride."* King Olaf 
 the Holy (a. d. 993-98) sent a large gold baug from 
 England to Queen Sigrid in Sweden. He wanted to 
 marry her. She had the ring broken, and found that 
 the inside consisted of brass. "^ This was the same 
 
 1 St. Olaf's saga, c. 16; Du Chaillu, ii., p. 485. 
 
 2 Du Chaillu, i., 245. sEgil'ssaga. 
 
 4 "Frostathing, " vi., 4. S "Olaf Trygvaeson, 65-6. 
 
258 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 Olaf who is said to have established Christianity in 
 Norway, and who helped Sveyn to conquer Northum- 
 bria. 
 
 Although the Goths employed moneys so diverse, as 
 are shown in the five classes stated above, they accorded 
 to them a valuation (as between the gold and silver 
 ones), which was peculiarly their own; and as in this 
 valuation, and its connection with passages in the sagas, 
 there are locked up many precious fragments of a 
 buried history, it is worth while to explain it at length. 
 
 What the Romans called a feira, or fair, the Goths 
 of Holmgard and lestland called a merk, or market, 
 possibly from mir, a community, the term being still 
 used in Russia.' Gatherings by this name were held 
 in villages once a week, when the people came together 
 and exchanged their produce and wares. At these 
 markets very little or no money was employed. At 
 the great fairs, which were held once a year — for exam- 
 ple, at Novgorod Veleki — traders came from the most 
 distant regions, from China, India, Mikliardi (Constan- 
 tinople), Lumbardi, Gaulland, Angleland, Frakkland, 
 Saxland, Gotland, Heligoland, Vinet, and lestland. 
 "Lodin, a Norwegian trader, was once at a market in 
 Eistland.'" At these fairs money was the necessary me- 
 dium of exchange; and the most important question to 
 be settled in respect of money was the ratio of value 
 between gold and silver coins, for this is where the ut- 
 most diversity existed among the various people who 
 brought their goods to the merk. During the four cen- 
 turies which preceded the Gothic revolt against Rome, 
 that is to say from Sylla to Carausius — the orientals 
 
 1 The term mark is still used by the Scots. In their ancient scale of 
 moneys there were 2 doits (fingers) to a boodle, 2 boodles to a plack, 
 3 placks to a bawbee, and I3j^ bawbees, or 160 doits, to the merk. 
 
 2 "Olaf Trygvaeson " p. 58. The Flateyarbok contains an animated 
 description of the Great Fair at Novgorod("Anc. Brit.," c. xix-.^-^'-ze). 
 
SAXONY AND SCANDINAVIA 2^9 
 
 valued gold at about 6i times its weight in silver, the 
 Persians at 13 times, the Greeks at 10 times, and the 
 Romans (from the time of Julius Caesar) at 12 times. 
 Possibly for the reason that it was a convenient mean 
 between these various ratios the Goths of the third 
 century adopted the ratio of eight for one; in other 
 words, gold coins were to pass current for eight times 
 their weight of silver ones. The Roman libra of this 
 period consisted of five gold aureii, each of 90 English 
 grains. Hence, it contained 450 English grains of 
 gold, and the libra of silver 12x450=5,400 English 
 grains of silver. At the Gothic ratio of 8 for i, it 
 only required 3,600 grains weight of silver in merk 
 money to pay off a Roman libra of account, and hence 
 it was that this quantity of silver coins came to be 
 known as a merk, or mark. 
 
 If we have correctly indicated the origin and signif- 
 icance of this interesting term, the equivalents em- 
 ployed at the great fairs of the Baltic cities during the 
 dark ages were as follows, the integer being the mark 
 of silver coins, weighing about 3,600 grains, the origin 
 of the Saxon mark weight of a subsequent age, but as 
 yet only a sum of money. In this system there were 
 eight silver saigas to the ortugar; 4ortugars to the ora; 
 2 oras to the eyrir; and 4 eyrirs to the mark.' 
 
 At a subsequent period there were 6 bronze pen- 
 ningen to the silver penningar,and 10 silver penningar to 
 the ortugar; but with these and other variations we have 
 at present no concern. As for the relation of the mark 
 and eyrir there is some uncertainty.* There was also a 
 coin called a thveit,but its value has not been ascertained.' 
 
 1 "German Law,'' vi , 13; "Bavarian Law," ix., 3, 4; De Vienne, 
 "Livre d'Argent;" Du Chaillu "Viking Age," ii., p. 216 
 
 2 "The eyrir of gold" is mentioned in the Egil saga, c. 7. Compare 
 Du Chaillu, ii., pp. 13, 58 n, 216. 
 
 3 Du Chaillu, ii., p. 238. 
 
26o HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 A few words here to those numismatists who still 
 linger in the exploded belief that the names of moneys 
 are derived from weights. The mark of moneys was 
 traced by Agricola (a. d. 1550) to the earliest annals of 
 the Cimbrian peninsular; the Roman libra of five solidi 
 is defined in the Theodosian Code, and is mentioned 
 by authors of a much earlier period. It was Elagabalus 
 who ordered all the tributes to be collected in aureii, 
 or else in silver coins of equal value, which, as the law 
 then stood, meant twelve times their weight. The ratio 
 of 14.40 for I in the reign of Theodosian, deduced by 
 Rome de Lisle, Boeckh, and other metrologists, is a 
 blunder, based on a wrong reading of the Code, and 
 the modern delusion that a libra always meant a pound 
 weight, which was no more true in the days of Theo- 
 dosius than it is now. The gold sicilicus,or little solidus, 
 which, toward the end of its career, contained about 
 sixteen grains, and was indicated by the middle of term 
 of £. s. d., was struck by Justinian, and specimens are 
 now in the Madrid collection. Indeed, we are assured 
 by Father Mariana that it was struck at a much earlier 
 date, when, of course, it weighed something more. He 
 speaks of some of these earlier sicilici in his own col- 
 lection. 
 
 Returning to the mark of the Baltic, if we include 
 the whole period of the dark and middle ages, its 
 weight varied in different places from about 3,800 to 
 3,200 grains, according to the dale when the mark was 
 adopted; in other words, according to the fineness of 
 the bangs or coins employed to make up the sum of a 
 mark. As this was to consist of 3,600 grains of silver 
 in bangs or coins equal in fineness to gold standard, 
 and as the Roman gold standard of the third century 
 was f^ fine, it followed that whenever coins fell below 
 
SAXONY AND SCANDINAVIA 26 1 
 
 this Standard they had to be increased in number to 
 make up the' Gothic mark of money. This circum- 
 stance accounts for the variation in the mark weights 
 of England, Cologne, Holland, Scandinavia, lestland 
 and Novgorod. The mark weights which are of less 
 than 3,600 grains — as are those of Castile, Stockholm, 
 Riga, Konigsberg, etc. — are the progeny, not of early 
 debased coins, but of subsequently degraded weights. 
 
 The coins found at Aarleslen and Mallgard are not 
 the only examples of Gothic or Saxon imitations. 
 Molds for making false Roman coins, and the coins 
 with them, have been found beneath King William 
 Street, London ; at Lingwell Gate, in Yorkshire : at 
 Edington, in Somersetshire; at Ruyton and Wroxeter, 
 in Shropshire; at Castor, in Northamptonshire; at Eper- 
 n ay, in France ; and at other places. Some of these 
 may have been of Roman fabrication, while others 
 were Gothic. The earliest ones mentioned imitated 
 the coins of Claudius; the latest, those of Constantius. 
 Gothic imitations of the coins of Louis Debonnaire have 
 been found in the Netherlands. 
 
 The monkish chronicles repi'esent the Goths as being 
 always pirates and destroyers, but the security and 
 prosperity of Vinet, Julin, Bardewic, Luneburg, and 
 other Gothic cities; the great fairs of Holmgard, 
 Gardariki, Eistland, Saxony and Denmark; the or- 
 ganization of the pagan Hansa, which — centuries before 
 the establishment of the Christian Hansa — monop- 
 olized the maritime commerce of northern and western 
 Europe; and many other circumstances, prove the con- 
 trary. The following incident, which relates to the 
 terrible invasion of Attila (a. d. 450), indicates that 
 the Goths, at all events at this period, were anything 
 but savage people, for it alludes with horror to the cruel. 
 
262 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 ties of the Huns. It is from the Volsunga saga, one of 
 the oldest Norse scriptures still extant. 
 
 " King Atli (Attila) tortured his prisoners at the stake. 
 . . He cut out the thrall's heart, because he 
 would not tell where the gold was. . . . Then he 
 cut out the heart of Hogni, who smiled as he under- 
 went the torture. . . . They showed the heart to 
 King Guunar (Gondicar I, the Gothic king of Bur- 
 gundy), who said: 'I know where the gold is, but the 
 Rhine shall keep it sooner than the Huns shall wear it 
 on their arms. . . . Atli, mayst thou fare as ill as 
 thou did'st keep faith with me!'" How strangely this 
 reads like the dying curse of Montezuma's brother, 
 whom Cortez coldly put to death at Shrovetide in 1525, 
 for precisely the same offense! This was because he 
 would not, or could not, disclose the gold hoards or 
 mines for which the Spanish adventurer thirsted. "Oh, 
 Malinche (Cortez), it is long that I have known the 
 falseness of your words, and have foreseen that you 
 would award me that death which, alas! I did not give 
 myself when I surrendered to you in my city of Mex- 
 ico. Wherefore do you slay me without justice? May 
 God demand it of you!" 
 
 Whatever development of civilization was attained 
 by the Goths and other Saxon tribes of the Baltic, it 
 was cut down, root and branch, by the mighty arm of 
 Rome wielding the zealous sword of Charlemagne. 
 Between A. d. 768 and 800 this bigot destroyed hun- 
 dreds of thousands of the Saxon race, transported vast 
 numbers of the survivors to Upper Germany, filled their, 
 places with Germans, leveled their cities — including 
 Vinet, Julin, Bardewic, and Luneburg — almost to the 
 dust, and drove their commerce to Norway, Sweden, 
 Finland, Russia, Britain, Ireland, and even to Iceland. 
 
SAXONY AND SCANDINAVIA 263 
 
 The exterminating wars which the Western Empire 
 waged against Gothic Saxony explain an otherwise 
 insoluble problem of history. Why are there no Nor- 
 wegian or Swedish regal coins before the epoch of 
 Charlemagne? Because these countries had no kings. 
 The seat of Ivan Vidfami's power was Eistlandor Aus- 
 triki. It was from this center that, in the fifth century, 
 the Norse fleets ravaged the coasts and began or ex- 
 tended their conquests in Saxony, Denmark, Sweden, 
 Norway, Britain, France, and' Spain; audit is with the 
 saigas of Eistland that we must begin our researches in- 
 to Scandinavian monetary history. The list of Norse 
 kings from Odin to the Skol-konungs of the eighth 
 century are purely fanciful. Jarls and fylki-konungs 
 and vikings of Sweden and Norway there were in 
 plenty, but we are persuaded that no sovereign existed 
 on the northern peninsula, clothed with independent 
 regal attributes, until the Saxon kings were defeated 
 by Charlemagne, and the seat of Gothic power was re- 
 moved from the southern to the northern, western and 
 eastern shores of the Baltic. In the eighth and ninth 
 centuries, Gothic kings, exercising sovereign powers, 
 disappear from Saxony, whilst others spring up all of 
 a sudden in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden ; the 
 germs of Gothic republics are established in Russia 
 and Iceland; Gothic refugees reinforce the populations 
 of Normandy and Britain; and in all of these countries 
 Gothic coins make their appearance. In Scandinavia 
 this period yields us the earliest coins of local mintage ; 
 in Novgorod we have an i^sue of Gothic leather money ; 
 in England, where the Goths had often before struck 
 money, they now exhibit us — and that, too, in gold — 
 the pagan coins and Moslem legends of Ofia; while in 
 Iceland the Norse colonists went back to the primeval 
 
264 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 vadmal and fish-money ("sild") of the Saxon coasts. 
 From this period the Saxons disappear from history, 
 and the Scandinavians take their place. Is it not quite 
 evident that these are only two names for the same 
 Gothic people? 
 
 We must now make a short digression in order to 
 trace the origin of the pagan Hanseatic League. Un- 
 der the hierarchical government of Rome, which began 
 with the semi-mythicdl Romulus and ended with the 
 overthrow of the Tarquins, all corporations (collegii) 
 were chartered by the chief-pontiff. These included 
 both sacerdotal and commercial bodies, such as the 
 Fratres Ambarvales, the Luperci, and the trade guilds 
 of Numa. In b. c. 306, the Senate, which had now 
 become republican, forbade the formation of any new 
 sacerdotal communities, and abolished all commercial 
 corporations, new or old. In b. c. 59, when the re- 
 public was about to expire, and upon the motion of P. 
 Clodius, provisions were made for the re-establishment 
 and increase of corporations by the Senate — a power, 
 of which, under the hierarchy erected by Julius Caesar, 
 that ambitious body was afterwards entirely deprived. 
 This power was now again, as in the ancient times, 
 vested in the sovereign-pontiff, andlit continued to be 
 exercised by that functionary from b. c. 47 to a. d. 
 1204, when the long line of Roman hierarchs was 
 broken by the fall of Constantinople. Among the »h- • 
 j»eF©«s commercial corporations whose remains attest 
 the exercise of this power by the sovereign-pontiff of 
 'Rome are the Navicularii of Alexandria and the Nautse 
 of Paris, both of them companies of maritime adven- 
 ture. But far more important than these, or any other 
 corporations of ancient or mediaeval times, was the' 
 Hansa established at a very early epoch by the pagan 
 
SAXONY AND SCANDINAVIA 265 
 
 Goths, chartered — or more properly licensed — bjj. the* 
 Basileus in the fifth or sixtli century; gKeaS§2Sa*B«ged 
 by Charlemagne and his successors during the ninth, 
 tenth, and eleventh centuries, .'^"d ftflf^^l y dpstm y^d 
 bj;-4 h u ' p apal -f Qj^ee-s and superseded b}' the Christian 
 Hanseatic League in the twelfth 6r thirteenth century. 
 As the Christian Hansa was the ^i^S&sinade corpora- 
 tion chartered by or under the authority of the Latin 
 Christian pontiffs, and asall the so-called ancient trade- 
 guilds of the present time came into existence soon af- 
 terwards and by virtue of the same sacerdotal authority, 
 it is worth while to rescue from the oblivion into which 
 they have fallen the scant chronicles and remains of 
 the once powerful pagan Hansa, upon whose ashes 
 were planted this crop of Christian companies, the pro- 
 genitors, in turn, of an entire forest of modern com- 
 mercial corporations. The word "han" is Mongolian, 
 and means a corporation, guild, company, or associa- 
 tion; "hansa" is the Latin form of it. Concerning the 
 origin of the Hansa we have no explicit information, 
 but it may have existed when Caesar broke up the com- 
 mercial emporium of the Veneti, which he discovered 
 at the mouth of the Loire, and who sent to their col- 
 leagues in Britain and the Netherlands for assistance 
 against his attacks.^ Two centuries later than this 
 there was a trading station at Scandea, in the island of 
 Cythera, south of the Morea. From its Gothic name, 
 the quarrel its people had with the king of Pontus, 
 where the Veneti formerly dwelt, the fact that it was 
 inhabited by a community of foreigners as well as Dc- 
 lians — and of foreigners, too, who were famous sailors 
 and merchants — as well as from other circumstances, 
 Scandea appears to have been an emporium of the 
 Veneti.^ 
 
 I Cssar, "De Bell. Gall.," iii., c. 9. 2 Pausanias, "Laconics," 23 
 
266 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 The earliest positive information concerning the pa- 
 gan Hansa is furnished by Werdenhagen, who informs 
 us that, ages before the establishment of the Christian 
 Hansa, there existed a number of confederated com- 
 mercial cities on the shores of the Baltic and North 
 Seas, and upon the lower banks of the rivers that empty 
 into them, including the Volkof, Dwina, Memel, Vistula, 
 Oder, Elbe, Aller, Ems, lessel, Rhine, and Weser: that 
 among these cities were Dantzic (Danes-wic) Julin, 
 Vinet, Bardewic (Bhadrwic), Munster, Dortmund, 
 Nimeguen, Tiel and Deventer, and that the confed- 
 eracy included such distant places as Novgorod and 
 Cologne; that all these cities practiced freedom of 
 trade; and that they were all destroyed or conquered, 
 and their inhabitants put to the sword, or banished, 
 to make room for a Christian Hansa that was substi- 
 tuted in its place. Julin is described by Adam of Bre- 
 men, writing about 1080, as the richest city in Europe. 
 Helmoldus says the same. Meursius calls it the capital 
 of the Vandals, and Gibbon says that the Vandals were 
 Goths. Vinet is described by Helmoldus. Bardewic 
 stood about a mile north of Luneburg. Both of these 
 cities were captured and sacked by Charlemagne, and 
 their inhabitants slaughtered or driven away. In the 
 twelfth century these cities were finally destroyed — 
 Vinet in 1127, Bardewic and Luneburg in 1137, Julin 
 in 1 140. Within half a century of this time the Chris- 
 tian Hansa, chartered by the pope, slipped into the 
 place of its pagan predecessor, absorbed its trade, and 
 divided its profits.' 
 
 Let us now visit the great annual fair or merk of 
 Novgorod, shortly after Ruric made that city his seat 
 of government. Let us rehabilitate the moneys of the 
 pagan Hansa, and read the tablet upon which was in- 
 
 T "Ancient Britain," ch. xiii. 
 
SAXONY AND SCANDINAVIA 
 
 267 
 
 scribed, in Gothic runes, the value of the various moneys 
 then current in the Baltic. The weights are in English 
 grains. The standard at this period was that of the 
 Arabian coins.' The scale of equivalents was 4 ortu- 
 gar=:i ora; and 8 oras = i mark. There were probably 
 3 saigas to the ortugar. 
 
 Conjectural Moneys of Novgorod: ninth century. 
 
 Gold Moneys, 
 
 Chinese slug,, weight 8J^ taels 
 
 Indian dharana, 130 to i2o grs 
 
 Old Roman solidus, 90 grs 
 
 Later Roman solidus, 72 grs 
 
 Triente, 24 grs 
 
 Sicilicus, 18 grs 
 
 Sicilicus, 16 grs. 
 
 Moslem dinar, 65 grs 
 
 Quarter dinar, i6 grs 
 
 Gothic bang (Du Chaillu) 
 
 Silver Moneys. 
 
 Indian siccals, 84^ grs 
 
 Dirhem; Tahir-bin-Al Husain^ 
 
 Roman denarius (old) 
 
 Roman denarius, Elagabalus 
 
 Dirhem, 43 grs.' 
 
 Half-dirhera, or lesterling 
 
 Silver bang 
 
 Ortugar (Law of Upland, 1296) 
 
 Christian pening. 22^ grs. standard., 
 
 Christian pening, 14 grs., fine 
 
 Christian pening, yj^ grs., fine 
 
 
 
 u 2 
 
 5 
 
 N 
 
 ° m 
 
 
 T3 
 
 °^% 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 2"- 
 
 u 
 
 C/3 
 
 '■^t 
 
 ^ 
 
 u 
 
 ri 
 
 gen 
 
 P GO 
 
 % 
 
 6 
 
 l-t 
 
 
 
 20 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 4 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 3 
 
 — 
 
 — ■ 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 2 
 
 
 — 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 ^% 
 
 — 
 
 I 
 
 — 
 
 ~% 
 
 I 
 
 — 
 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 2 
 
 I 
 
 1 
 
 % 
 'A 
 
 Besides these moneys the paper notes of Heentsting, 
 A. D. 807, the leather notes of Edgar, king of Wessex, 
 and of Ruric of Novgorod, also porcelain coins of 
 
 1 For details of which see "Money and Civilization," p. 20. 
 
 2 Phayre's "Coins of Burmah," Num. Orient., Bengal. 
 
 3 The Moslems reckoned 10 dirhems to one dinar, a ratio of 614, The 
 Goths reckoned 12 dirhems to the dinar, a ratio of 8. 
 
268 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 Thibet and Siam, were probably seen at this fair; but 
 we have no accounts of them. There was also probably 
 employed at this fair, as we know there was at the fairs 
 of Baldwin III., in Flanders, a system of clearings called 
 "permutation," by which purchases and sales were 
 offset by debits and credits, only the balances of which 
 were settled in money.' 
 
 Specimens of nearly all the coins mentioned in the 
 above table have been found in Saxony or Scandinavia. 
 The finds of Moslem coins number tens of thousands, 
 the earliest being those of Abd-el-Melik (a. d. 684- 
 705), and the latest of AlKader (loio). At this period 
 the Moslems had mastered India. Coins of Abd-el- 
 Melik, Hachem (724-43), Walid 11. (743-4), Merwan 
 II. (744-50), Abbas (750-4), Al Mansur (754-75), and 
 Al Mahdi (775-85), together with others, have been 
 found near Christiania, and one coin of the last-named 
 caliph, together with several other Moslem coins, at 
 Eker, between Konigsberg and Drammen. A gold 
 coin of Haroun-al-Raschid (786-809), besides several 
 other gold and silver Moslem coins, were found at 
 Teisen Tundet, near Christiania, and are now in the 
 museum at that place,where I personally inspected them 
 in 1892. More than twenty thousand Moslem coins 
 have been found in Gotland and elsewhere in Sweden, 
 some of them struck by the caliphs of Spain. ^ The 
 choicest of these, together with some specimens of the 
 porcelain coins of Thibet and Siam, are in the Chris- 
 tiania collection. None of the leather or paper moneys 
 alluded to in the table are known to exist at the present 
 day. 
 
 From the period of Ruric (a. d. 862), whom the 
 Moslems called a Frank or a Feringhese, and|,the 
 
 1 AnnalesFlandrise," Anno 958; "Middle Ages Revisited," ch. xviii. 
 
 2 L. B. Stenerson. 
 
\ 
 
 SAXONY AND SCANDINAVIA 269 
 
 Greeks, a Varangian, a new era began for Scandinavia. 
 In Norway Harold Harfager (865-933) united tlie jarl- 
 doms and established the kingdom; although, in con- 
 sequence of the conversion of Olaf Ti-ygvaeson (995-8), 
 a civil war afterwards ensued, and Norway was divided 
 (a. D. 1000) between Denmark, whose king had ac- 
 cepted Christianity, and Sweden, which had not. Un- 
 der Canute (1014-35) Norway formed part of his united 
 realms of Denmark, England, and Norway, and under 
 Magnus.it again became a sole kingdom. 
 
 After the death of Gotfried by poison in 819, Den- 
 mark was awarded by the pope to Harold, who had 
 been baptized at the Court of Louis le Debonnaire; but 
 the Danes do not seem to have been disposed to ac- 
 cept a Christian king until nearly two centuries later. 
 
 Like Norway, Sweden was ruled by petty fylkings, 
 until Biorn united them under one crown and Eric 
 Arsell (993-1001) acquired part of Norway. Thus, in 
 the three Scandinavian kingdoms there existed a pecu- 
 liar interval, which began in Denmark with Gotfried, 
 in Sweden with Biorn, and in Norway with Harold 
 Harfagei", and ended in all of them with the plunder of 
 the temple at Upsala by Hakon Jarl and the definitive 
 establishment of Christianity in the eleventh century.' 
 During this interval all the Scandinavian states united 
 their petty rulers, and became sole kingdoms; they 
 were freed from the evils of divided government, 
 though as yet they were strangers to the trammels of 
 Rome. They were devoted to traffic, and possessed 
 an emporium in the powerful republic of Novgorod, 
 through which passed a lucrative commerce with the 
 Orient. "Who can resist the gods and Novgorod?" 
 ran an exultant proverb of the period. But with the 
 
 I Hakon Jarl ( who had been baptized in Denmark) plundered the 
 great temple in Gotland and got much property. Jomsviking saga, cap. 1. 
 
2*70 HISTORY OF MONETARV SYSTEMS 
 
 termiuation of this interval, the Hansa, which before 
 the Carlovingian era possessed emporia or staples at 
 every port of northern and western Europe, was re- 
 stricted to those only which adhered to the pagan re- 
 ligion; for the Christians refused it all accommodation. 
 Thus, in the tenth century the Hanseatic commerce was 
 confined, first, to the Scandinavian states, which being 
 comparatively poor and sparsely populated could take 
 but little of it; second, to some of the French, English, 
 and Irish ports; and third, to Moslem Spain. This 
 last was its chief dependence. In the eleventh century, 
 as Christianity was introduced into the northern Courts 
 (the first Christian pennies known to have been struck 
 in Norway were those of Hai'old Hardrade, 1047-66), 
 the trade of the pagan Hansa was almost exclusively 
 with Spain. The civil wars in which that country was 
 involved during the minority of Hachem II. greatly 
 injured the trade of the Hansa. Mahomet ben Hachem 
 and other usurpers mounted the throne of Cordova; 
 the city was taken and retaken several times; the aid 
 of Christian princes was invoked by both parties, and 
 always with loss of territory. By the middle of the 
 eleventh century the sun of the Omeiads went down, 
 and the prosperous epoch of the Spanish Arabs came 
 to an end.^ This was the death-blow to the Gothic 
 Hansa. It lost its remaining emporia in the west. 
 It might buy, but it could no longer sell. Except as 
 to the now distracted kingdoms of Cordova and 
 Granada, Christianity had built a commercial wall 
 around the whole of Europe, within which no pagan 
 was permitted to trade. So the great ships of the 
 Norsemen folded their wings and retired to the Baltic, 
 while the pagan league of the Hansa underwent the 
 I Calcott's "History of Spain," ch. vii. 
 
SAXONY AND SCANDINAVIA 2*] I 
 
 process of christianization, and fitted itself for a new 
 career. The profits of the Hansa offered to the 
 mediaeval church a powerful lever of evangelization. 
 During the interval following the civil wars in Spain, 
 and before the earliest mention of the Christian Hansa 
 (a. d. 1 140), occurred the definitive conversion of all 
 the Gothic sovereigns to Christianity; in Sweden Ingo 
 I., in Norway Harold Hardrade, and in Denmark. 
 Waldemar I. ; though judging from the tone of some 
 of their letters to the pope, the Norsemen accepted the 
 new dispensation with no littledistrust of Rome.' Chris- 
 tianity is said to have been introduced into the whole 
 "empire," including Novgorod, by Vladimir (him of 
 the 800 wives and 12 sons) in the year 989; but the 
 fratricidal wars between the sons of Yaroslov render it 
 all but certain that, at least so far as Novgorod and 
 Kief are concerned, those great trading centers did 
 not accept it until about the period of the fall of Con- 
 stantinople. By the middle of the thirteenth century 
 the process of christianization was completed. Kings, 
 people, shipping, wore a new crown, a new dress, a 
 new flag. One more reform remained to be accom- 
 plished. The Jews, who had officiated as go-betweens 
 in the commerce of the old Hansa and the earlier com- 
 merce of the new Hansa with Spain, were no longer 
 needed. Accordingly some few thousands of them 
 were slaughtered in the streets of London and Paris, 
 and the rest banished to Moslem Spain — or to Hades. 
 When these middlemen were quite disposed of, prices 
 advanced and trade became far more profitable. 
 
 I Waldemar, King of Denmark, to the Bishop o£ Rome, greeting (this 
 was Gregory XI., who had threatened him with excommanication):" We 
 hold our life from God, our kingdom from our subjects, our riches from 
 our parents, and our faith from thee, the which if thou wilt not grant it 
 to us any longer we do by these presents resign. Farewell." Boulain- 
 villiers, "Life of Mahomet," p. 3. 
 
272 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 The earliest coins imputed to the kings of Sweden 
 are the silver pieces of Biorn, a. d. 818, which imitated 
 those of Charlemagne even to the cross stamped upon 
 them, although Biorn was not a Christian.^ The next 
 earliest moneys of the North appear to have been the 
 leather notes of Ruric, 862-79.^ Between this date and 
 the reign of Olaf Trygvaeson of Norway we continue 
 . to read of fairs. There, money must have been em- 
 ployed,' but no native coins ascribed to this period ap- 
 pear in the public collections, at all events, not in those 
 of Christiania, Paris or London. About the date of 
 the battle of Brunanburgh, Ethelstan, or Ethelred, is 
 said to have offered Olaf a skilling for every plough in 
 his kingdom, if he would makepeace.* This skilling I 
 take to have been the quarter-dinar of about 16 grains. 
 
 There are no Christian coins of Norway until Hakon 
 Jarl, who appears to have conveyed the plunder of 
 Upsala to England, for the "pennies" which he struck 
 from it, and of which Rome received its share as Peter's 
 pence, bear the names of Anglo-Saxon moneyers.' 
 Nor, as before stated, are there any native Christian 
 coins until Harold Hardrade. These circumstances 
 offer an emphatic contradiction to the monkish story 
 of the conversion of Norway by Olaf Trygvaeson, for 
 the Roman religion and monetary system always went 
 
 1 Humphreys' "Coin Manual," p. 529. 
 
 2 "Money and Civilization," p. 294. 
 
 3 See the Flateyarbok and the Faerynga and Olaf Trygvaeson sagas 
 (ch. V.) 
 
 4 Egil saga. This same Ethelred paid more than 167,000 "pounds of 
 silver" as danegeld (Du Chaillu, ii., p. 222). Some commentators re- 
 gard this to mean 167,000 pounds weight of silver bullion. Dr. Henry 
 (Notes, 18), with more reason, makes it /i67,ooo money. But it is 
 useless to conjecture what it means until we know the date when (as- 
 
 I suming the statement to be true) the phrase "pounds of silver" was 
 translated from its original terms. 
 
 5 Greijer. The Ynlinga saga informs us that for a time the tax of 
 Rome scat was collected from the people "for Odin. " Very likely. But 
 it is pretty safe to conclude that, unless he lived in Rome, Odin never 
 got any of it. 
 
SAXONY AND SCANDINAVIA 273 
 
 hand in hand. It is not denied that Olaf himself may 
 have been converted, nor that he committed the cru- 
 elties with which he is said to have punished those who 
 refused to accept his new religion ; but it is held that 
 the evidence of the coins and the nomenclature of 
 moneys both go to prove that paganism was still the 
 religion of the people. This numismatic evidence is 
 supported by other circumstances. Olaf's son, Olaf II., 
 was expelled from the kingdom by Canute in 1028 and 
 killed in 1030. After Olaf's expulsion Canute reigned 
 until 1029, and after him reigned his son Sveyn, 1030- 
 53, both of them Christian but anti-papal kings. In 
 1036 Magnus I., the natural son of Olaf II., and a -pro- 
 tege of Rome, was awarded the kingdom of Denmark 
 and Norway by the Papal See. In 1046 Harold Hard- 
 rade took the kingdom, invaded England, and entered 
 York. After Harold's defeat at Stanford Bridge in 
 1066 his son, Olaf III., with Magnus II., became joint 
 kings of Norway, and in the following year Hakon 
 became king of Sweden. In 1069 Olaf III. be- 
 came sole king of Norway, and it was not until the 
 reign of his contemporary, Ingo I., of Svi'eden, that 
 the great pagan temple at Upsala was destroyed, about 
 1075, and Christianity definitively though not yet uni- 
 versally established in that country.' Nor was it until 
 1152 that, taking advantage of the dissensions between 
 Magnus IV. and Harold, the Papal See succeeded in 
 establishing an arch-bishopric at Trondheim in Norway. 
 Nor again was it until after two centuries of civil wars, 
 during which the history of that country is written 
 only with the sword, the bludgeon, and the torch, that 
 Christianity was universally established under Magnus 
 
 I "Ancient Britain," xiv., p. 5. Adam of Bremen described the temple 
 of Upsala as being roofed with gold and filled with the greatest riches 
 (Du Chaillu). 
 
274 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 VI., the Legislator. The intimate racial, religious, 
 political, and dynastic connection between the states' 
 of the Gothic peninsular, render it highly improbable 
 that either of them adopted the new religion much be- 
 fore the other. Sweden could not have been entirely 
 evangelized, whilst Norway was shedding its blood in 
 the played-out cause of Odin; nor Norway have been 
 a Christian state, so long as pagan sacrifices smoked 
 upon the polluted altars of Upsala.' 
 
 In the ninth century the Scandinavian mark of money 
 contained 240 grains of gold, or 1,920 grains of silver; 
 in the thirteenth century, reign of Magnus VI., there 
 were no gold marks, whilst the silver mark only con- 
 tained about 1,200 grains. At the ratio which pre- 
 vailed on the Continent these were worth 100 grains, 
 whilst in Scandinavia they were valued at 150 grains, 
 of gold. In the reign of Magnus VII. (Smek), 1319- 
 43, a mark weight of silver was coined into five marks 
 of money, and half a mark was deducted for seignior- 
 age. If this was fine silver, each mark contained 720 
 grains, or about the quantity in two American or Mex- 
 ican dollars of the present day; but I am inclined to 
 believe that all these quantities were of standard metal. 
 During this reign copper coins were first employed in 
 Norway, and toward the close of it even leather money 
 was introduced, each piece studded with a silver rivet. 
 The device of leather money had been carried fi'om 
 Novgorod to England, where Edgar of Wessex, 959- 
 75, made use of it; from England to Norway, where 
 it was employed in 988 by Olaf I ; from Norway to 
 France, where it was used by Philip I.,io6o-iio8; and 
 from France to Sicily, where similar money was issued 
 by William the Bad, 1154-66. It now again served 
 
 I During the pagan era Upsala was the name for all Sweden. Il 
 sounds curiously like the Ober-saala or Ober-icssel of the Low Countries. 
 
SAXONY AND SCANDINAVIA 275 
 
 to sustain for a time the feeble resources of Norway : 
 "Coriaria pecunia certis argenteis punctis quibis valor 
 in pondere et numero pensavetur variata.'" But the 
 state was exhausted and nothing could at present re- 
 vive it. In 1379 Norway struck her last coin.^ Then 
 she lost her national autonomy and dropped into the 
 lap of Margaret, queen of Denmark. From this time 
 forward until the epoch of Gustavus Vasa, Norway 
 ceased to be an independent state. 
 
 The early history of the coinage of Sweden differs 
 but little from that of Norway. Both of these states 
 were erected by "Saxons," who sought a refuge from 
 the exterminating wars of Charlemagne; both of them 
 had thriven upon the profits of the Hansa, and both of 
 them declined when the Hansa fell under the control 
 of Rome. As if to render this decline the more rapid, 
 both countries were overrun with a horde of Roman 
 priests, who fastened themselves like vampires upon 
 every source of revenue, including the silver mines. 
 They reduced the bondr to slavery,' worked them 
 in the mines,* incited the leudrmen to civil war, usurped 
 their estates, and amused themselves by destroying or 
 defacing the runic monuments, altering the sagas, and 
 inventing a fabulous history for the country which had 
 so generously filled their stotnachs and wallets. For 
 venturing to question the right of the Roman priest- 
 hood to the estates which they had stolen from the 
 lords, their elected king, Charles VIII. (Canutson), was 
 solemnly excommunicated at high mass by John, Arch- 
 bishop of Upsala, assisted by six Swedish bishops and 
 the rest of the clergy. "Then they went out of the 
 church to commence a civil war, which lasted seven 
 
 1 Olaus Magnus, cited in Greijer's "History of Sweden," p. 103. 
 
 2 Humphreys. 3 Voltaire. 4 Greijer. 
 
276 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 years," and which ended with the defeat of Charles 
 and the triumph of their champion, John of Den- 
 mark.' 
 
 In 1396, during the reign of Margaret, the mark of 
 money was equal in value to 45 Lubeck skillings,* 
 each of which contained about 9.43 grains fine silver, 
 a proof that the mark weight of Denmark was coined 
 during this reign into 8i marks of money. As to the 
 Christian talent of Scandinavia which seems to have 
 originated at this period, it was identical with the money 
 mark, and like that coin it contained about 424-^ grains 
 of fine silver. It was divided into 48 skillings each of 
 12 pennies. Each skilling therefore contained about 
 8.843 grains of fine silver. Under Eric VII. (the Pom- 
 eranian), king of Denmark, also known as Eric XIII. 
 of Sweden (a. d. 1434), the mark weight continued to 
 be coined into 8^ marks of money. In 1470 what 
 Humphreys regards as half-pennies of silver were first 
 coined, but it is not safe to accept the denomination of 
 these coins from an author so unfamiliar with Scandi- 
 navian monetary law. During the reign of John II. 
 (Hans), of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden (1481- 
 ISI3)> were struck the first gold coins since the pagan 
 era. These were of ,240, 120, 6o, and 30 grains, and 
 were apparently intended to pass for 8, 4, 2, and i 
 marks each respectively. They were of the same type 
 (an armad man standing in the waist of a ship) as the 
 gold coins of Edward III. of England. The writer 
 found several specimens of them in the Christiania col- 
 lection, one in Paris, but none in the London collec- 
 tion. 
 
 As in 1509, according to Greijer, a mark weight of 
 silver was coined into 12^ marks of money, there were 
 
 I Voltaire. 2 Greiger, p. 61, .n 
 
SAXONY AND SCANDINAVIA 277 
 
 about 288i grains to the mark. If this conclusion be 
 well founded, and the gold coins were pure, the ratio 
 was 9.6 for one, thus 288^4- 30=9.6; but, as coinage 
 metal was used in both cases, and as the gold and silver 
 standards differed, the ratio was intended to be 10 for 
 I. This agrees with the prevailing ratio of the period 
 in northern Europe generally. I have met with a 
 statement elsewhere that the mark weight of silver in 
 1509 was coined into 5 marks of money, but lean neither 
 reconcile this with Greijer's statement nor with proba- 
 bility. 
 
 We now enter upon a period of great interest in the 
 monetary history ofScandinavia^ — the period of Gustavus 
 Vasa, the liberator of his country, and the political 
 founder of the Protestant religion. The reign of Chris- 
 tian II. had been signalized by the greatest atrocities. 
 Denmark and Sweden were the earliest to accept the 
 religion of Luther (15 17), which at that period con- 
 sisted of little more than a protest against the avidity, 
 the tyranny, and the impious sacraments (so they were 
 regarded)of Rome; and in 1517 the senate of Sweden,, 
 wearied with the exactions and tyranny of Troll, the 
 Roman archbishop of Upsala and the primate of tjie 
 kingdom, passed a resolution recommending3a«Tetire->, 
 .jsaeaf^v^^amonastery . Whereupon Troll obtained a 
 bull from the Pope^m'bidding tlie_£jt^,ution -of tlreir 
 *jrprfr"mpr^i^''"" and annulling their'^£r£ees. Not con- 
 
 tentwitn this, the vindictive primate prepared for them 
 a fearful vengeance. .At his instigation. King Chris- 
 tian, in 1520, invited two bishops, the whole senate of 
 Stockholm, and ninety-four lords, to sup with him at 
 his palace. There, with the Pope's bull in his hand, 
 Troll caused the whole company to be butchered, and 
 the grand prior of St. John of Jerusalem to be ripped 
 
278 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 open and his heart plucked out. The two monsters 
 (Christian and Troll) concluded their entertainment 
 by ordering a general massacre of the Lutherans with- 
 out distinction of rank, age, or sex.^ This abominable 
 act summoned the entire nation to arms, and for a 
 leader and king they elected Gustavus Vasa, the 
 nephew of Charles VIII. (Canutson). 
 
 At that period the Pope's legate in Deninark was an 
 Italian named Arcemboldi. Such was his avidity that, 
 by the sale of indulgences and other artifices, he man- 
 aged to squeeze out of the poorest country in Europe 
 nearly "two millions of florins," and was on the point 
 of remitting his plunder to Rome when Christian seized 
 it upon the pretext of needing it to subdue his excommu- 
 nicated subjects.^ A further measure of this exemplary 
 monarch was the emission of certain base silver pieces, 
 composed chiefly of copper, and cut with a shears, from 
 which they derived the vulgar name of "Christian's 
 klippings." On the one side was the impress of an 
 armed man, on the other three crowns.' 
 
 It was at this juncture that Gustavus Vasa appeared 
 upon the scene. The people were impoverished; they 
 were unorganized; they had no firearms;* but Chris- 
 tian (who was a t3n-ant as well as a zealot) and his min- 
 ister (who was little better than a wild beast) had com- 
 bined to offer them the grossest indignities and inflict 
 upon them the greatest injuries. These had fired the 
 Gothic blood. It was not merely Norway and Sweden 
 that rose up to throw off the shackles of Rome, it was 
 all Scandinavia. Lubeck supplied troops and fire- 
 arms, and the Chersonesus Cimbrica — that is to say, 
 Jutland, or, as it was now called, the Duchy of Schles- 
 wick — transmitted to the tyrant of Denmark a demand 
 
 I Voltaire, iv., p. 65. 2 Voltaire, iii., p. 185. 
 
 3 Greijer, p. 103. 4 Voltaire, iii., p. 186. 
 
SAXONY AND SCANDINAVIA 279 
 
 of deposition which was read to him by a single unarmed 
 man, the chief magistrate of the Jutes, whose act should 
 never be permitted to fall into oblivion. This hero's 
 name was Mons, and it deserves to be written over the 
 gateway of every oppressor. The unlooked-for result 
 of Mon's brave act was the abdication and flight of the 
 cowardly Christian. His uncle Frederick was chosen 
 in his place, and became king of Denmark and Nor- 
 way; but the real sovereign was Gustavus Vasa. Him 
 the Swedish senate had elected king; and thenceforth 
 Sweden became an independent kingdom and the cen- 
 ter of Scandinavian political activity. 
 
 In conducting the revolution, which was crowned 
 with the liberation of Scandinavia and the establish- 
 ment of the t'rotestant religion, Gustavus made avail of 
 the monetary device instituted by Christian. The 
 latter had introduced the klippings for the sake of per- 
 sonal profit; Gustavus issued them for the benefit of 
 his country. Christian issued his klippings in the place 
 of the silver coins of the kingdom, which he obtained 
 by taxation, melted down, and sold to foreigners for 
 his own emolument; Gustavus issued his klippings to 
 sustain the cause of liberty. 
 
 And let it be remarked that I am not here advocat- 
 ing a policy, but chronicling a historical fact; all the 
 great enfranchisements of society have been accom- 
 plished with the aid of fiduciary money. The Spar- 
 tans won their liberties with the iron discs of Lycurgus; 
 the Athenians, before the Alexandrian period, rehabil- 
 itated the republic with" nomisma," a highly overvalued 
 copper issue; the Romans overthrew their kings with 
 the aid of overvalued "nummi," whose emissions were 
 controlled and regulated by the State, ex senatus con- 
 sulto. The earliest i-epublic in Europe which had the 
 
28o HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 courage to defy the moribund hierarchy of Caesar was 
 that of Novgorod, whose money was impressed upon 
 leather and, doubtless, issued by the State; the money 
 of the Scandinavian revolution was the "klippings" of 
 Gustavus Vasa, which were issued by the State; the 
 money by the aid of which Gustavus Adolphus saved 
 the Protestant religion from being stamped out by Fer- 
 dinand the Catholic was overvalued copper" rundstyks," 
 IsSued by the State ; the money of the Dutch revolution 
 was the pasteboard " dollars" issued by the city of Ley- 
 den ; of the American revolution, the paper notes issued 
 by the colonial governments; of the French revolution, 
 the "assignats" and "mandats" issued by the National 
 Assembly ; and of the anti-slavery war in the United 
 States, "greenbacks." All these moneys were issued 
 and the emissions were controlled by the State. They 
 were not individual notes, nor private bank-notes, but 
 essentially State notes. Indeed, the issuance of fiduciary 
 moneys by the State has so commonly attended all 
 social enfranchisements, that the occurrence of one of 
 these events is almost a certain indication of the other. 
 There is a reason for this, a reason that lies upon the 
 surface. When the people take the government of 
 a country into their own hands wealth naturally hides 
 itself, and the first form of wealth to disappear is the 
 precious metals. The moment a revolution or a civil 
 war is declared gold and silver disappear. Thereupon 
 the emission of fiduciary money by the State becomes 
 imperative, or else the revolution runs the risk of im- 
 mediate failure, for money is needed to purchase sub- 
 sistence and arms, to pay troops, and generally to carry 
 on the new government. 
 
 Such were the klippings of Gustavus Vasa. Greijer 
 says that they were valued in the laws at four times their 
 
SAXONY AND SCANDINAVIA 28 1 
 
 metallic worth. They were fabricated at Hedemora in 
 1520, and after having served the objects of the rev- 
 olution were decried or repudiated in 1524 without any 
 complaint from the people. Indeed, with these klip- 
 pings, as with the pasteboard dollars of Leyden, the 
 people preserved them in grateful memory of their 
 liberation. 
 
 Before going any further, it becomes necessary for 
 a clear understanding of what follows to trace the mark 
 weight, the mark of money, and the riksdaler, reich- 
 thaler, or imperial dollar, from the period of the con- 
 jectural Novgorod table to the latest times. In a table 
 printed below, the mark of Ruric is given at 3600 
 grains. This is adopted because it is an even figure, 
 and agrees with the Anglo-Saxon mark brought to 
 England; but it is more than probable that the mark 
 of this period was, in fact, made to agree with the 
 weights of the Arabian coins, which at that time formed 
 the principal currency of the Baltic, and, therefore, 
 that it weighed some multiple of the dirhem. The 
 Danish and Norwegian common mark is given at 
 3631.139 grains, and the Danish and Norwegian mint 
 mark at 3607.77455 grains, both by Schmidt's (Tate's) 
 Cambist. The mark of Stockholm is given by Kelly 
 at 4384 Swedish iesen, or 3252 English grains. In 
 the former case I have adopted 3607! grains, and in 
 the latter 3250 grains, as sufficiently exact for the mint 
 mark. In the numerous changes of government which 
 have occurred to the Scandinavian States, it is not al- 
 ways easy to determine what weights were used by 
 the mints. In selecting the mark believed to have been 
 used for coinage I have sometimes been guided by the 
 nationality of the issuing sovereign, sometimes by the 
 place of mintage, and sometimes by the actual weights 
 
282 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 of extant coins; but as these were often of irregular 
 alliage, I am not confident of having been always 
 successful. However, for the purposes of the table 
 referred to, the difference is not important. 
 
 The silver talent, or thaler, as shown in the chapter 
 of this work on the Moneys of Germany, was the 
 Roman equivalent in value of a gold solidus; after- 
 wards known as a ducat. Hence, during the Renais- 
 sance, when the ducat contained about 56^ grains, and 
 in the Ecclesiastical States, where the ratio was 12 for 
 I, the talent contained about 678 grains, whilst in the 
 Italian Republics (ratio 10 for i) it contained 565! 
 grains fine. Such was originally the contents of the 
 croisat, the scudo, the ducatone, etc., these names 
 and others meaning the same broad piece as the talent. 
 In the Scandinavian States during the fourteenth cen- 
 tury, where the ratio was still 8 for i, the mark of 
 money contained about 450 grains. After the firm estab- 
 lishment of Christianity every effort was made by the 
 church to eradicate pagan customs and reminiscences. 
 The use of runic letters was forbidden, the names of 
 pagan kings were suppressed, the pagan sagas were 
 revised, and even the popular use of pagan names for 
 moneys discouraged. Hence sild, saicca, styca, thveit, 
 thrimsa, scat, ortugar, and mark successively fell into 
 disuse, or were changed to Christian denominations. It 
 was in this way that the saicca became the penny, the 
 ora was changed into the shilling, and the mark was 
 metamorphosed into the talent. Notwithstanding these 
 measures, it proved so difficult to change the popular 
 names that the word "mark" continued to be stamped 
 on coins so late as the reign of Adolphus Frederick. 
 However, the plan succeeded far enough to destroy 
 the ancient value of all pagan contracts, rentals reve- 
 
SAXONY AND SCANDINAVIA 283 
 
 nues, etc., and this indeed may have been the more 
 practical object in view. 
 
 Assuming that the substitution of the name "talent" 
 for the "mark" of money was attempted at least as 
 early as.the reign of Margaret, it follows that the former 
 contained at that period 452^ grains gross or 424^ grains 
 fine; for, as already shown, such were the contents of 
 the money mark. From that period, until it acquired 
 the name of "riksdaler," the talent can be traced with 
 great precision. Nearly all the weights in the follow- 
 ing table were obtained from coins in the Paris col- 
 lection, kindly weighed in my presence by M. Cas- 
 anova. With few exceptions they were all very base, 
 many of them showing a heavy alloy of copper. Where 
 net weights are given they are mostly from Greijer and 
 from the appearance of the coins. Greijer's weights 
 seem too high. I fancy that the standard was often 
 much lower than the historian assumed. It will be 
 observed that in the reign of Eric XIV. the talent sud- 
 denly rises from about 450 to 560 grains. This was 
 occasioned by changing the ratio from 8 to 10 for i. 
 After having thus strangely but unmistakably asserted 
 its identity with the ancient mark of money, the (heavy) 
 talent disappeared altogether, and in the succeeding 
 years of the same reign it was replaced by the lighter 
 and more serviceable riksdaler of about 400 grains, 
 divided (now) into 8 degraded marks. Henceforth, 
 excepting during the reign of Charles XI. and Charles 
 XII., and again, during the Napoleonic wars, the 
 riksdaler kept its weight prett}' well ; whilst the mark 
 of money, which had anciently contained 1920 grains 
 of silver, was so often degraded, that in the seventeenth 
 century it contained less than 30 grains. It was then 
 raised a little and final!)' destroyed altogether. It is 
 
284 
 
 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 THE MARK WEIGHT AND THE SILVER MARK OF MONEY. 
 
 The fpUowing table shows the number of marks of money struck from 
 the mark weight of standard silver and the number of English 
 grains of standard silver in each mark of money. The mark weight 
 of Ruric has been reckoned at 3600, of Denmark and Norway at 
 36075^ and of Sweden at 3250 grains. 
 
 Year. 
 
 g cent. 
 1290 
 1319 
 1348 
 -396 
 1434 
 1509 
 
 1523 
 1527 
 1543 
 1557 
 1559 
 1546 
 1568 
 1 571 
 1575 
 1579 
 1590 
 
 1 591 
 1603 
 1604 
 1606 
 1O13 
 1628 
 1629 
 1630 
 1632 
 1671 
 1690 
 1694 
 1699 
 1711 
 1719 
 1750 
 1755 
 1762 
 
 Reign. 
 
 Ruric 
 
 Magnus VI 
 
 Magnus VII 
 
 Hakon V 
 
 Margaret 
 
 Eric VII 
 
 John 
 
 Gustavus Vasa. 
 
 Christian III. 
 Eric XIV.... 
 John III 
 
 Sigismund . . 
 Charles IX. 
 
 Gustavus Adolphus. 
 
 Charles XI. 
 
 Charles XII. 
 
 Ulrica 
 
 Frederick 
 
 |Adolphus Frederick. 
 
 Marks in 
 
 Mark. 
 
 ma'k wgt 
 
 Grains, 
 
 oL 
 
 1920.00 
 
 3 
 
 1202.59 
 
 5 
 
 721.55 
 
 5 
 
 721.55 
 
 8^ 
 
 424.50 
 
 S'A 
 
 424.50 
 
 12K 
 
 t288 33 
 
 22'A 
 
 •144.44 
 
 19^ 
 
 166.67 
 
 28?^ 
 
 112.63 
 
 26^ 
 
 122.40 
 
 26>4 
 
 "122.40 
 
 27i 
 
 132.90 
 
 65 
 
 50.00 
 
 32;^ 
 
 *I0O.00 
 
 30 
 
 *io8.33 
 
 30 
 
 *io8.33 
 
 34>^ 
 
 ♦94.20 
 
 mH 
 
 •94.20 
 
 45 
 
 •72.22 
 
 36M 
 
 *88.5o 
 
 33'A 
 
 *97.oo 
 
 30 . 
 
 •108.33 
 
 53 
 
 *6i.33 
 
 si'A 
 
 *39-85 
 
 114 
 
 •28.50 
 
 4&H 
 
 •66.50 
 
 45 
 
 •72.22 
 
 40 
 
 •81.25 
 
 230 
 
 •14.00 
 
 40 
 
 •81.25 
 
 40 
 
 •81.25 
 
 43 
 
 •77.40 
 
 29 
 
 "112.00 
 
 28^ 
 
 •112.63 
 
 32^ 
 
 9900 
 
 Notes to thk Table. *Deduced from the gross weight of coins in 
 the Paris collection. As these coins are greatly and variously debased, 
 the deductions, so far as net contents are concerned, are only approxima- 
 tive. 
 
 f Gross weight. 
 
T'.V RiiHi'i imberia! (si'v.'r'S t (hnt or Scin:{'iiaviatt riksdnler. 285 
 
 1396 
 
 I.t34 
 
 1509 
 
 1523 
 
 1527 
 
 1542 
 
 1543 
 
 1544 
 
 1557 
 
 «559 
 
 1546 
 
 156 
 
 1563 
 
 1563 
 
 1566 
 
 1368 
 
 1571 
 
 J575 
 
 1576 
 
 1579 
 
 1587 
 
 1590 
 
 J59> 
 
 1591 
 
 1594 
 
 1598 
 
 J599 
 
 1602 
 
 1603 
 
 1603 
 
 1604 
 
 ifio6 
 
 1607 
 
 1608 
 
 1609 
 
 1610 
 
 161 3 
 
 1618 
 
 1627 
 
 1627 
 
 1628 
 1629 
 1630 
 1631 
 
 1632 
 1654 
 1661 
 1671 
 1686 
 1G90 
 J694 
 
 1699 
 171 1 
 
 1716 
 1719 
 jyio 
 1750 
 1755 
 1762 
 1783 
 1820 
 ■830 
 ■937 
 
 1844 
 1368 
 .872 
 
 Margaret 
 Eric VII (VIII. 
 John 
 Gus. Vasa 
 
 ReiRn. 
 
 Christian III. 
 Eric XIV. 
 
 John in. 
 
 Sigismund 
 
 "? 
 Sigismund 
 
 Charles IX. 
 
 Gus. Adolf 
 
 Christina 
 Chas. Gust. 
 Charles XI. 
 
 Charles XII. 
 Charles XII. 
 
 HO 
 
 452.80 
 452.80 
 432-30 
 
 ♦14.85 
 430.50 
 447-50 
 447.50 
 447.50 
 
 537.00 
 547-38 
 556-41 
 553.20 
 399.63 
 398.50 
 447-50 
 447-50 
 424.00 
 455.18 
 448.80 
 439.60 
 39520 
 44750 
 44750 
 447-50 
 368 00 
 447-50 
 447-50 
 
 451.80 
 45>.8o 
 447.50 
 438 20 
 447.50 
 
 481.42 
 
 at 
 
 424. 5 
 424 5 
 
 400 o 
 367-9 
 367.2 
 39S.7 
 
 398.5 
 398.5 
 
 Ulrica 
 
 Frederick 
 Adolphus Freu. 
 
 Gustavus 
 Charles XIV. 
 
 Oscar I 
 CharlesXV. 
 Oscar II. 
 
 308.60 
 
 317-24 
 56.0J 
 
 327.12 
 316.32 
 
 3C0.88 
 469.00 
 441.60 
 449.92 
 
 452.92 
 
 525.00 
 525 00 
 525.00 
 
 524.16 
 
 398.: 
 
 3985 
 
 398.5 
 3985 
 398.5 
 398.5 
 
 395-5 
 
 396-8 
 394-3 
 394-3 
 394.3 
 
 Notes. 
 
 Union of the Three Kingdoms, 1397. 
 
 I niark = 32 ortugars. 
 
 Greijer. p. 77. 
 
 Silver disappears. Issue of klippings. 
 
 About this time 24 ortugars to the mark. 
 
 The value in marks is conjectural. 
 
 Mintage of Gulness, Norway. 
 From 20 or (?) piece, weight 447 50 prrs. 
 From square coin stamped "16 or," 364.92 grs, 
 370.94 grs. 
 
 '* " " 368.80 grs. 
 
 .. .gM." 
 
 " " "4 M."wgl. dnubtful 
 
 About this time 8 ore, or 32 ort = i mark. 
 \ alue in marks conjectural. 
 From ^"i mark" coin, weight 106 grs. gross. 
 
 From "3 mark" coin, weight 283.45 grs. gross. 
 From square "8 or" coin.wgt. 109.9 grs. gross. 
 "4 or" " 49.4 
 
 Stamped "Nova Moneta." 
 
 From "Jehovah" coin, weight 46 grs. gross. 
 
 From "4 M" coin, weight 287.77 " 
 
 "Jehovah" and circle of fire. 
 
 Decree of so-called "Free Coinage.'' 
 
 From "I M" coin (worn), wgt. 73^ grs. gross. 
 
 From "2 M" coin, weight 150.6 grs. gross. 
 
 Jesus Christ; legtMul "Salvator Mundi." 
 
 Jehovah and circle of fire. 
 
 Jesus Christ; legend "Salvator Mundi," 
 
 Greijer. 
 
 Jesus Christ; legend "Salvator Mundi." 
 
 Round silver-washed copper coin, daler size, 
 
 stamped "Nova Moneta CupriE." 
 Round copper coin {not washed), same size, 
 
 stamped 'Nova MonetaCupras" and "i or." 
 Greijer, p. 295 n. 
 
 Greijer. • 
 
 Greijer. 
 Gross.weight from coin; net weight and v.tlue 
 
 frotri Greijer. 
 Assignats and transport notes. 
 Copper money and transport notes. 
 Rundstyks,"! or," size of present Eng. penny. 
 From "2 M" coin, weight 154 3 grs. 
 Great degradation of silver coins. Greijer. 
 From "a M'' coin, weight 158.62 grs. gross. 
 Stamped "In Jehovah we trust" and "1 
 
 Reichsthal." 
 From "2 M" coin, weight 163 56 grs. gross. 
 From "2M" coin, weight 158.16 grs. gross. 
 Newton. 
 
 From "2 M" coin, weight 150.44 grs. gross. 
 Partington's "Encyc," art. "Money." 
 From "2 M" coin, weight 220.8 grs. gross. 
 
 " " 224.96 " 
 
 Kelly's ''Cambist." 
 From a "2% Riksdaler," 
 Kelly's "Cambist." 
 U. S. Mint assays. 
 
 'Specie daler," valued at 4 riks gold dalers. 
 Mint closed to full legal-tender silver coins' 
 
 Note J o Table. Years 161 1-32, reign of Gustavus Adolphus. There 
 
286 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 noticeable that both the talent and riksdaler.like the later 
 solidi of the Byzantine empire, commonly bore the effigy 
 of Jesus Christ. This was afterwards changed to 
 Jehovah, in Hebrew letters, niTl,, surrounded by a 
 circle of flames. A later form of this type was the 
 legend, "Got heppel," on a very much degraded daler 
 of 1694. 
 
 It will be observed that in the ninth century the mark 
 of money contained^of a mark weight of silver; in the 
 thirteenth century the mark weight was coined into 3 
 marks of money; toward the middle of the fourteenth 
 century into 5 marks; toward the end of the same 
 century into 8i marks ; in the sixteenth century, from 
 12^ to 65 marks; and in the seventeenth century from 
 30 to 230 marks. Although a restoration of the coin- 
 age appears to have taken place in 1762 it is probable 
 that the silver mark of money, except as hereinafter 
 mentioned, disappeared at that period altogether. 
 
 If we turn from the silver to the gold moneys of 
 Scandinavia, the information supplied to us by histori- 
 cal works and coin collections, though scant enough 
 as to one, becomes still more scant with respect of the 
 other; and the following table is submitted to the reader 
 not without some misgiving as to its entire coiTCCtness. 
 However, it is the best that can now be made of the 
 subject. The scale of equivalents down to the sixteenth 
 
 was also a two-thirds piece or currency daler of this period, con- 
 taining about 266 grains fine silver, of which i}i went to the riksdaler ' 
 (Greijer, p. 221). A century later, according to Newton's table of 1717, 
 this coin weighed only 222 grains fine; value 4 marks. Overvalued 
 copper coins also formed part of the circulation of Gustavus Adolphus. 
 Some of them were washed with silver, and were evidently intended to 
 circulate as dalers. The legend on them, whether plated or not, was 
 "Nova Moneta Cuprae." The specimens in the Paris collection are 
 dated 1627. Year 1606, reign of Charles IX. Round base silver coins with 
 name of Jehovah in Hebrew letters surrounded by a circle of flames, 
 legend "i Mark Svenska," gross weight 73^^ grains: Paris collection. 
 This coin is worn, and has probably lost i % grains, so that its gross 
 vreight was about 7S grains, Hence there must have been 6 marks to 
 the daler of this date. 
 
SAXONV AND SCANDINAVIA 
 
 287 
 
 ^ 
 ■^^ 
 
 o V 
 •s > 
 
 u 
 
 
 UO 
 
 60K 
 
 ,>o 
 
 3.^ 
 
 ^ 'a 
 
 O a; 
 3'rt 
 Q> 
 
 9 
 , u a 
 
 ■*r'o § 
 
 O 0) 
 
 "O t* o 
 a (u 
 « -.2 
 3 o nl 
 
 I— icnFu 
 
 a 2 
 
 raw); 
 
 g -9. 
 9 So 
 
 O p o 
 
 ^ 5 " ■ 
 
 J5 O rt 
 
 a 
 
 h) 
 ;* 
 en 
 
 « d 5 d r 
 S .9 " .2d 
 
 ■ £ o o, -• o ^ 
 ^ JJ --g JJ a 
 f;-o:s ° oW 
 S " .9 "- 
 
 - ::7 w >^r 1 " - 
 
 "; "i « " rt a, 
 
 ■o 
 
 11} 
 
 n J3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 a 
 
 0, 
 
 
 uis 
 
 ja 
 
 a 
 
 
 « 
 
 Of 
 
 
 a 
 
 M 
 
 PU 
 
 q o o o o q O O rn 
 
 06060006 00* CO 6 d rO 
 
 I I 1 I I I =^=° I I 1 I I I I I 
 
 
 1 1 1 1 1 1 
 
 > 
 
 5-410 
 
 'i- ..J- ■<3- 
 
 
 
 c 
 
 a 
 
 ■0 
 
 11 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 
 
 30*0^ -al^H" c^js 
 
 J=l0Q-"3_c3'CS^S 
 
 rt O 
 
 S3 «3l= 3S = 
 m g I-) ffi Q QiQ 
 
 >■ 
 
 ><: 
 
 .3 
 
 u 
 
 O - rt 
 K - o 
 rf 3 
 
 -00 
 CO 
 
 ■ nl 
 
 = a 
 ?s 
 
 ; cs 
 3M 
 
 
 , 
 
 
 
 
 a - - : - - 
 
 M 10 O^ 
 |-^H|T^| iOVO00l>.O»OO t^OO 00 N N 
 
 
 h 
 
 ■i-'*-g\0 fo^o t^t^c^ r^r^oo 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 
 
 ,? 
 
 ^Xi^JSJSM 
 
 
 h 
 
 
 
 so t^ 01 H N 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■^ o 
 a a 
 £T 
 rt o 
 
 ■a 2 * 
 
 g oj 00 
 
 tn *^ - 
 . *- o 
 
 — go 
 
 .3 o hi 
 ■« rt g 
 
 - 3'> 
 
 * --fe 
 . u 
 H 3 . 
 iJ «J M 
 
 B-„ 3 
 H O rt 
 
 Org 3 
 
 (/] O >i 
 
 g rt O 
 
 •So 
 
288 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 century was 32 ortugars (aftei-wards called skillings) 
 to the money mark ; for example, in the reign of John, 
 1481-1512, there appear to have been always 32 or- 
 tugars to the money mark, but in the reign of Gustavus 
 Vasa, the money mark was divided into 24 ortugars. 
 At this point the gold money mark disappeared, and 
 marks were henceforth made of debased silver. In 
 1604, according to Greijer, there were but 24 ortugars 
 to the mark; thus, 16 Gotland or 8 Swedish pennies=i 
 ortugar; 3ortugars=i ore; 8 6re=i mark. As both 
 the value of silver to gold, and the number of silver 
 coins to the mark, were continually lowered by legis- 
 lation, it follows that the contents of the gold mark 
 diminished with great rapidity, a fact which accounts 
 for its disappearance. The ratio of silver to gold from 
 the earliest period to the Renaissance was 8 for i ; 
 during the Renaissance 10 for i ; after the Dutch revo- 
 lution about 13 for i; in the eighteenth century (1777) 
 14.82 for I; and since that time, more or less, the same 
 as in the Netherlands. 
 
 We are now prepared to trace the copper system of 
 Scandinavia, which, as with Russia before the present 
 century, was of more importance than either the gold 
 or silver coins. 
 
 The copper klippings of Christian and Gustavus 
 Vasa were followed in 1569 by a third issue of the 
 same character. These were the klippings of John 
 III. In 1575 this issue was retired, and the country 
 was relieved from klippings until 1589, when John in- 
 troduced another issue of them (Greijer, p. 178.) 
 Meanwhile the revolution had broken out in the Neth-- 
 erlands, and the burghers had taken the monetary sys- 
 tem into their own hands by establishing private or 
 individual coinage. It was now no longer Charles V. 
 
SAXONY AND SCANDINAVIA 289 
 
 nor the counts of Holland who determined how many 
 gold ducats, or silver dollars, or florins, should be coined 
 and added to the circulation, but the burghers of Leyden, 
 Deventer and Amsterdam. This legislation had been 
 followed by an extraordinary influx of the precious 
 metals into the Dutch ports. The example and good 
 fortune of Holland was not lost upon the Swedes, who 
 perhaps fancied that by copying the legislation of the 
 United Provinces they would promote a like influx of 
 silver into Stockholm. But they were mistaken. It 
 was not individual coinage which had filled the Dutch 
 ports with gold and silver, but the Dutch fleets and 
 buccaneers of the East and West Indies, and the Dutch 
 traders in Japan. However, the Swedes,as yet uncon- 
 scious or heedless of these circumstances, went on with 
 their second-hand legislation. In 1604, by the statute 
 of Nordcheping, it was enacted that half an ounce 
 (say 203 grains) of standard silver should pass for 16 
 ore, also that a rixdaler (398^ grains standard) should 
 pass for 36 ore. This decree gave an advantage to 
 coins over metal of about 15 per cent, a pretty heavy 
 seigniorage, the whole of which it was practical to 
 evade by sending the silver to Amsterdam and there 
 having it coined into florins and exchanged for Dutch 
 wares and products for shipment to Stockholm. As 
 for the monetary function, which this decree conferred 
 upon bullion, it was wholly ineffective. Nobody 
 wanted bullion. Even although he got 15 per cent 
 more metal in the same sum, he preferred dalers. 
 
 In 1607, the king (Charles IX.) tried a new experi- 
 ment in money. He decreed that whosoever brought 
 to the mint 4 riksdalers (,1594 English grains of silver), 
 or who brought 4^ ounces of silver (1828^ grains), 
 should receive 4^ currency dalers.* I have not the text 
 I Patent of January 7th, 1607. 
 
T^O HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 of this act before me, and cannot give either the con- 
 tents or value of these new dialers. They should con- 
 tain about 350 grains each, but I have found no such 
 coin of this date in the Paris collection. As no limits 
 were placed upon the deposits of silver, and as the right 
 of the depositor to demand coined dalers for his metal 
 was not restricted, this decree was called a "Patent of 
 Free Coinage." It should have been termed "An act 
 enabling the king to grant to the burghers one of the 
 chief prerogatives of State." That prerogative was the 
 right and the power to increase the currenc}' by em- 
 ploying the mint to turn metal into coins, and the right 
 to diminish the currency by melting these coins down 
 to metal. With such a see-saw as this in hand the 
 burghers were armed with a terrible power over the 
 fortunes of their fellow-subjects. Fortunately for the 
 prosperity of Sweden, the Dutch system did not work 
 successfully in that country. Sweden was poor; no 
 vikings now entered its ports laden with the plunder of 
 other lands, and very little silver was in circulation. 
 In 1613, after the peace with Denmark, a degraded 
 currency daler was in circulation which could not 
 have contained more than about 266 grains, for it 
 required one and a half of them to equal in value one 
 riksdaler. ' In the same year the ransom of Elfsborg 
 was agreed to be paid in four years, whereas, in fact, 
 it was not paid until the end of six years. It was col- 
 lected bjy a tax on the people, levied according to class, 
 and made paj'able in coins, silver bullion, copper, iron, 
 rye or malt, the merchandise at fixed prices. (Greijer, 
 p. 221 n.) Perhaps the best proof of the scarcity of 
 mone}' consists in the fact that in 1613 the inevitable 
 over-valued coppers, now no longer called klippings but 
 "rundstyks," again made their appearance in the cir- 
 
 I Greijer, p. 221. 
 
SAXONV and SCANDINAVIA 29 1 
 
 culation. This was followed by another emission in 
 1625, and the following paraphrase from Mr. Bryce's 
 "Holy Roman Empire" informs us to what a memor- 
 able use this issue was put by the king: 
 
 "In 1619 Ferdinand II. ascended the imperial 
 throne of Germany. The arrangements of Augsburg, 
 like most treaties on the basis of utt possidetis, were no 
 better than a hollow truce, satisfying no one, and con- 
 scientiously made to be broken. The Church lands 
 which the Protestants had seized and Jesuit confessors 
 had urged the Catholic princes to reclaim, furnished 
 unceasing ground of quarrel, and the smoldering 
 hate of both parties was kindled by the troubles of 
 Bohemia in the Thirty Years' War. Jealous, bigoted, 
 implacable, skillful in forming and masking his plans, 
 and resolute in carrying them to completion, this cham- 
 pion of Rome had as nearly destroyed the Protestant 
 i-eligion of Europe as Charlemagne had destroyed the 
 Arrian Christianity of the Lombards and the ancient 
 worship of the Gothic races. Leagued with Spain, 
 backed by the Catholics of Germany, and served by 
 such a leader as Wallenstein, Ferdinand proposed 
 nothing le;s than the extension of the empire to its an- 
 cient limits, and the recovery of its suzerainty over all 
 the Christian states. Denmark and Holland were to 
 be attacked by sea and land; Italy to be re-conquered 
 by the help of Spain; and Maximilian of Bavaria and 
 Wallenstein were to be rewarded with principalities 
 in the ancient Gothic provinces of Mecklenburgh and 
 Pomerania. The last-named general was all but mas- 
 ter of the northern lands, when the successful resistance 
 of Stralsund and an unexpected event of still greater 
 importance turned the wavering balance of the war. In 
 1630 the Goths once more crossed the Baltic, and turned 
 
292 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 their arms against Rome. Ferdinand had required the 
 restitution of all Church property occupied since 1555. 
 The Protestants were helpless, and Europe was on the 
 point of being again subjected to the murderous ven- 
 geance of Rome, when it was saved by the Gothic king. 
 In four campaigns he destroyed the arms and prestige 
 of the Catholic emperor, ravaged his lands, emptied 
 his treasury, and left him at last so enfeebled, that no 
 subsequent success could make him or his cause again 
 formidable." 
 
 The rundstyks of Gustavus are noteworthy for another 
 reason ; they gave rise to one of the most interesting 
 monetary experiments known to the history of the 
 north. The modern sciolists of money are never fired 
 of chanting the sitig-song of the dialecticians that money 
 is a commodity — that it is subject to the economic laws 
 pertaining, to commodities, among which is "supply and 
 demand," and that its value must necessarily conform 
 to the cost of the production of this commodity. If 
 this be true it can make no essential difference of what 
 commodity money is made, provided that it is valuable, 
 imperishable, susceptible of being readily coined, etc., 
 nor how much or little of it is coined. We are now 
 about to see a monetary system based on this delusion. 
 The overvalued copper money of Sweden, issued by 
 the Crown, reached such vast proportions that by the 
 middle of the century it had fallen to or near its value as 
 metal. Thus, at a period when the Dutch and English 
 ports were enriched with the plundered treasures of 
 India and America, the Gothic defenders of a faith, 
 which enabled the nobles and burghers of those lands 
 to enjoy this wealth in peace, were enduring the bit- 
 terness of povert}' and putting up with the inconveni- 
 ence of a copper currency. 
 
SAXONY AND SCANDINAVIA 293 
 
 A remarkable document, of which a copy exists in 
 the Norden collections, delivered by Axel Oxenstiern 
 to Gustavus Adolphus, bears this title: "According to 
 his majesty's gracious command this is my humble 
 opinion touching the copper trade and copper coinage.'^ 
 . . . "So long as copper was at a good value, and 
 the coinage was limited in amount, so that it only sup- 
 plied the wants of the community, and answered to 
 their requirements, and was so kept within bounds that 
 he who wished to have silver could obtain it, one coin- 
 age was as good as another; but after the value of cop- 
 per fell it drew down the coinage with it and diminished 
 its value, so that we may indeed suffer and be silent on 
 acc(junt of the prince's edict, but that does not alter the 
 opinion and common sense of men." He then advises 
 that the copper mines should be thrown open to indi- 
 vidual enterprise — the sooner the better — with other 
 advice concerning the old copper mines and the old 
 Copper Company.' 
 
 After the death of Gustavus the embarrassments of 
 
 the treasury compelled bis daughter Christina to issue, 
 
 in 1644, a sort of exchequer-bill, known by the name 
 
 of "assignats" or "assignations," which appear to have 
 
 circulated as money. Turning, in this extremity, to 
 
 Holland for a suitable financial expedient, Sweden 
 
 found one in the Wissel Bank of Amsterdam, and in 
 
 1656 a private institution, on much the same plan, was 
 
 established in Stockholm by a man named Palmstruck. 
 
 Thfs bank received deposits of coin, bullion, and 
 
 rundstyks, for which it granted credits, and in 1658 
 
 issued receipts known as "transport-notes," which, 
 
 I Greijer, p 295 n. The Copper Company was, in 1629, obliged to 
 restore the copper trade to the Crown, having made vain attempts to 
 keep up the price. The copper coinage, first introduced into Sweden 
 in 1625, formed part of this system (Ibid., p. 222). Compare the treatise 
 on the old Copper Cojnpany and copper coinage in the time of Gustavus 
 Adolphus, by Master Wingquist, "Scandia," vol iv. (Ibid., p. 227 n.) 
 
294 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 from their superior convenience, soon drove the copper 
 rundstyks into the vaults of the bank and usurped their 
 place in the circulation. This plan worked so well that 
 in 1668 the government took over Palmstruck's bank, 
 which it chartered in that year as the Riks-Bank, or 
 Royal, or National Bank of Sweden, and embarked, 
 without further reserve, in a monetary system based 
 upon copper metal. It cut large plates of hammered cop- 
 per into squares and oblongs, some of them weighing 
 thirteen or fourteen pounds,' and, stamping them with 
 an appropriate device and their value (that of the metal) 
 in each corner, issued them as money. 
 
 Upon the theory of the schools there could be no 
 pi-actical objection to this money nor to the "free coin- 
 age" of it, except its bulk and weight, and as to bulk 
 and weight, there was the bank ready to receive it on 
 deposit, and issue in its place transport-notes payable 
 in copper-plates. But soon a difficulty arose, for which 
 no provision had been made, and which the schoolmen 
 had not foreseen: the value of copper continued to fall, 
 and with it fell the purchasing-power of the copper- 
 plates, and of the notes that represented them. It was 
 then perceived that gold and silver made a superior 
 metallic money, not because they cost more than copper 
 to produce, but because they possess an attribute which 
 is possessed neither by copper nor any other commodity. 
 There is a vast accumulation of gold and silver in the 
 world saved up from distant ages. Hence their value 
 — which is not that of their cost of production, but 
 (^with open mints) that of their numbers and fun ction 
 as coins — is slow to obey any change, however great, 
 in the cost of producing new metal. As there was no 
 
 I One of these plates, formerly in my por.re sion,was 10 inches square, 
 three-eighths of an inch thick, and weighed 6 lbs. 13 oz. avoirdupois. 
 But I have seen them ol douijle this size and weight in the Paris collec- 
 tion. 
 
SAXONY AND SCANDINAVIA 295 
 
 like accumulation of copper, every shipload that came 
 in from Amsterdam further and further lowered its 
 value, and every withdrawal for the arts enhanced it. 
 At length, on account of the fluctuations which oc- 
 curred in its value, it became entirely useless for 
 money. 
 
 During the Regency of Christina (1633-45) ^^ was 
 resolved that, "Instead of the copper coinage which 
 his late Majesty had determined to let fall of itself, as 
 it had already mostly disappeared, a good and sterling 
 coinage, yet somewhat under the standard, should be 
 issued." There is no sterling coinage of this period 
 in the public collections. 
 
 "The copper cross-pieces, struck and issued by order 
 of Gustavus, seem to have had no currency. The 
 Swedish agent in Holland, Eric Laurencson, offers to 
 send them back again (Letter of the Council to the 
 Chancellor, January 14, 1633). The government was 
 constrained to order that debts which had been con- 
 tracted in copper money should be paid according to 
 the value which the riksdaler bore at the time, namely, 
 until 1628, 6i marks to the riksdaler; 1629, 10 marks, 
 and afterward 14 marks, as ascertained by the Crown 
 receipts. Thenceforth the riksdaler was to be worth 6 
 marks, or 48 ore, but the copper ore, or rundstyks, in 
 circulation were at the same time depreciated to half 
 their value, and the government undertook to cause 
 silver coins to be struck.'*' 
 
 The failure of the copper ingot system gave rise to 
 another monetary experiment, this time with a tragic 
 ending. After the defeat of Charles XII. at Pultowa 
 and his return from captivity money was scarce and 
 credit low in Sweden, but the genius of his financial 
 adviser, Baron Goertz, saw a way to remove every 
 I Greijer, p. 295 n. z Ibid. 
 
296 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 difficulty, George Heinrich de Goertz, Baron von 
 SchlitZjWas born of a noble family in Holstein. He 
 joined Charles XII. at Stralsund on his return from 
 Turkey, and through his activity and intelligence was 
 soon placed at the head of affairs. His scheme 
 for establishing the currency was to issue not copper 
 ingots but copper dollars, which, as they bore the 
 king's stamp, were made full legal tenders, and were 
 light and adapted for the pocket, he imagined would 
 circulate at their nominal" value without difficulty. 
 This they would have done but for several circum- 
 stances, none of which appear to have been sufficiently 
 considered by this otherwise excellent and conscien- 
 tious minister. First, the government was too prostrate 
 and weak to sustain a fiduciary money. Second, Goertz 
 did not place any limitation upon the coinage. This 
 (limitation) is the main principle and essence of 
 money, without which — no matter of what substance 
 the symbols are made, whether of gold, silver, copper 
 or paper — it must fail to discharge its function equitably. 
 Third, the copper dollars which he struck, unlike the 
 exquisitely finished sesterces of the Roman Republic, 
 were rudely made and therefore easily counterfeited. 
 Fourth, he seemed indifferent to the rights or preju- 
 dices of the ecclesiastical, noble and burgher classes, 
 whose rents and other sources of income were grossly 
 and inequitably reduced through his neglect to secure 
 the overvalued dollars from depreciation. He caused 
 to be struck upon these dollars, not the images of the 
 ancient Gothic gods, as some authors allege, but of 
 Jupiter, Mars, Phoebus, Saturn, etc., and this, too, was 
 deemed an offense to those who were injured by the 
 depreciation which occurred. The pieces were of 
 about the same size as a silver shilling of to-day, and 
 were stamped ''4 daler silf. mynt," being overvalued 
 
SAXONY AND SCANDINAVIA 297 
 
 nearly a hundred times. Finally, as if to render these 
 coins as odious as possible, it was asserted and believed 
 that after an interval the tax officers would be instructed 
 to refuse them in payment of taxes from the peasants,' 
 but such inequity and rashness seems incredible. This 
 system, coupled with issues of base silver coins, 
 heavy copper plates, and paper notes, to neither of 
 which were any limits prescribed or observed, con- 
 tinued in force during the life of the king; but the 
 moment his death occurred, in 1718, and his sister 
 Ulrica Elenora mounted the throne, a declaration was 
 promulgated whereby the paper notes were wholly 
 abolished, and the copper dalers were reduced by 
 several successive steps to something near their metallic 
 value. The next measures taken by the princess royal 
 and her c6uncil are thus described.^ 
 
 "A charge was drawn up against Goertz, who was 
 accused of peculation, of having ruined public credit 
 by imaginary money, of having formed a design to 
 destroy the king and army by advising him to a ruinous 
 campaign in the inhospitable kingdom of Norway, and 
 so on. . . . Goertz, to whom the assistance of 
 counsel was refused, defended himself with grgat ability, 
 and clearly invalidated almost every article of the im- 
 peachment. His straightened circumstances were a 
 proof that he had applied none of the public money to 
 his own use; the necessity of the times apologized for 
 his substituting overvalued money to satisfy the wants 
 of the treasury, and possibly such a measure might have 
 proved of national advantage had it been pursued with 
 more discretion. Notwithstanding Goertz's defense 
 was clear and irrefragable, the case went on without 
 regard to formality or perhaps to equity. The court 
 and the citizens seemed equally determined to hound 
 I Greijer, p. 295 n, z"Modern Univers. Hist.,"xxx., pp. 284 85. 
 
298 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 liim to death. . . . He was condemned to lose his 
 head, and at a place appointed for the execution of 
 thieves and felons.'" This cruel sentence was enforced 
 March 3, 17 19. 
 
 The insertion of a design to "ruin public credit with 
 imaginary money" in the indictment against Goertz 
 reads very much like the apology of the regicides for 
 their murder of the Mongol ruler of Persia in 1294, that 
 he had criminally substituted paper for metallic money. 
 Indeed, one indictment may have been borrowed from 
 the other. ^ Voltaire, citing the memoirs of Bassevitz, 
 gives an entirely different version of the Goertz affair. 
 He does not say that the primate was executed either 
 for circulating copper dollars in Sweden or advising 
 a campaign in Norway, but for the abortive plots and 
 intrigues which he set afoot for the recovery of the 
 Baltic provinces.' This seems very much more likely. 
 
 Besides the Goertz dollars, the base silver coins, and 
 the paper currency of Charles XH., there were in cir- 
 culation some of the old copper plates and the transport- 
 notes of the Riksbank; indeed, this continued down to 
 1763, so that from first to last the copperplates enjoyed 
 a circulation of more than a century. In addition to 
 these strange elements of money in Sweden, there was 
 a copper plate system in Wismar. By the treaty of 
 Westphalia, 1648, the city of Wismar, in Mecklenburg- 
 Schwerin, had been ceded to Sweden, which established 
 there a court of appeals for its possessions in Germany. 
 In 1 7 15, during the prevalence of the copper plate 
 bank notes and copper dollar system of Sweden, copper 
 
 1 "Modern Univers, Hist.," xxx., p. 288. 
 
 2 Wright's "Marco Polo," p. 217. 
 
 3 Voltaire, "L'Empire de Russie," ii , 8. It is a curious fact that the 
 Goertz dalers were called Mynt saiceii, a retention of the ancient denom- 
 ination of the saicca, saiga, sicca, or shekel, for the meaning of which so 
 many melrologists and numismatists have searched in vain (De Vienne, 
 ' Livre d'Argent;" Brucker, in Hildebrand's "Jahrbok," 1864, i.,p. 161). 
 
SAXONY AND SCANDINAVIA 299 
 
 ingots or plates were issued in Wismar of the denom- 
 inations 4, 8, and i6 skillings, and the sizes 2, 2^, and 
 3f inches square. Facsimiles of these pieces, which 
 are now very rare, are published in Maillet's"Monnais 
 Obsidionales et de Necessity," Bruxelles, 1868. They 
 are all dated 1715, and soon after this date they dis- 
 appeared from circulation, and found their way to the 
 Riksbank of Stockholm.' 
 
 During the last half of the eighteenth and first quarter 
 of th« nineteenth century the currency of Sweden was 
 nominally based on silver dalers, but, owing to the 
 wars in which the State was involved, it really consisted 
 of somewhat depreciated government notes, both of 
 which, it is perhaps needless to say, were inconvertible. 
 This depreciation, and the desire to resuma coin pay- 
 ments, gave rise to the coinage^ of new silver dalers, 
 designed to exactly equal the value of the depreciated 
 notes, for which, it was expected, they would become 
 interchangeable. It will be remembered that the old 
 specie riksdaler (in which these notes were payable) 
 contained about 390 English grains fine silver. The 
 new coins were the riksdaier-banco, containing about 
 146^ grains fine, or three-eighths of the specie daler, 
 and the riksgald (royal debts) daler, containing about 
 97i grains fine, or one-fourth of the specie daler. The 
 former represented the value of the bank-note, the latter 
 that of the government note. Each of these dalers 
 was subdivided into 48 skillings, each of 12 rund- 
 styks.^ 
 
 As, by the Royal Ordinance of October 26th, 1829, 
 the government notes were made legal-tender for riks- 
 gald dalers, and no adequate provision was made for 
 their retirement, the new coins, when not exported, 
 
 1 Consult my "History of Money, Ancient," p. 199. 
 
 2 Consult table of the Talent or Riksdaler in the text. 
 
300 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 were added to the circulation, and they still further 
 lowered the value of all dalers, including themselves. 
 Upon observing this, the government hastened its 
 arrangements for the retirement of its notes, and the 
 operation was eventually concluded satisfactorily, not, 
 however, until the confusion caused by the presence of 
 three different classes of metallic dalers, skillings and 
 rundstyks had led to great annoyance/ 
 
 By the legislation of 1854, the old specie riksdaler 
 and the new riksdaler-banco were abolished, leaving 
 the riksgald daler the sole "unit of circulation" (a much 
 better term than the misleading "unit of value" of the 
 American statutes). The riksgald daler was now 
 termed the riksmynt daler, its subdivisions of skillings 
 and rundstycks were abrogated, and it was subdivided 
 anew into 100 ore.^ This legislation went into effect 
 January ist, 1858. 
 
 The religious fanaticism of Christian II., which had 
 arrayed against him both the nobles and the commons 
 of Sweden, also occasioned the secession of Norway 
 from the Scandinavian union. The election of Fred- 
 erick I. by the Danes, though it failed to conciliate the 
 multitude who supported the standard of Gustavus Vasa, 
 appears to have satisfied both the peoples of Norwa}' 
 and Denmark, whereupon, in 1523, these two States 
 were joined under one government, and they so re- 
 mained until 1813-14, when Norway again united with 
 Sweden. 
 
 The monetary history of Denmark and Norway du- 
 
 I Lieut. -Colonel F. S. Terry, in two pamphlets, ' The Great Currency 
 Problem" and "Independent Standards," London, 1893, proposed to 
 "restore silver'' by introducing into other states a like system of two 
 metallic moneys, the one silver, the other gold, both open to "free coin- 
 age," and both without limit, in either of which morteys people would be 
 free to make their bargains. The Dutch authors of the Act of Charles 
 II. gave us one illimitable and ever-varying measure of value; Colonel 
 Terry's plan would give us two. 
 
 z Appleton's "Encyc,," xv., p. 217. 
 
SAXONY AND SCAT^DINAVIA 3OI 
 
 ring most of this interval has been already sufficiently 
 illustrated. Previous to 1813 the Danish monetary 
 valuations were i specie riksdaler equaled li sletdalers, 
 4 orts, 6 marks, 96 skillings, 192 fyrkes, 288 witten, 
 or 1 152 pfennings Danish; or one half of the like de- 
 nominations in Hamburg, or Lubeck, or Schleswig- 
 Holstein money. Thus the Danish specie riksdaler 
 equaled 3 marks, or 48 skillings "Lubs," etc. In 
 other words, the mark or skilling of Lubeck, etc., was 
 worth twice as much as the mark or skilling Danish. 
 
 There were at this period no less than five different 
 kinds of money used in Denmark. These were as 
 follows: — 
 
 1. "Specie." The basis of this money was the 
 "specie" or "effective" riksdaler of 390 down to 375 
 English grains fine, valued in law at 6 marks, or 96 
 ^killings, etc., as above stated. 
 
 2. "Currency." This money consisted of sus- 
 pended bank or government notes, and, according to 
 Dr. Kelly, was 22^ per cent worse than "specie." 
 This is presumed to mean in the year 1821, when the 
 author wrote, but of course the relation was variable. 
 The books of merchants, tradesmen, and others (except 
 those of the bank of Altona, which adhered to "specie") 
 were kept in "currency." "Specie" and "currency" 
 were the two principal moneys. Besides these, there 
 were: 
 
 3. "Sundish specie," in which Sound dues were 
 levied on foreigners. This was 2-| per cent worse 
 than "specie." 
 
 4. "Crown money," "in which Sound dues were 
 levied on native vessels. This was iSii P^^ c^"* worse 
 than "specie." 
 
 To enhance this confusion of moneys, the silver 
 
302 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 "specie'' coins were struck by the Danish mint mark 
 of about 3607! grains, while the gold coins and the 
 "currency" and "Crown" silver coins were struck by 
 the Cologne mark of 3608 grains. The difference was 
 small, yet it was sufficient to occasion annoyance in the 
 computation and value of large sums. This dissonance 
 of mint-weights arose out of the fact that the king of 
 Denmark was also the duke of Holstein, and, as such, 
 his coins had to agree in some sort with those of the 
 empire. The "specie" ducat of Denmark contained 
 52.6, and the "current" ducat 42.2, grains fine gold. 
 The "Christian" contained 93.6,andthe " Frederick" of 
 1813-39 contained gii, grains fine gold. The gold coins 
 were not legal-tender, and -they fluctuated in value, 
 from day to day, in silver coins. Bargains (special con- 
 tracts) could be made in gold coins, but as silver coins 
 formed the basis of the monetary system, such bargains 
 were rarely made, and the gold coinage constituted an 
 expense to the government, for which the charge of i 
 of I per cent seigniorage was deemed an inadequate 
 compensation. The gold coins were commonly ex- 
 ported to Germany, where they were hoarded b}' the 
 peasants.' A further source of confusion in the mon- 
 etary system of Denmark arose from the circumstance 
 that, whilst in Bergen the system of money was based 
 on the Danish riksdaler of 6 marks, or 96 skiHings, 
 in Christiania, Drontheim, Larwigen, Kopperwic, and 
 other places in Norway, a riksdaler was employed 
 of 4 orts, or 24 skillings Danish.^ A final confusion 
 was occasioned by the fluctuations of the Danish paper 
 
 1 All thess details will bs found in the communication of G. Strachey, 
 Esq. , to the British Foreign Office printed in the ' 'Report of the Royal 
 Commission on Coinage," 1868, p. 234. 
 
 2 Schmidt's ( Tate's) "Cambist," p. 86, also mentions a Norwegian 
 dnlerof 120 skillings; but I have not been able to identify it. 
 
SAXONY AND SCANDINAVIA 3Q3 
 
 currency, which, being continually increased in amount, 
 varied in Danish "specie" or silver riksdalers, a sub- 
 ject which will be explained after disposing of the specie 
 system introduced in 1813. 
 
 In this new system one of the old riksdalers was coined 
 into two; in other words, i8i new riksbank dalers — as 
 they were called — were struck from a Cologne mark of 
 silver, so that each one contained 195 English grains 
 fine. This daler was divided into 6 marks or 96 skillings, 
 like the old riksdaler "specie," therefore both the dal- 
 ers, marks, and skillings, since there was no limit to 
 their coinage, were worth only half as much as the 
 former ones. 
 
 "The bank of Copenhagen has undergone many 
 essential changes since its first establishment, and in 
 order to understand its present state, it may be necessary 
 to take a general view of those alterations. It was 
 originally founded, in 1736, as a bank both of deposit 
 and of circulation. In 1745 it was released from the 
 obligation of discharging its notes in coin, and it con- 
 tinued still to make advances to the State and to indi- 
 viduals in paper, by which shares became greatly 
 enhanced in their value. 
 
 "This bank had issued paper to the amount of eleven 
 millions of riksdalers, when the king returned their 
 deposits to the shareholders and became himself the 
 sole pi-oprietor. The paper issued was twenty times 
 the amount of capital, in consequence of which specie 
 disappeared, and notes were fixed as low as i riks dol- 
 lar. 
 
 "To remedy this inconvenience, in 1791, all further 
 emission of notes was forbidden', and a progressive 
 liquidation of the paper was ordered. A new bank, 
 called the Specie Bank, was created, which was to be 
 
304. HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 independent of the government. The money deposited 
 might be drawn out at pleasure, or transferred by as- 
 signment, and its issue of paper was limited to a cer- 
 tain extent. In 1804 the new notes lost 25 per cent in 
 exchange with the currency in which they were paya- 
 ble, and the depreciation continued to increase until 
 1812, when it became excessive. 
 
 "In 1813 a new bank was established under the di- 
 rection of the king, and, therefore, entitled the Royal 
 Bank of Denmark. Its chief object was to reduce the 
 paper then in circulation, which was depreciated to 
 one-sixth of its nominal value; and in a new issue the 
 dollar was equivalent to five-eighths of the old paper 
 dollar, which reduced the composition to ^. In 1817 
 this bank was converted into a National Bank, by mak- 
 ing a certain proportion of the property of the kingdom 
 a guarantee for the liquidation of its paper. 
 
 "For this purpose all property was to pay 6 per cent 
 to the bank, and until the capital is paid the interest 
 charged for each deficiency is 6i per cent per annum. 
 Valuation of property in this case is regulated by the 
 public taxes, and all the payments are to be made in 
 silver or in paper of the full value of silver, according 
 to a certain rate of exchange, which is fixed quarterly; 
 but as this institution engages to pay off seven mil- 
 lions of riksbank dalers annually, persons paying in 
 their quota at the bank are allowed a drawback of five- 
 sixths of the taxes. 
 
 "This bank issues its own notes, which are gradually 
 paid off; and it is intended, when the new paper is 
 entirely reduced, to issue notes payable to bearer on 
 demand. All revenues and great transactions are paid 
 in this paper, according to the rate of exchange. This 
 rate is called riksbank silver value, which may be 
 
SAXONY AND SCANDINAVIA 305 
 
 sometimes more and sometimes less than tiie riksbanlc 
 daler. All private contracts and current transactions 
 are understood to be settled in such paper, unless real 
 silver is stipulated for; likewise all payments of public 
 actuaries and to the army; but custom-house duties are 
 settled in real silver. 
 
 "In January, 1821, the debts of the bank were com- 
 puted as follows: — I, Seven millions of riksbank dalers 
 of public stock, which it has undertaken to pay. 2. 
 Seven millions of bonds for the redemption of the 
 former paper money of Holstein, etc. 3. A debt of 
 seven millions, lately contracted for the diminution of 
 the bank-notes in circulation. 4. The bank-notes in 
 circulation, which are computed at twenty-two millions. 
 
 "The capital is estimated at thirty-three millions of 
 riksbank dalers, and the bank is besides computed to 
 possess about three millions in silver and in buildings. 
 The surplus of its annual revenue, the principal part of 
 which arises from the interest of its security on real 
 estates, is employed in the reduction of the bank-notes 
 in circulation. The contributors of 6 per cent from 
 estates, as well as voluntary contributors, are share- 
 holders, and are equally entitled to interest, etc.'" 
 
 This system was modified in 1S39, by further provi- 
 sions for the retirement of the paper money, similar to 
 those of Sweden, already described, except that in the 
 case of Denmark, the riksbank silver daler of 195 grains 
 fine remained the "unit of circulation." It was, there- 
 fore, worth a trifle more than two Swedish riksgald, 
 or riksmynt, dalers. 
 
 On September 20, 1872, a convention of the three 
 Scandinavian States was concluded at Copenhagen, 
 which was ratified at Stockholm on December 18,1872.^ 
 
 1 Kelly's "Cambist," ed. 1821, i., p. 79.^ 
 
 2 The text of this convention will be found in the "Report of the U. S. 
 Monetary Commission" of 1876, part I., p. 71. 
 
306 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 It provided for a common system of coinage, based on 
 the gold kroner (crown) of 6.22 English grains fine, 
 divided into 10 ore. Tiiis coin, or rather its multiples 
 (four kroner being the smallest piece), was made full 
 legal-tender in all the States, and was opened to "indi- 
 vidual coinage;" in other words, the State is obliged 
 to coin anybody's gold bullion substantially free of ex- 
 pense, the seigniorage only amounting to from 4 to i- 
 of I per cent ad valorem. The silver coins were limited 
 in legal-tender function to five specie riksdalers, equal 
 (nominally) to twenty kroner, and their coinage was 
 reserved to the State. In a word, the Scandinavian 
 States practically demonetized silver, and adopted gold 
 coins and "open mintage" as the basis of their mone- 
 tary systems. Each State retained its own paper money 
 system. The notes, so long as they continue tobe re- 
 deemed in gold coins, are full legal tender within the 
 State of issue — an attribute of which they are to become 
 divested whenever redemption fails. "In the tran- 
 scription of obligations contracted in the earlier money, 
 the basis of conversion adopted was the proportion of 
 silver to gold of 15.08 for i." This simply means that 
 obligations contracted in specie riksdalers of practically 
 375i grains silver are now payable with four kroner, 
 containing 24.9 grains of gold. "The ratio of tran- 
 scription" in Denmark was 15.675.for I. Both the gold 
 and silver coins of each State are accorded legal course 
 in the others, subject, as to silver coins, to certain in- 
 ternal arrangements. 
 
 These provisions were adopted in the Danish, Swed- 
 ish, and Norwegian laws of May 23, 1873, May 30, 
 1873, and June 4, 1873, and by the treaties of May 27, 
 1873, and October 16, 1875, which went into effect 
 April I, 1876, and were rendered obligatory from Jan- 
 uary I, 1877. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE NETHERLANDS. 
 
 Ancient Saxony — Origin of the Dutch — Their maritime character — 
 Early moneys — The pagan lesterling, Engel, and Guilder — Trade 
 with Saracenic Spain — Moslem and Esterling ratios — Pepin, the 
 Short — The Christian ratio — Compromise ratio of the Baltic — The 
 Saiga — Fall of the Eastern Empire — -Coinages of the Renaissance — 
 The Ducat, or Florin — Proposed Anglo- Flemish Convention — Florins 
 and Nobles of Edward III. — Disagreement respecting the ratio — 
 Burgundian ratios — The Ducaton, or Thaler — The Stiver — Causes 
 of the Dutch revolution — Religion and Money — The right of coinage 
 — Corruptions of money during the Renaissance — Sudden enhance- 
 mentotgoldby Charles V. — Revolt of the Netherlands — Demonetiza- 
 tion of gold — Paper money of Leyden — The WisselBank — The Bank 
 of Amsterdam — Sols banco — Burgher coinage — It destroys money 
 and substitutes metal — Selfish policy of Spain — The Buccaneers — 
 Plunder of the Spanish galleons — Opening of the sea route to the 
 Orient — The Dutch colony of New Amsterdam (New York) — The 
 English follow the Dutch in all these measures — Sir Thomas 
 Gresham — Dutch coinage ratios from the earliest times to the 
 present — The Mark — Hanseatic money — Successive monetary sys- 
 tems of the Burghers from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century — 
 Gold and silver alternately demonetized — Bank issues and insol- 
 vency — Recent demonetization of silver — Present currency of the 
 Netherlands — Importance of the ratio as a guide to history — Urgent 
 necessity for reform of the Dutch monetary system — The Future. 
 
 The early history of money in the Netherlands is in- 
 cluded in that of ancient Saxony, of which an outline 
 appears in my "Ancient Britain." The present treatise 
 begins substantially with the Carlovingian or Medi- 
 eval or German empire, under which the various lord- 
 ships, which afterwards constituted the provinces of 
 the Netherlands, were held in vassalage. These were 
 Holland, Zealand, Utrecht, Guelderland, Groningen, 
 Ove^ieselor Overyssel,and Friesland; afterward called 
 the Seven United Provinces. These, with three 
 other provinces, carved out of the Generality governed 
 by the States-General, make the present kingdom of 
 Holland. The eight remaining provinces of the Neth- 
 erlands now make the kingdom of Belgium. 
 
 307 
 
308 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 It will conduce to a better understanding of the 
 Dutch monetary systems to explain, at the outset, that 
 the ancient Batavians were not descended from the 
 people of the highlands, or Germany, and shared 
 neither their customs nor religion. The Batavians 
 were a portion of that martial and amphibious race who 
 carried the worship of the Sun and the art of naviga- 
 ion from the Gulf of Finland to the British Channel; 
 and were so mingled with the lesthonians, Veneti and 
 Norsemen, that no ethnological nor philological theory 
 has ever satisfactorily traced their genealogy, or ac- 
 counted for their early history. Their rivers, provinces, 
 and towns, as lessel, Ober-Iessel and les-la-Chapelle, 
 afterwards Aix-la-Chapelle, were named after the sun- 
 god; they were fishermen, traders and pirates; and so 
 were their neighbors and kinsmen, the Veneti and 
 Norsemen; and that is about all we know, of them, 
 uqjtil Charlemagne, including them among the pagans 
 of Saxony, drove his pious swoid through some of their 
 obdurate hearts, and obliterated their genealogy by 
 introducing German blood into the remainder. The 
 conquest of the Veneti and Batavians by Casar, the 
 allusion to them in the "Germany" of Tacitus, the re- 
 volt of the Frisians against the exacting rule of Tiberius, 
 the rise of Carausius the Menapian, the subjection of 
 the Low Countries to the Western and Carlovingian 
 empires, and the history of the Pagan Hansa, all of 
 which subjects are treated either in the work above 
 alluded to, or else in my "Middle Ages Revisited," 
 may interest the student of a larger history ; but cannot, 
 in the present state of historical knowledge, lead to 
 any more satisfactory information concerning the origin 
 of the Dutch people. 
 
 The oldest Dutch coins are attributed to Arnold II., 
 
iiKRLANDS 309 
 
 count of Flanders, 964-89, The oldest Dutch coins in 
 the British Museum are some small thin silver pieces 
 of Bruno III., count of Frisia, A. d. 1038-57, a vassal 
 of the emperors Henry III. and Henry IV. These 
 pieces, which are in fairly good condition, weigh from 
 10.2 to 10.4 English grains each. I shall revert to 
 them further on ; meanwhile it is necessary to observe 
 that, although they are among the oldest Dutch coins, 
 they are not among the oldest Dutch moneys. These 
 were ieschen (corrupted to eschen), iesterlings or en- 
 gels, and gulden. The first and second of these names, 
 like those attached to the sacred coins of China, India, 
 Greece and Rome, are evidently derived from that of 
 the sun-god. Engel is probably derived from ah effigy 
 on the iesterling. The last belongs also to a pagan era, 
 for although now it is that of a silver coin, the name 
 evidently belongs to a time when it was a gold one, 
 and therefore to a pagan period ; because under the 
 Christian empire no gold coins were permitted to be 
 struck except by the sovereign-pontiff in Bj'zantium. 
 The gulden was proba.bly the maravedi of about 40 
 grains weight. 
 
 From near the beginning of the eighth to the close of 
 the tenth centuries — when, as attested by the numerous 
 finds of Moslem coins in Esthonia, Julin, Gotland, Frisia, 
 etc., an active trade was conducted in the Baltic and 
 North Seas and coastwise down to Saracenic Spain, 
 by the Norsemen, Dutchmen and Moslem — Moslem 
 coins and valuations must have been familiar to the 
 maritime provinces of northern and western Europe. 
 The influence of the Moslem ratio of value between 
 gold and silver is especially noticeable. The ratio in 
 the Roman and Christian systems was, until the thir- 
 teenth century, always 12 for r; that in the Indian and 
 
3IO HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 Moslem systems, 6i for i. This radical difference in 
 the relative coinage value of the precious metals, main- 
 tained on both sides for centuries with little attempt at 
 compromise Or reconcilement, enables us to detect with 
 ease the predominating influence, whether Christian 
 or pagan, in any given system of coinage. It is the 
 infallible numisometer of religious opinion during the 
 mediaeval era. Measured by this criterion, the Dutch 
 coinage was decidedly pagan ; for the earliest known 
 coins of the Low Countries were the silver saigas men- 
 tioned in the barbai'ian codes, containing about i8i 
 grains of fine silver, and exchanging for the gull skil- 
 lingar, gold shilling, ora, quarter-dinar, quarter-mancus 
 or quarter-solidus, the worn or degraded triente,' or the 
 guilder or gulden — for the same coin, at one time or an- 
 other, was known by all of these names — at the rate of 
 8 for I. As the weights of the saiga and gold shilling 
 were the same, this made a like ratio -(of 8 for i) be- 
 tween the coinage value of silver and gold. The Jutland 
 code of the thirteenth century, which mentions this 
 ratio of 8 for i, is probably altered from a pagan code 
 of an earlier period. 
 
 The first attempts to introduce Christian coins into 
 the Netherlands must bs credited to Pepin. Before 
 his time — if we may rely upon the Chronicle of Aqui- 
 taine, wherein 40 deniers (of 17^ grains each) are 
 valued against a besant or solidus of about 70 grains 
 fine — a compromise ratio was introduced into the coin- 
 ages and valuations of the provinces subject to the 
 faineant proconsuls of the Byzantine Empire. This 
 was 10 for I — a mean between the pagan 8 and the 
 Christian 12. Pepin struck 264 deniers from the Ro- 
 man pound weight of silver, and valued 40 of these at 
 one gold besant of 66^ grains — a ratio of 12. For 
 
THE NETHERLANDS 3II 
 
 himself, he totally abstained from the coinage of gold, 
 which he left entirely to the Basileus.' 
 
 The Saxon and Frisian codes and capitularies of the 
 Carlovingian era, which might have thrown great light 
 upon this subject, are hopelessly corrupted and mud- 
 dled. All that we can discern with certainty is that 
 the conqueror was as resolute to follow his father in 
 changing the pagan ratio, as he was merciless in ex- 
 terminating the pagan religion of the Netherlands. 
 " Ubi contentio contra Saxones te Frisones extorta fuit, 
 ibi volumus ut 40 dinariorum quantitatem solidus 
 habeat quem vel Saxo vel Frisio ad partem Salici 
 Franci cum eo litigantis solvere debet."" When this 
 passage is compared with the Frisian code, tit. xvii. , 
 art. 76: "Tres denarii novae monetae solidumfaciunt," 
 their utter irreconcilability only leaves us room to 
 perceive that Charlemagne was striking new silver coins 
 and changing the ratio to the sacred 12 for i; but it 
 does not inform us from what other ratio the change 
 was being made. However, not only the weight of 
 the saiga, as deduced from the codes and extant coins, 
 but also the analogies offered by the Moslem, the Norse, 
 and the Anglo-Saxon coinages of the same period, in- 
 cluding the first coinage of Alfred, enable us to deter- 
 mine this with confidence. The Dutch pagan ratio 
 was evidently 8, the ratio of the rois faineants was 10, 
 and the fundamental one of Pepin and Charlemagne 
 was 12. In subsequent ages the ratio fluctuated in the 
 coinage laws between 6i or 8 on the one hand and 
 12 on the other, as pagan or Christian influences al- 
 ternately governed the vassal, but often heretical, 
 counts of the Netherlands provinces. Pepin's absten- 
 
 1 Gucrard, "Pol)'ptique d Irminon.'' 
 
 2 "Saxon Capilulaiy' (after A. D. 801), cap. xi. • 
 
312 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 tioti from the coinage of gold was respected and imi-" 
 tated by Charlemagne.' 
 
 The Dutch monetary equivalents of the earliest period 
 known to us were 32 eschen = i silver iesterling or 
 engel; and 8 engels=i gulden or gold shilling.^ With 
 the decline of the Roman solidus, so declined the shil- 
 ling, or little solidus, and with the latter declined the 
 sterling or engel. During the seventh and eighth cen- 
 turies, when Moslem coins and valuations were cur- 
 rent in the Baltic, the gold shilling ceased to be coined, 
 and was superseded by parts of the gold dinar of 63! 
 grains fine. The silver dirhem of 41^ grains fine, of 
 which ten went to the dinar (a ratio of 6i for i), was 
 also in circulation among the Dutch; a fact attested by 
 the immense numbers of them found in recent years 
 on the coasts of the Baltic and North Seas. From these 
 circumstances I regard the silver pieces of Friesland, 
 mentioned above, as typically quarter-dirhems. It is 
 of no practical consequence whether they are regarded 
 as quarter-dirhems or half-deniers; only, if as half- 
 deniers, they should bear a ratio of 12 to the gold shil- 
 ling of the empire, which they do not; whereas, if as 
 quarter-dirhems, they should bear a ratio of 6i to the 
 quarter-dinars of Saracenic Spain, which they do. 
 
 There is no evidence that the ratio of 12 was em- 
 ployed in Holland, except at sporadic intervals, that 
 is to say, under Pepin, and possibly for a brief period 
 under Charlemagne; for the latter struck few or no gold 
 coins, probably none. It maj' have been again em- 
 ployed in the earlier Hapsburgh coinages of the fifteenth 
 
 1 Guerard, "Polyptique d'Irmiaon.'' 
 
 2 The eis was also a weight, of which 32 went to tBe weight engel, 
 640 to the ounce, and 5120 to the weight mark of 3798 English grains. 
 The name gulden was, in the thirteenth or fourteenth century, conferred 
 upon a degraded "ducat" of about the same contents as the Moorish 
 maravedi. By the imperial edict of 1524, the gulden was to contain 
 37 1-6 English grains fine gold. 
 
THE NETHERLANDS 313 
 
 century. At all other periods, as is shown in a table 
 further on, the ratio in Dutch coinage and mint valua- 
 tions, from the Carlovingian period down to the year 
 1524, varied from 8 to lo for i. 
 
 From the date of their earliest coinages, down to the 
 fifteenth century, the coins of the Netherlands which 
 have fallen under my observation present no features 
 of especial interest. The collection in the British 
 Museum is not only wanting as to several provinces 
 and numerous reigns of the Dutch princes, but many of 
 the coins are in bad condition— clipped, bent, perforated 
 with holes, or otherwise mutilated. Among the best 
 specimens are a small silver coin of the count of Nas- 
 sau, 1229-71, and another of Reynaud II., 1326-43 — 
 both of the quarter-dirhem type. Another of Philip le 
 Beau, dux Geldria, weighs 411 grains gross, and is 
 evidently intended for a dirhem. The earliest gold 
 coin in this collection is one of Charles Egmont, duke 
 of Gueldria, 1492-1538. It is stamped with the figure 
 of a saint, who is styled the "patron of Gueldria," 
 weighs 50.6 grains gross, and is apparently of about 
 22 carats fine. An earlier one, struck by Charles of 
 Flanders, 1467-77, also stamped with the effigy of a 
 saint, and weighing 51 grains gross, is in the posses- 
 sion of Mr. Lincoln, the London numismatist. These 
 coins are ducats. There are no ducats of the fourteenth 
 century in the Museum collection, yet that is the period 
 when they possess the highest interest; for they were 
 then connected with the history of England. In 1343, 
 after Edward III. had been authorized by the emperor 
 to coin gold, and whilst he was making preparations 
 to exercise tliis prerogative, it was intimated that the 
 Flemings sold their wares only for Flemish gold florins 
 (ducats), which were valued so highly in English sil- 
 
314 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 ver coins as to render payment in the latter unprofitable 
 to English merchants. In other words, by paying gold 
 ducats with silver coins, the islanders are represented 
 to have suffered a disadvantage; whereupon the crown 
 resolved that they should be enabled to pay with gold 
 ones. Hence the issue of English double ducats of 
 the year 1344. But as these were valued at six shil- 
 lings, or 12 times their weight of silver, whilst the 
 Flemish ratio was probably 10 for i, the Flemings de- 
 clined to accept them ; whereupon they were decried 
 and withdrawn from circulation within the year. Still 
 bent upon issuing a gold coin that should not only 
 retain its place in the home circulation, but also obtain 
 some currency abroad, Edward next (within the same 
 year) issued the noble at six shillings and eight pence, 
 a ratio of 11.06 for i; the seigniorage being 9 per cent. 
 But this coin the Flemings also objected to unless they 
 were to be struck (under Edward's letter of authority) 
 in Flanders, and also unless an amicable division could 
 be made of the profits arising from their coinage. For 
 this purpose commissioners were sent to Ghent, Bruges, 
 and Ipre; but nothing came of the ij^gotiations. The 
 ratio which ruled in the Netherlands must have com- 
 pelled the Flemings to demand either a re-valuation of 
 the noble, or an entire abandonment of the seigniorage; 
 conditions to which the English envoy's were not 
 authorized to assent. Froissart and Grafton both assert 
 that a gold coin with the name of Edward was struck 
 in Antwerp at this period; but no such coin has ever 
 been found.* 
 In 1436 Holland was annexed to Gothic Burgundy, 
 
 I Del Mar's "Middle Ages Revisited," chap. xix. The 'dubble-ies" 
 was in use during the present century ("Tour in Holland,'' by Wm. 
 Chambers, 1842). 
 
THE NETHERLANDS 315 
 
 and in 1477 to Austria,' which governed it until 1506, 
 when it was inherited by Charles V. of Germany, or 
 Charles I. of Spain, himself a native of Ghent. During 
 the Burgundian period, some of the Dutch ducats now 
 called double ducats weighed 67 grains(British Museum 
 ducat of Utrecht), and were 23 carats 3^ grains fine 
 (Budelius, p. 249, "Old Double Ducat"). Hence they 
 contained 56^ grains fine — substantially the same as 
 the Venetian sequin of the thirteenth century. The 
 halves were called gulden. The coinage ratio was 9 
 for I, an inference derived from the silver ducat or 
 ducaton, whose weight at this period varied from 513 
 to 507^ grains gross. It was valued equally with the 
 heavier ducat or double gulden. None of these broad 
 ducaton pieces are in the collection of the British 
 Museum, but they are frequently mentioned by Budelius, 
 where their weights and finenesses are given with great 
 minuteness. They varied from 0.936 to 0.916! fine, 
 and were variously called ducatons, riders, talents, 
 king's-thalers, and Netherlands pennies. They were 
 cpmmonl}' struck down to the reign of Philip II., and 
 occasionally down to the present century; but their 
 value, as related to the gold coins, was seriously im- 
 paired, as will be presently related, by the arbitrary 
 legislation of Charles V. There was also a silver 
 dollar of about two-thirds the same contents, which 
 was valued at a gulden — a ratio of 9 for i. This piece 
 was the prototype of the existing German thaler, the 
 old Turkish grouch, and many other coins. 
 
 If it seems difficult to believe that gold stood at so 
 low a ratio to silver in the fifteenth century, perhaps 
 
 I The Austrian mint ordinance relating to the Netherlands was issued 
 by Maximillian at Breda, December 14th, 1489 It provided for a gold 
 florin 39X English grains fine, valued at 12 times its weight in fine 
 silver, a provision that practically nullified the ordinance and discredited 
 the florins . 
 
3l6 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 the following ratios, taken from the coinages of France 
 during that century, "will render our deduction more 
 credible: — Year 1403 — ratios, 7.31, 7.84 and 7.87; 1411 
 — 6.64 and 6.85; 1417 — 9.60 and 6.40; 1418 — 6.67; 
 1419 — 7.30; 1421 — 9.49; 1423 (2nd Charles VII.) — 
 10.22; 1425—10.94; 1428— 7 45; 1435— 12.59; 1437— 
 7-97; 1447— IO-93; 1456—10.79; 1473 (13th Louis 
 XI.) — 10.94; and 1475 — 10.98.' 
 
 It was during the thirteenth or fourteenth century 
 that the stiver was added to the Dutch denominations 
 of money. The ancient Roman libra of account had 
 consisted of five solidi, or twenty quarter-solidi,or gold 
 shillings. In like m:inner the Arabian maravedi (the 
 Dutch gulden) was divided in Holland into twenty 
 stivers. At a later period the Dutch talent, or silver^ 
 ducaton, was divided into twenty stivers, each of about 
 25 grains of silver; the talent and gulden were there- 
 fore of the same value. When, in still later times, the 
 ducaton, talent, thaler, or dollar, was lowered in weight, 
 the stiver became a bronze or copper coin.* 
 
 The printing-press, the discovery of America, and 
 the teachings of Erasmus — the Dutch leader of the 
 Reformation — all of which influences made themselves 
 felt at about the same time, have been variously put 
 .forward by historians as the motive for the Revolt of 
 the Netherlands. No doubt that all of these influ- 
 ences contributed to bring about the end; no doubt 
 that religion was the most powerful of them all, and 
 that the proceedings of the Councils of Trent, Ratisbon 
 and Worms, and the sudden and sinister alliance be- 
 
 1 Del Mar's "Money and Civilization," p. 202. 
 
 2 In Locke's essay on "Money" it is stated that the Dutch ducaton 
 bore a premium in Holland of lyi per cent over the newer and less 
 valuable silver coins of the same deaominational value, and that the 
 ducaton passed for 3 guilders and 3 stivers. Locke was in Holland in 
 1682, and must have been thoroughly familiar with this subject; yet I 
 
 cannot make these statements agree. 
 
THE NETHERLANDS 317 
 
 tween the pope and the emperor, who down to this 
 time had made numerous concessions to the Protest- 
 ants, which now the emperor revoked, were among 
 the immediate provocations to rebellion. But there was 
 still another motive behind this revolution. The learned 
 Abbe Raynal disclosed this motive, in alluding to the 
 disgust of the Netherlands with that edict of Ferdinand 
 which had forbidden them to take part in the gainful 
 commerce of the East and West Indies, by restricting 
 it to "subjects of Castile.'" Religion may have swayed 
 the noble and even the common people; it was com- 
 merce that swayed the burghers.^ This is proved by 
 the revolt of Ghent in 1539, the ground for which was 
 that the emperor's quarrels with Francis debarred the 
 citizens of the town from the rich trade with France, 
 and loaded them with taxes which they protested they 
 could not afford to pay. It is also proved by the rel- 
 ative importance of the demands which were made 
 by Prince Maurice, upon the conclusion of his cam- 
 paign against Charles. After providing for the libera- 
 tion of the imprisoned Elector, these demands were, first, 
 that the grievances in the civil government should be 
 redressed; and, last, that the Protestants should be al- 
 lowed the free exercise of their religion.' 
 
 Among these civil grievances none could have been 
 more heavily felt in Holland than the monetary decrees 
 of Charles V. In 1524 this monarch had I'aised the 
 value of his gold coins in the Netherlands from 9 or 10 
 to I if times their weight in silver coins. This occa- 
 sioned so much dissatisfaction that in 1542 he returned 
 to a ratio of 10 for i by degi'ading his silver dollars — a 
 
 1 Raynal, i2mo. ed., i., p. 138. 
 
 2 "The parliament and the people, in their addresses to Queen Eliza- 
 beth, always mentioned the reformation of the coin, after that of religion, 
 as one of the principal events of the reign'' (Lord Liverpool's "Letter 
 to the King," ed 1880, p. 11 1. 
 
 3 Robertson's "Life of Charles V.," iii., p. 252. 
 
3l8 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 mode of reparation hardly more satisfactory than had 
 been the original offense. But the worst was to come. 
 In 1546 Charles suddenly enhanced the value of his 
 gold coins to 13^ times their weight in silver ones. In 
 effect, this edict reduced the circulating medium of 
 the Netherlands, which consisted substantially of silver 
 coins, to scarcely more than two-thirds of its value 
 previous to the year 1524. It was a blow that everybody 
 felt and felt at once; and it probably exercised no little 
 influence to support both the operations of Maurice 
 against Charles and the subsequent and more important 
 operations which William of Oi'atige directed against 
 Philip. 
 
 To justly estimate the onerous character of this last 
 monetary ordinance of Charles, it should be explained, 
 for example, that it reduced the silver ducaton to two- 
 thirds of its former value, or, which is the same thing, 
 it raised the value of gold nearly 50 per cent, by sub- 
 stituting a debased ducat, first of about 37 grains, and 
 next of about 35 grains fine, in place of the old ones of 
 about 54 grains fine. Budelius (p. 249) mentions a 
 ducat of Deventer on the lessel, of 67 eschen, or 49.7 
 grains, which was only 17^ carats fine, and therefore 
 contained but 36^ grains fine, and a "kaiser's ducat," 
 evidently of Charles V., only 14 carats fine, and con- 
 taining (if of the same gross weight as the former) only 
 29 grains fine; whilst the ducats of Philip, of the same 
 gross weight, were only 16 carats fine, and therefore 
 contained but 33^ grains of gold. Such a violent and 
 sudden alteration of the value of money amongst a 
 commercial people produced the greatest distress and 
 commotion ; and in view of the insurrections which have 
 followed close upon the heels of arbitrary monetary 
 decrees in other States, it cannot be doubted that this 
 
THE NETHEKLANDS Sip 
 
 measure was at least one of the causes that contributed 
 to the revolution of 1572. 
 
 From this date, indeed, commenced a new era, not 
 only in the monetary system of the Netherlands, but 
 also in all the other states of the Western world. To 
 understand its significance we must make a brief re- 
 trospect concerning the right of coinage. 
 
 In the imperial monetary system, which was planned 
 by Julius Caesar, matured by Augustus, and retained 
 with more or less constancy down to the fall of Byzan- 
 tium in 1204, the only full legal-tender money having 
 a forced circulation in all parts of the Empire consisted 
 of the gold coins struck by the emperor at Rome or 
 Byzantium. The Emperor (in another capacity) also 
 struck silver coins; so also did the proconsuls, the sub- 
 ject kings, and the municipalities,' but as these coins 
 had only a local course, and in some cases were entire!}' 
 destitute of legal-tender function, and as the imperial 
 taxes and tributes were payable only in imperial 
 gold coins, or else in exactly twelve times their weight 
 in silver ones (purity for purity), it mattered but little 
 to the Imperial fisc what variations took place in the 
 coinages of the latter. The senate, which after 
 the Augustan period was the mere creature of the 
 sovereign, enjoyed the monopoly of the bronze coin- 
 age. The lost Treaty of Seltz, which was made 
 between Charlemagne and Nicephorus, not only neces- 
 sarily defined the boundaries of the Eastern and West- 
 ern empires, it must have, contained a provision 
 securing the monopoly of the gold coinage to the Bas- 
 ileus; for, as a matter of fact, no gold coins were ever 
 struck by any other Christian prince until after the fall 
 of Byzantium. For the Netherlands, this covers the 
 
 I Adam Smith (i., p. 320, Hartford ed., 1804) talks of the "allodial" 
 right of coinage. This is sheer nonsense, and bespeaks a fundamental 
 misconception as to the nature and function of money. 
 
320 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 entire pei-iod from Charlemagne to Frederick II. 
 
 The Imperial system, therefore, consisted of some- 
 thing like what is now being proposed by currency 
 doctors — a universal money for the whole European 
 world, but with this essential difference: the Basileus 
 alone struck such universal money, and therefore pos- 
 sessed the power to regulate its volume ; whereas, ac- 
 cording to the plan which is now being matured, each 
 State — and especially if it permits unlimited coinage, 
 subject to the demands of private individuals — will 
 strike such money for itself, and there will be no united 
 control of the volume. Whether such money be made 
 of one metal or two metals will be of no consequence; 
 it can never become an equitable or stable measure 
 of value. 
 
 From the fall of the Greek capital to the revolt of the 
 Spanish Netherlands, a totally different system of money 
 prevailed in the states of Europe. Every king hastened 
 to strike his own gold coins: Frederick of Germany, 
 Alfonso of Leon, and Sancho of Portugal, in 1225; 
 Louis of France, in 1250; the Republic of Florence, in 
 1252; and Henry III., of England, in 1257. Silver 
 coins were also struck by these powers, and also by 
 the barons and prelates subject to their authority; and 
 both gold and silver coins were commonly made full 
 legal-tenders, at the ratio of value fixed by each State. 
 The supreme right of coinage, which previously was 
 always wielded and but rarely abused by the Basileus, 
 was now both exercised and abused by every petty 
 prince in Europe. 
 
 During the Empire the gold coins had been stamped 
 with sacred images and devices, a plan which, in a 
 superstitious age, sufficed to preserve them from abuse. 
 After the fall of Byzantium this restraint was relaxed ; 
 
THE NETHERLANDS 321 
 
 the sacred images disappeared from the gold coins, 
 and both these and the silver coins were altered so 
 often and so suddenly that it is difficult to follow either 
 their composition or value. Edward II., of England, 
 Philip le Bel, of France, and Charles I., of Spain, 
 were only types of the medieeval adulterer of coins. 
 The practice was continued down to the beginning of 
 the seventeenth century; and notwithstanding the apol- 
 ogetic theories or protestations of patriotic writers, no 
 sovereign of this period was guiltless of it. Some of 
 the alterations were no doubt rendered necessary by the 
 dwindling stock and uncertain supplies of the precious 
 metals, or were made for other good reasons; for, as 
 Mr. Hallam has remarked; no ill results appear to 
 have followed them. But others, as attested by their 
 evil consequences, were evidently made for private 
 profit to the king, or else resorted to as a ready means 
 to fill an exhausted treasury.' 
 
 In 1524 and 1546 Charles V. suddenly raised by 
 proclamation the legal value of his gold coins in Hol- 
 land from 9 or 10 to i^i times their weight in silver 
 coins; and by this imprudent device managed to tem- 
 porarily replenish his barren coffers. This was the straw 
 that broke the patience of his long-suffering subjects. 
 The Netherlands showed signs of revolt; even Spanish 
 America remonstrated, and eventually (in 1608) the 
 latter secured a notable concession of the regalian pre- 
 rogative of mone}'. Meanwhile, and during the ueign 
 of Charles, the revolutionary tendency in Holland was 
 checked ; but with the accession of Philip the Bigot it 
 burst into fierce flames. The "Confederation of Beg- 
 gars" was formed in 1566; the revolution was pro- 
 claimed in 1572; paper money was issued in 1574; 
 the Jews of Amsterdam organized a sort of Wissel 
 
 I Of this character were the coinages of Edward VI., of England. 
 
322 
 
 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 bank in 1607; and the bank of Amsterdam, which, 
 under the authority of the city, imitated and then 
 destroyed the Wissel bank and forbade the Jews 
 from dealing in exchange, was established in 1609. 
 "Free," or properly speaking, "individual" coinage, 
 as it is still called by the Dutch, had long been permit- 
 ted by the degenerate Moslem governments of India, 
 where Albuquerque found and Mascarenhas copied it 
 (1555). From the Portuguese the evil institute was 
 inherited by the Dutch East Indians, and by them it 
 was brought to Holland. It was among the first meas- 
 ures resorted to by the revolutionary government, who, 
 however, limited their legal-tender coins to silver, 
 which was coined into "^^uilders," or florins, of 160^ 
 grains fine. The operation of this system was pro- 
 moted by the exchange transactions of the Jews, and 
 the guarantee which their individual credit afforded 
 to importations and deposits of bullion. It was further 
 stimulated by the extension of Dutch commerce and 
 by the superior credit of the bank of Amsterdam, with 
 whose transactions substantially commenced the present 
 system of individual money. 
 
 In this connection it will be interesting to observe 
 that two years after the first edict of Charles V., to 
 wit, in 1526, Henry VIII. of England felt obliged (in 
 consequence of that edict, "forasmuch as coins of . 
 
 . gold. . . be of late days raised ... in 
 the pmperor's low countries," and because there was 
 an active trade with Flanders) to raise the value of the 
 angel-noble of 80 grains gross, from 6s. 8d. to 7s. 4., 
 and two months later to 7s. 6d., in silver coins. Fol- 
 lowing is the text of the ordinance: 
 
 "Henry the Eighth, by the grace of God, King of 
 England and France, defender of the Faith, lord of 
 
THE NETHERLANDS 323 
 
 Ireland, to the most reverend Father in God, our most 
 trusty and most entirely beloved councillor the lord 
 Thomas, cardinal of York, archbishop, legat de Lei- 
 cestre of the See Apostolic, primate of England, and 
 our chancellor of the same, greeting. Forasmuch 
 as coins of money, as well of gold as of silver, be of 
 late days raised and enhanced both in the realm of 
 France, as also in the emperor's Low Countries, and in 
 other parts, unto higher prices than the very poise 
 weight and fineness and valuation of the same, and 
 otherwise, than they were accustomed to be current; 
 by means whereof, the money of this our realm is daily, 
 and of long season hath been, by sundry persons (as 
 well our subjects as strangers, for their particular gain 
 and lucre) conveyed out of this realm into the parts 
 beyond the seas, and so is likely to continue more and 
 more, to the great hindrance of the generality of our sub- 
 jects and people and to the no little impoverishing of our 
 said realm, if the same be not speedily remedied and 
 foreseen : We, after long debating of the matter with 
 you and sundry other of our council, and after remis- 
 sion made unto outward princes for reformation thereof, 
 finding finally no manner of remedy to be had at their 
 hands, have, by mature deliberation, determined that 
 our coins and moneys (as well of gold as of silver) 
 shall be, by our officer of our mint, from henceforth 
 made of such fineness, lay (alloy), standard, and value, 
 as may be equivalent, correspondent, and agreeable to 
 the rates of the valuations enhanced and raised in out- 
 ward parts, as is afore specified." 
 
 It will be recollected that during the Empire the 
 supreme right of coinage was vested in the Augustus, 
 or Basileus, who, in fact, never permitted the gold, 
 or full legal-tender, coinage to go out of his hands; 
 
324 
 
 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 and that during the mediaeval period (after A. D. 1204) 
 it fell to the various princes and prelates who had in- 
 herited the prerogatives of the dead Empire. We shall 
 next see it fall under the control of the Dutch and Eng- 
 lish merchants. 
 
 Under the private coinage law of the republic, the 
 bank of Amsterdam, a private institution, received de- 
 posits of any kind of silver coins, giving credit only for 
 the fine metal contained in them, and measuring its 
 value in sols banco of tvventy to the Dutch florin. Its 
 payments were made upon the same basis. The bank 
 also received gold coins on deposit, valuing them (in 
 sols banco) at what they actually fetched in the mart 
 of Amsterdam. This custom deprived the gold and 
 silver coins of Holland of such part of their value as 
 they had previously derived from royal seal, procla- 
 mation and seigniorage. It swept away alike the sacred 
 effigies of Rome and Byzantium, the heretical inscrip- 
 tions of Julin and Bardewic, the unjust valuations of 
 Madrid and Sevilla, and the temptation everywhere to 
 tamper with any money destined for use in Holland. 
 Indeed,it destroyed money altogether; it made a market 
 value for the precious metals, a thing hitherto un- 
 known; it practically established unlimited coinage, and 
 thus substituted metal, in place of money, as the meas- 
 ure of value. 
 
 These revolutionary acts met with such immediate 
 and marked success that they soon afterwards influenced 
 the legislation of other States. Hitherto the precious 
 metals obtained in America had vainly sought to evade 
 the coinage exactions of the European princes; now 
 the door of escape was open ; they had only to be sent 
 to Holland, turned into guilders and ducats, and cred- 
 ited as silver metal under the name of sols banco. But 
 
THE NETHERLANDS 325 
 
 as the Spaniards and Portuguese still controlled the 
 American mines and jealously convej'ed their precious 
 products to the mints of the mother country, how 
 were they to be practically diverted to Holland? The 
 Dutch fleets and their allies, the buccaneers of the West 
 Indies, at once answered this question, and the early 
 settlers of New Amsterdam could have told many a 
 tale as to how the plunder was safely transported to 
 Holland. At a later period, when the English took 
 New York, this class of bullion was quietly removed 
 into Massachusetts, and there converted into honest 
 "pine-tree" shillings. 
 
 Under the stimulus of "free" coinage, an immense 
 quantity of the precious metals now found their way 
 to Holland, and a local rise of prices ensued, which 
 found one form of expression in the curious mania of 
 buying tulips at prices often exceeding that of the 
 ground on which they were grown. So rapidly did 
 the influence of Dutch "free" coinage extend, that it 
 induced the king of Spain to concede to his American 
 colonies a right which had descended from the pagan 
 gods to the pagan emperors, and from the pagan and 
 Christian emperors to the independent princes who had 
 seized the fragments of the Empire, but which had 
 never yet been conferred upon a Christian vassal or vassal 
 state.' This was the right to coin gold, a right which 
 was conceded to the American viceroys by the royal 
 ordinance of 1608. But we have not yet done with 
 the tulip mania. In 1648, when the Peace of West- 
 phalia acknowledged the independence of the Dutch 
 republic, the latter stopped the "free" coinage of silver 
 
 I The emperor Charles IV., of Germany, 1347-78, "pave to all the 
 members of the empire the privilege of issuing gold coins with any 
 stamp they choose" (Partington, on the ducat). This was quite super- 
 fluous, for in fact most of the members of the empire had usurped this 
 privilege a cetitury previously. 
 
326 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 florins and only, permitted it for gold ducats, which in 
 Holland had no legal value. This legislation discour- 
 aged the imports of silver bullion, checked the rise of 
 prices, and put an end to the tulip mania/ However, 
 it had other and far more important results. During 
 the wars which ensued between Holland and England, 
 the latter found so many reasons for admiring the gov- 
 ernment and administration of its rival, that it com- 
 menced to copy them in every detail, in some cases 
 where the advantages o£ imitation were doubtful, or 
 had passed away. The English deposed their king 
 and established a republic in 1653; they planted colo- 
 nies in America to rival those of the Dutch; they char- 
 tered their East India company on the same lines as the 
 Dutch ; they encouraged Morgan and other buccaneers 
 to pillage the Spanish plate-ships and settlements; and 
 they adopted "free" coinage. The English commer- 
 cial literature of this period — for example, the works 
 of Sir Josiah Child, Andrew Yarranton, and others — 
 is filled with suggestions to follow the policy of the 
 Dutch, whether as to colonies, navigation, banking, 
 interest laws, coinage, warehouses, or land registries; 
 and all of these measures were soon afterwards enacted 
 in England, except the last one, which still hangs fire. 
 Holland had dropped "'free" mintage for legal-tender 
 coins in 1648; even France afterwards tried it in 1679, 
 only to drop it in 1689. England, under the influence 
 of its favored classes, adopted it in 1666, and held 
 on to it until, through other means, she had gained the 
 commercial supremacy of the world, and was enabled 
 (chiefly during the last and present centuries) to urge 
 it upon other states. Then she dropped silver. 
 
 The monetary system of the Netherlands, which be- 
 
 I This mania had already been discouraged by a resolution of the 
 States-General, dated April 27th, 1637, which threw some difficulties in 
 the way of enforcing time-bargains in tulips. 
 
THE NETHERLANDS 327 
 
 gan with the Republic, consisted, first, of demonetizing 
 gold — an act in which can be perceived more of re- 
 sentment against the arbitrary decrees of the Spanish 
 monarch than wisdom in laying the foundations of a 
 state. Second, it consisted (5f pasteboard dollars, which 
 were issued in 1574, during the siege of Leyden, and 
 of which some half-a-dozen specimens are now in the 
 British Museum collection. These "greenbacks" of 
 the revolution the Hollanders preferred to keep rather 
 than exchange for coins — ad -perfetuam liberationis 
 divincB memoriam — in perpetual memory of their di- 
 vine liberation from tyranny.^ That they circulated 
 beyond the precincts of Leyden, and effected an im- 
 portant augmentation of the currency and a rise of 
 prices, is attested by the following quotations from 
 Budelius (p. 269): The gold real, 1579, 4S stivers; 
 1580,46; 1583, 47i; 1586, 52; and 1590, 53 stivers. 
 The Philips silver thaler, 1579, 43 stivers; 1580, 
 45; 1583, 47; and 1586, 50 stivers. Here we see 
 a gradual rise in the value of both gold and silver 
 coins. In what? Certainly not in either gold or sil- 
 ver stivers, but in currency, and that currency neces- 
 sarily of something else. Under the circumstances that 
 something else could only have been wholly or partly 
 of paper. 
 
 Thirdly, the Dutch system consisted of silver coins 
 struck by the State, both on its own account and for 
 the account of individuals ("free" coinage), and there- 
 
 I Borniti, deNummis, ed. 1605, i., p. 15. The revolutionary moneys 
 of Leyden were of white pasteboard, round, about i^ inches in diameter 
 and stamped or embossed to resemble a coin. They took their origin 
 in the first, but were perfected during the second, -siege — that of 1574- 
 Their denominations were 24 and 40 stivers. The former bore on one 
 side, "Haec libertatis ergo," on the other "Godt behoede Leyden," or 
 God protect Leyden . The latter had the city arms on one side, and 
 "Pagno propatria'' (Davies' "Hist. Holland," London, 1842, ii., pp. 
 9, 10). Silver pieces of the same stamp as the pasteboard ones were 
 also issued ("Catalogue Schulihess-Rechberg,"' 7048). 
 
328 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 fore without limit as to numbers. These coins — guild- 
 ers and their multiples, namely, the ducaton, the reichs- 
 thaler etc. — were legal-tenders to any amount. There 
 was also "free" or individual coinage of gold; but as 
 coins of this metal were no longer legal-tender in Hol- 
 land, they were struck for circulation in other States, 
 who, in using them, escaped the seigniorage and other 
 coinage exactions of their sovereigns. Fourthly, 
 subsidiary coins of silver and copper, which the Dutch 
 State struck only for itself. .Fifthly, the banking sys- 
 tem, already described. 
 
 At the period when the decrees of Charles V. so 
 greatly and suddenly raised the value of gold coins, 
 Thomas Gresham, an English mercer and financier, 
 was applied to by the ministers of Edward VI. of Eng- 
 land for a loan of money. In the third year of his 
 reigri this boy king had arbitrarily raised the value of 
 his silver coins to a ratio of 5.15 for i of gold; in his 
 fourth year to 4.82 for i; and in his fifth year to 2.41 
 for I.' The profit made by the king in these transac- 
 tions was, in the first instance, 113! per cent; in the 
 second, 128 per cent; and in the third, 356 per cent.^ 
 Gresham was unable to comply with the ministers' re- 
 quest, but said he thought he could raise the money in 
 Antwerp. Accordingly, he was commissioned to pro- 
 ceed thither and effect the loan. He remained in Ant- 
 werp until after the death of the king and fall of the 
 ministry, meanwhile advising them, what he had not 
 ventured to set forth in London, namely, that a bad 
 money will drive away good; and that before he could 
 procure the needful loan in Holland, it was necessary 
 for Edward to reform his monetary system. This cor- 
 respondence has been lauded by Mr. Henry Dunning 
 MacLeod with fulsome praise, and the first portion of 
 I Lord Liverpool, p. loi. 2 Ibid., pp. loi, 102. 
 
THE NETHERI.ANDS 329 
 
 it -formulated into what he has called "the Gresham 
 law." That bad money, when made lawful, will drive 
 away good, by causing the latter to be hoarded, is a 
 law or principle of money which will be found in the 
 "Frogs" of Aristophanes and the "Maxims" of Theog- 
 nis, written some eighteen or twenty centuries before 
 Gresham 's time; a principle that every ti"adesman in 
 the interval had learnt by heart.' 
 
 For example, in 1341, after the emission of black 
 money by Edward III., a great mass of sterlings and 
 silver plate was collected in London and Boston, for 
 private conveyance to the Continent; in other words, 
 the bad money drove out the good; and everybody 
 knew it.^ This law applies equally to cabbages. It 
 is not a lisw of money, but a truism that applies to all 
 things. However, Gresham 's- remarks, perhaps, had 
 the effect to bring about that permanence of the English 
 monetary system, for which Elizabeth afterwards re- 
 ceived so much credit; that princess having merely 
 "completed the plan of reform which Edward had pro- 
 jected (or assented to) and had begun to carry into ex- 
 ecution."* 
 
 Gresham successively served Mary and Elizabeth; 
 and by the latter was honored with knighthood. But 
 did he serve the English people; did he serve the 
 interests of the State? Not at all. He was faithful only 
 to his own class, the money-lenders of London. Not 
 a word appears in his correspondence of the tremendous 
 monetary revolution that was then brewing in Holland; 
 not a word of the imperial edicts that had raised the 
 value of imperial gold from 9 or 10 to iif, and from 
 
 1 "Maxims of Theognis," line 21: "Nor will any one take in exchange 
 worse when better is to be had." 
 
 2 "Middle Ages Revisited," chap. xix. 
 
 3 Lord Liverpool, p. 104. 
 
330 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 ■ I if to I3i; not a word of the resistance to these unjust 
 decrees, or of the fact that the regalian prerogative, 
 which jurisconsults and statesmen in all ages had shown 
 to be indispensable to the exercise of independent sov- 
 ereignty, was in jeopardy of falling into the hands of 
 Dutch monopolists, and might afterwards fall, as it did 
 fall, into the hands of English ones. This was the 
 prerogative of coinage. Gresham was silent on this 
 subject, and his silence on such a subject far outweighs 
 the merits of that "discovery " for which his admirers 
 have claimed him so much credit.' 
 
 But, indeed, who has properly written the history of 
 Gresham's times; who has dived into this supernal but 
 obscure subject of money, except men of the very 
 same class who profited in pocket by the Dutch Revo- 
 lution, its institution of private coinage and the subse- 
 quent private control of bank issues? Nobody. Is it 
 yet clearly understood that whatever degradation of 
 money was committed by the emperors, whatever de- 
 basement was afterwards committed by the kings, these 
 have since been vastly exceeded by the dishonest use 
 made of "individual" coinage and the control of bank 
 issues? Not at all. The Emperors of Rome controlled 
 the emissions of European money for thirteen centuries, 
 and the kings and dukes for nearly four centuries after- 
 wards; whilst the usurers have held it, to the present 
 time, for about two centuries. It is not too much to 
 say that during these two centuries greater monetary 
 changes have been made and' more losses have been 
 occasioned to the industrial classes of the European 
 world than were made by all the degradations and de- 
 
 I Gresham remained in Antwerp until 1533. In 1553 Mary, and in 
 1558 Elizabeth, ascended the throne. In the last-named year Gresham 
 was sent as ambassador to Parma, and in 1559 he was knighted (T. F. 
 Burgon, "Lite and times of Sir Thomas Gresham," London, 1839, z 
 vols. 8vo; Ward's "Lives o£ the Gresham Professors," p. 8). 
 
THE NETHERLANDS 331 
 
 basements of the Imperial and regal periods put to- 
 gether. Monetary systems have been changed from 
 gold to silver, from silver to gold, and from both silver 
 and gold to paper; tens of thousands of worthless banks 
 have been erected, thousands of millions of worthless 
 notes have been issued, and the entire products of in- 
 dustry have been seized and perverted to the enrichment 
 of a class, who know only how to scheme, to under- 
 mine and to appropriate the earnings of mankind. The 
 right to issue money needs a radical reform ; and the 
 State which reforms it first will secure for its citizens 
 far greater advantages than can be derived from Zoll- 
 vereins, tariff bills, or any other kind of commercial 
 legislation. "The control of money," says an eloquent 
 writer on the subject, "is the ground upon which an 
 international or cosmopolitan combination 'finances' the 
 world and 'farms' humanity.'" 
 
 Writing in 1776, Adam Smith was at great pains to 
 inform us what a strong institution was the "burghers'" 
 Bank of Amsterdam, how "for every guilder in gold 
 or silver to circulate as bank money, there is a corre- 
 spondent guilder in gold or silver to be found in the 
 bank. The City is guarantee that it should be so. The 
 bank is under the direction of the four reigning burgo- 
 masters, who are changed every year. Each new set 
 of burgomasters visits the treasure, compares it with 
 the books, receives it upon oath and delivers it over 
 with the same awful solemnity to the set which suc- 
 ceeds; and in that sober, and religious country oaths 
 are not yet disregarded. A rotation of this kind seems 
 alone a sufficient security against any practices which 
 
 I Reginald Fenton, Esq. , formerly of Kimberly, South Africa, now of 
 San Diego, California. "The distribution of wealth and the exploita- 
 tion of some men by others are dependent upon money." Count Leo 
 Tolstoi in his Essay on Money in Kitson's "Scientific Solution of the 
 Money Question" pref. and p. 168. 
 
332 
 
 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 cannot be avowed. Amidst all the revolutions which 
 faction has ever occasioned in the government of Am- 
 sterdam, the prevailing party has at no time accused 
 their predecessors of infidelity in the administration of 
 the bank. No accusation could have affected more 
 deeply the reputation and fortune of the disgraced 
 party; and if such accusation could have been sup- 
 ported, we may be assured that it would have been 
 brought. In 1672, when the French king was at 
 Utrecht, the Bank of Amsterdam paid so readily, as 
 left no doubt of the fidelity with which it had observed 
 its engagements. Public utility and not revenue was 
 the original object of this institution." Alas, for Dutch 
 burgher patriotism, and the credulity of our great Scotch 
 sophist! When, fourteen years later, that is to say, in 
 1790, the French again invaded Holland, they found 
 the bank empty and insolvent. Even whilst Adam 
 Smith was penning his panegyrics, it was secretly 
 loaning away bullion which belonged to its depositors 
 and noteholders. Its pious burgomasters were forsworn, 
 the City was dishonored, and the woild received its 
 hundredth useless lesson on the folly of trusting to the 
 stability of a monetary system which is not absolutely 
 under the thumb of the State. 
 
 Coinage Ratios in the Low Countries (after 1379 in Holland only). 
 
 Period, 
 
 A. D. 
 
 Ratio. 
 
 Remarks. 
 
 30 
 
 8 
 
 Revolt of the ?i'risians against fiscal exactions 
 of the Romans. The Roman imperial ratio 
 was always 12 silver = i gold; but silver 
 bore a higher value in the Eastern trade of 
 the Baltic, and the Frisians (possibly from 
 choice) paid their tributes in ox-hides 
 ("Tac. Ann.,"iv., c. 72). The prevalent 
 ratio of the Baltic was 8 for i ("Anc. Brit.," 
 chap. xvii). 
 
THE NETHERLANDS 
 
 333 
 
 Period, 
 
 A. D. 
 
 286 
 
 Saxon 
 
 752 
 
 Ratio. 
 
 753 
 754 
 
 779 
 
 Remarks. 
 
 Revolt of Carausius the Menapian. The mark 
 of silver coins was in use as early, at least, 
 as this date (vide Agricola, writing about 
 1550), Its substitution of the Roman libra 
 of account, which now consisted of 5 gold 
 solidi, each of about go grains fine, or else 
 12 times their weight in silver, implies a 
 local ratio of 8 for i. 
 In the pagan coinages of Friesland, Jutland, 
 etc. , there were 8 silver siccals, saigas' or 
 iesterlings, each of about 18^ grains fine, 
 to the gull siccal, or skillingar, of the same 
 weight: a ratio of 8 for i. 
 Forty silver deniers, each of 17^ grains fine 
 (300 to the livre weight) equal i imperial 
 solidus (now) of about 70 grains fine: a 
 ratio of 10 for i. "Anon. Chron. Aqui- 
 taine," written in 843 and alluding to the 
 period previous to Pepin's monetary reform 
 of A. D. 734-68. Same authority, for same 
 period, gives 25, instead of the ancient 20, 
 quarter-solidi to the livre of account; lead- 
 ing to an inference that the Basileus struck 
 light gold shillings to compensate for the 
 heretical ratios of the North. 
 De Vienne, "Livre d' Argent," p. 23. 
 Pepin struck 264 deniers from the Roman pound 
 weight and valued them at 40 to the solidus 
 (now) of 66J4 grains fine: a ratio of 12. The 
 gold shillings were valued at 22 to the livre 
 of account, of which the mint master took 
 one for himself, a proof that they were still 
 light (De Vienne, pp. 20, 21). 
 Decretale precum. Charlemagne, in this de- 
 cree, re-established the value of the gold 
 shilling at 20 to the libra; he afterwards 
 attempted to raise the value of these pieces 
 by valuing them at 16 to the libra; but 
 judging from the equivalents given in the 
 Saxon and Frisian Codes, which he altered 
 at this period, the attempt failed (De Vienne, 
 p. 42). 
 
 I According to the German 'law, vi., 3, "the saiga (or saica) is the 
 fourth part of the tremissis; it is one denarius, and two saigas are two 
 denarii. A tremissis is the third part of a solidus and equals four 
 denarii " The manuscript which gives this valuation is of rather a low 
 date The Bavarian law of a much earlier period accords to the saica 
 the value of three denarii: "Si una saica, id est tres denarios furaverit 
 Si duas id est sex denarios" (Tit. ix.. Art. 3, 4),. There can be 
 little doubt that, still more anciently, the saica was the sicca of the Orient 
 which found its' way through Tartary to the Baltic and there became 
 degraded. 
 
 II 
 12 
 
334 
 
 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 Period, 
 
 A. D. 
 
 813 
 
 814 
 
 864 
 922 
 
 logo 
 
 I2th Cent 
 
 1204 
 
 1220 
 13th Cent 
 
 ID 
 
 8 
 
 1477 
 1489 
 1511 
 
 1519 
 1524 
 
 8 
 10 
 
 9 
 
 9@io 
 
 12 
 
 9@io 
 
 9@io 
 iiys 
 
 Remarks. 
 
 Last year of Charlemagne. Petition of 
 Council of Rheiras against light solidi, which 
 would not pass for 40 deniers (De Vienne, 
 p. 36). Imaginary scheme of international 
 money (Ibid.) 
 Unique solidus of Louis Debonnaire of sus- 
 piciously fine execution, in Paris collection. 
 Were this genuine it would be the last gold 
 coin struck by any Christian prince, except 
 the Basileus, until A. D. 1225. 
 Charles the Bald: Edict of Pistes. 
 Inferential valuations of the besant in the 
 ducal silver coins of Holland, Flanders, 
 Brabant, etc. 
 Poid de marc, a weight derived from marks 
 (coins) introduced into France under 
 Philip I. Down to this time it was only 
 used in the Netherlands and England. Du 
 Cange; Saigey; De Vienne, 58. 
 Hanseatic money. The ratio under the pagan 
 Hansa was probably 8 for i; under the 
 Christian Hansa, at first, probably 10 for i 
 C'Anc. Britam"). 
 Fall of Constantinople: end of the pontifico- 
 imperial monopoly of coining gold for the 
 Roman world. 
 Jutland Code of 13th century. 
 Numerous changes of the ducal mint-laws 
 during this and the two following centuries, 
 the prevailing ratios being 8 to 10 silver for 
 I gold. In 1284 the earl of Holland and 
 Zealand purchased silver in England 
 (Anderson's "Hist, of Commerce," sub. 
 anno). 
 From valuation of the gold noble of Edward 
 III. of England, in the ports of Flanders 
 ("Middle Ages Revisited"). 
 Burgundian period of Flanders, 1384 to 1477. 
 The prevailing ratio was, however, 10 silver 
 for I gold. 
 Earlier coinages under the German imperial 
 house of Hapsburg. The ratio in England 
 (4 Edward IV.), year 1464, was 10^ for i. 
 Later Hapsburg coinages. Edict of Breda by 
 Maximillian, Dec. 14th. Abortive attempt 
 to re-establish the Caesarian ratio. 
 Gold nobles (half -marks) and silver groots of 
 Flanders, Lorrain, Bar, etc. .ratio io;ducaton, 
 ratio 9 for i. 
 Charles V. . earlier coinages. 
 Charles V. Edict of Esslingen, June 19th, rais- 
 ing the value of his gold coins. 
 
THE NETHERLANDS 
 
 335 
 
 Period, 
 
 A. D. 
 
 Ratio. 
 
 1529 
 
 iiH 
 
 1542 
 
 10 
 
 1546 
 
 13M 
 
 1552 
 
 13H 
 
 1556 
 1566 
 
 13H 
 13K 
 
 1572 
 
 — 
 
 1574 
 
 — 
 
 "579 
 1581 
 
 — 
 
 1589 
 
 
 
 1598 
 
 — 
 
 1607 
 1609 
 
 — 
 
 1609 
 to 
 
 1 c 
 
 1624 
 
 
 1628 
 
 
 Remarks. 
 
 Charles V. The Holland mark-weight of 
 3797.2 English grains was this year offi- 
 cially compared with the Paris mark of 
 3777.5 English grains; and the former 
 found to be 19.7 grains heavier (Boissard, 
 p. 259). If the mark-weight developed 
 from the mark of coins ("Anc. Brit ," ch. 
 xvii ), the superior weight of the Holland 
 over the Saxony mark-weight probably 
 arose when Pepin compelled 12 instead of 
 II esterlings to be paid for a gull skillingar. 
 The Amsterdam mark- weight was 3798 Eng- 
 lish grains. 
 
 Edict of Esslingen by Charles V. Degraded 
 Carolus dollars 354)^ grains gross, or 302 >^ 
 grains fine silver, valued at 20 stivers or 
 one gulden of about 30 grains fine gold. 
 
 Edict of Charles v., again raising the value of 
 his gold coins. 
 
 Thomas Gresham at Antwerp (Spanish govern- 
 ment begins, 1555). 
 
 Abdication of Charles V. 
 
 Confederation of Dutch leaders against Spanish 
 government. 
 
 Revolution. Mercantile system of indi- 
 vidual or "free" coinage. Gold demon- 
 etized. 
 
 Pasteboard revolutionary money of Leyden. 
 
 Union of Utrecht; separation of Belgium. 
 
 The right of coinage, previously conferred by 
 imperial authority upon the counts of Hol- 
 land, transferred to the Spanish crown by 
 Philip II., king of Spain and hereditary 
 count of Holland; an act that further in- 
 censed the Hollanders. 
 
 "Market" cr conflict ratio 6t 11 3-5 (Desro- 
 tours). 
 
 Philip III , of Spain, cedes the Netherlands to 
 Albert of Austria and the Infanta Isabella. 
 
 Wissel Bank of Amsterdam. 
 
 After the Edict of Esslingen the coins were 
 greatly clipped, and both the Wissel Bank 
 and the Bank of Amsterdam, which this 
 year superseded it, were established, among, 
 other objects, to remedy this evil. 
 
 Rise of the Buccaneers; numerous captures of 
 plate; and opening of Dutch oriental trade by 
 sea. Immense sums of gold and silver' ob- 
 tained from Japan. 
 
 Spanish plate-galleons captured near Matanzas 
 with several million livres in gold and silver 
 (Van Loon). 
 
336 
 
 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 Period, 
 
 A. D. 
 
 1640 
 1648 
 
 1672 
 1717 
 
 1734 
 
 1785 
 1791 
 
 1806 
 
 1816 
 
 Ratio. 
 
 1445 
 
 14-45 
 
 14-45 
 
 14-45 
 
 1445 
 
 14-45 
 14-45 
 
 15.20 
 
 15-87 
 
 Remarks, 
 
 "Market" or conflict ratio 12^ for t (Desro- 
 tours, 1785; Gaudin, 1803). 
 Independence of Holland recognized by Spain. 
 Individual coinage limited to gold, which, 
 however, at the mint ratio of 14.45, is 
 undervalued as compared with foreign mints. 
 (The Spanish mint ratio of 1650 was 15 
 fori.) 
 Most of the gold ducats of the German states 
 now struck in Holland for individual ac- 
 count. 
 Newton's report gives the ducat or s^florin gold 
 piece, stamped "Legem Imperii," at 52.39 
 grains fine, and the silver florin at 148.9 
 grains fine; a ratio of 14.31 (Kelly, ii., p. 
 153, hints at Inexact Assays: this might 
 account for the discrepancy). Newton 
 also says the ducats were current in Hol- 
 land for 5j^ guilders. This is evidently 
 correct, atid indicates a "mint-conflict" 
 ratio, or so-called "market" ratio of 14.92. 
 The imports of gold noticed by him were 
 due in some measure to the large foreign 
 coinage of ducats in Holland. 
 Desrotcurs says 14.45; Dutot says 15.67, which 
 
 last is incorrect. 
 Desrotours. 
 
 Hamilton's Report of this year says 14.90; evi- 
 dently the "conflict," not the "coinage," 
 ratio. Gold coins being now greatly under- 
 valued, as compared with foreign mints, they 
 cease to circulate in Holland. 
 Law of December 15th. "Double standard" 
 under Louis, king of Holland. Gold 400- 
 stiver piece 193.4 grains fine. Silver 50- 
 stiver should contain 403 2-3 grains fine; 
 actual contents (Kelly) 367.9 grains fine: 
 ratio 15.2 for i. 
 Union with Belgium. Mint Act, September 
 28th, 1816. The "William" of 10 florins 
 was to contain 93.465 grains fine gold; the 
 florin 148.39 grains fine silver: legal ratio 
 15.8765. The assays of Eckfeldt and Du 
 Bois gave but 46.52 grains fine to the 
 ducat, and 148.74 grains fine to the florin: 
 actual coinage ratio 15.98. Gold coinage 
 for individuals stopped. Silver coinage 
 for individuals (one and three-florin pieces) 
 again permitted. Chevalier, p. 155, says that 
 there was no gold in circulation until 1839. 
 Foundations of New (present) Bank of the 
 Netherlands,. 18 14. 
 
THE NETHERLANDS 
 
 337 
 
 Period, 
 
 A. D. 
 
 Ratio. 
 
 Remarks. 
 
 1830 1587 Separation of Belgium. 
 
 1839 15.60 Gold coins again circulate in Holland (Cheva- 
 
 lier; Vrolik). 
 
 •1847 15.60 Russian gold "scare." Mint Act, September 
 
 26th, 1848. Gold demonetized. The silver 
 florin lowered to 145. 85 grains fine(Schmidt's 
 "Tate's Cambist;" Del Mar's "Money and 
 Civilization,'' p. 17). 
 
 1850 15 60 Gold coins melted and sold at a loss of ten mil- 
 
 lion florins (Vrolik). 
 
 1857 15.60 Gold coins again cease to circulate in Holland 
 
 (Chevalier, pp. 78, 149). 
 
 1873 15.60 Nevada silver "scare." In accordance with an 
 
 Act of the previous year the individual coin- 
 age of silver was this year suspended. 
 
 1875 15^ Mint Act, June 6th. Ten-florin gold coins 
 
 to contain 941334 grains fine, and open to 
 individual coinage. Mint still closed to 
 individual coinage of silver. Old silver 
 coins not demonetized ("Etalon boiteux," 
 Greven ) . 
 
 1877 15^ Same provisions extended to Colonial coinage 
 
 (Greven). 
 I5f^ A portion of the circulating silver authorized 
 
 to be melted and sold, in order to buy gold 
 for bank payments. 
 
 1893 15^ The money of Holland now consists chiefly of 
 
 paper notes, about £16,000,000, secured by 
 a "reserve" in gold and supplemented by 
 a subsidiary silver circulation. Population 
 about ^yi millions, exclusive of Colonies. 
 The home circulation fluctuates between 
 £'i and £^ per capita, coins and paper com- 
 bined. 
 
 From this table it will be observed that the ratio in 
 the Netherlands, from the earliest times nearly to the 
 reign of Pepin, was 8 for i ; in the early part of the 
 Carlovingian era, about 12 for i ; between that period 
 and the fall of Constantinople, from 8 to 10 for i ; dur- 
 ing the ducal period about 10 for i ; and that it was 
 fixed by Charles V. at 13^, whereupon gold was de- 
 monetized through the influence of the East Indian 
 traders and the burghers. Since that time the ratio in 
 Holland has followed that of Spain and France.' 
 
 I The ratios in Holland which appear in Dr. Adolf Soetbeer's works 
 are purely hypothetical, and were probably not intended to be regarded 
 as the results of any examination of the coinage laws or coinages of that 
 country. 
 
338 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 In Holland the history of the ratio is almost the 
 whole history of money. It was the ratio that distin- 
 guished its earlier monetary systems fi'om that of Rome; 
 it was the ratio that, until the Cailovingian era, marked 
 it a pagan State, allied, by commerce, with the pagan 
 cities of the Baltic and the great pagan Hansa, whose 
 fleets transacted the maritime commerce of all northern 
 and western Europe; it was the ratio that proclaimed 
 the monetary systems of its ducal masters a cross be- 
 tween that of a struggling nationality and Imperial 
 Rome; it was the ratio that fanned into a flame the 
 embers of that resistance to Imperial authority which 
 had been crushed undei foot, but had never, wholly 
 lost their fire; it was the ratio by means of which the 
 traders and money-lenders first asserted their undue im- 
 poi'tance in the State; and it was the ratio, snatched 
 by their strong hands from the prerogatives of the 
 Crown, that has enabled them to rule the State and 
 make Holland "a nation of usurers." , When they 
 wrested from the Empire what is virtually the preroga- 
 tive of coinage, they demonetized gold and declared 
 silver coins alone fit for the high function of legal-ten- 
 der; when the monarchy of 1816 was erected, they 
 submitted to a system of gold and silver coins; but no 
 sooner did the lapse of time strengthen their hands, and 
 the great yield of the Russian gold mines afford them 
 a pretext, than they agitated and brought about that 
 reliance upon a single metal (at a time) which consti- 
 tutes the fulcrum of the mercantile system. Here the 
 real character of the burgher class discloses itself. Their 
 patriotism was not for Holland, but for the burghers. 
 Dr. Vrolik has in vain endeavored to defend them from 
 this imputation, by alleging that the "silver standard" 
 was not adopted after the discovery of gold in Cali- 
 
THE NETHERLANDS 339 
 
 fornia, but before it/ But he has adroitly omitted to 
 mention that it occurred upon the heels of the great dis- 
 coveries of gold in the Ural, and that it is distincth- 
 traceable to that event. Leon Faucher very correctly 
 attributed to this unpatriotic class an "insurrection of 
 fear." It was fear for their beloved securities that super- 
 induced this measure, which cost the Slate ten millions 
 of florins and the Dutch people ten thousand millions; 
 and it was the same craven fear that in 1873 induced 
 this class to clamor for that "gold standard" which 
 now sustains their investments, but which lowers their 
 claims of patriotism to the sordid level of their breeches 
 pockets. 
 
 The existing Bank of the Netherlands was established 
 at Amsterdam in 1814, nearly on the plan of the Bank 
 of England. Its original capital, of which the king 
 was always to hold one-tenth, was five million florins. 
 This capital was doubled in 1819, and has since in- 
 creased to twenty million florins. The bank has the 
 right to strike coins for the State, to issue circulating 
 notes, discount bills, lend money, and deal in bullion . 
 and foreign coins. It was this institution which, in 
 opposition to Lord Liverpool, furnished the reasons 
 for monetizing gold, and for establishing the "double 
 standard" in 1816; which showed in 1847 (the Russian 
 gold mines were then very productive) that gold was 
 unfit for legal-tender mone}^; which in 1873 (zenith of 
 the Comstock Lode) proved, with equal facility, that 
 silver was useless, and gold the only proper metal for 
 money; and which doubtless stands ready, whenever 
 the relative production of silver shall decline, to furnish 
 equally pliant arguments against more plentiful gold 
 and in favor of scarce silver. In a paper read by Pro- 
 1 Speech of Dr. Vrolik in "Rep. Inter. Monetary Conference, 1881." 
 
340 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 fessor H. B. Greven, of Leyden, before the British 
 Association at Manchester, September ^th, 1887, it is 
 stated that in 1881-82 the Bank's stock of gold fell to 
 £600,000, and that, to provide against a recurrence of 
 such a calamity, an Act was passed in April, 1884, 
 which empowered it "to sell at market prices a quantity 
 of twenty-five millions silver florins, when the state of 
 the currency required it." According to this authority,, 
 the regulation of the currency of Holland lies between 
 the Bank and the bullion-brokers. It is a healthy 
 national constitution that can survive such a combina- 
 tion. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 GERMANY. 
 
 Until A. D. 1204 the right to coin gold in Germany was a pontificd 
 imperial prerogative — It then practically became a regalian right, 
 which in great measure was absorbed by the two principal German 
 states — Legalized as a regalian right by the Golden Bull — Exercised 
 as such by numerous princes and by the burghers, until 1871, when 
 it was acquired for North Germany by the New Empire — Thereupon 
 it was almost immediately _ abandoned to the burghers — Monetary 
 systems of Germany during the regal period — French forgers of the 
 sixteenth century — Earliest monetary conventions— Sudden enhance- 
 ment of gold by Charles V. — The German states and burghers 
 demonetize gold — Silver becomes the sole material of legal-tender 
 money — Monetary systems of North Germany — Conventions of 
 sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries — The ratio — The 
 banks — Paper money — Plunder of Napoleon — His downfall — Con- 
 federation of the Rhine — New system — Weights — Origin of the 
 ducat, skilling, and thaler — Constitution, convention, and currency 
 thalers — Later monetary conventions — Quantity of money ciiculat- 
 ing in Germany — History of the ratio — Burgher or ' free" coinage — 
 The California scare — Treaty of 1857 tabooing gold coins — The 
 Nevada scare — Legislation of 1871-73, demonetizing silver coins — 
 French War Indemnity — Great increase of paper money — Efflux of 
 gold in 1873-74 — Operation of the new mint laws — Gold and silver 
 production of Germany — Dr. Soetbeer, the evil genius of German 
 monetary policy — The future. 
 
 The history of money and monetary systems in Ger- 
 many springs from the monetary laws of the Roman 
 Empire, a subject which has been treated at length 
 elsewhere. Briefly, the right to strike gold coins was 
 vested exclusively in the Sovereign-pontifif, who usually 
 resided, and exercised this function, in Rome or Byzan- 
 tium. Such coins were unlimited legal-tender in all 
 parts of the Empire. The principal gold coin was 
 the solidus, or besant, of 72 down to 60 grains fine.' 
 
 I The solidus descended from the aureus of 131 X grains, and in the 
 thirteenth century was lost in the ducat of 56 grains. This again was 
 in the sixteenth century degraded to the gulden of 37 -1-6 grains There 
 it expired, and became a silver coin. The weights of the solidus given in 
 the text are those which prevailed during the Roman Imperial monetary 
 system. 
 
 341 
 
342 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 Five of these made the libra of account.' The striking 
 of silver coins was shared bet.ween the Emperors and 
 the subject princes, prelates and municipalities of the 
 empire. The Imperial silver coins were legal-tender 
 in the "Imperial," not in the "Senatorial" provinces; 
 the other silver coins had only a local course. The 
 striking of bronze coins was reserved to the Senate. 
 The Imperial tributes were collected in gold coins, or 
 else in silver coins containing exactly twelve times as 
 much fine metal as the gold ones. Hence, for a solidus 
 of gold, was demanded a talent of silver. 
 
 Substantially, this system continued unchanged until 
 after the fall of Constantinople, in 1204, when all the 
 princes of Europe commenced to strike gold coins for 
 themselves; and the Roman Imperial system fell, to 
 rise no more. With the exception of a certain unique 
 and very doubtful gold piece attributed to Louis de 
 Debonnaire, no Christian prince of Germany ever 
 struck a gold coin until Frederick II., in 1225, issued 
 his magnificent augustals. Instead pf making their 
 weight conform to the besant of his day, Frederick put 
 in these coins nearly 82 grains fine gold, the weight of 
 a double maravedi or dobla of the Saracens: — a fact, 
 which, when added to other circumstances, sufficed in 
 brief time to consign them to the melting-pot. Although 
 the right to strike gold coins was not legally acquired 
 by the German princes until it was conferred, together 
 with the working 'of mines, by the Golden Bull of 
 Charles IV., December 25th, 1356, yet practically these 
 princes were governed by the example of Frederick, 
 and as a matter of fact many of them had issued gold 
 coins before the date of the imperial ordinance.^ This 
 
 1 Theodsian Code, lib. xiii., tit. ii., ii; "It^ ut pro singulis libris 
 argenti quinos solidos inferat." Argenti here means money, not silver. 
 
 2 Edward III. of England was authorized to coin gold in 1337, but 
 Henry III. in 1257 had coined gold without authority ("Middle Ages 
 Revisited," ch. xxx.) See other English gold coins on a previous page 
 of the present work. 
 
GERMAN V 343 
 
 closes the first period of German monetary systems. 
 The palsied hand of Rome had reluctantly dropped the 
 prerogative of gold, and a host of independent cities 
 and princes had purchased or picked it up. We shall 
 presently see what they did with it. 
 
 From the fall of Constantinople to the discovery of 
 America is a period of great confusion in the monetary 
 history of Germany. Although the Roman empire 
 had lost its control of money, it had still enough vitality 
 to split Germany into two great parties, whose perpetual 
 antagonism and undying hatred served to keep the 
 country always embroiled in civil wars. The ensuing 
 political chaos is faithfully reflected in the coinages. 
 They exhibit every kind of corruption, deceit, degra- 
 dation, debasement and even forgery. To crown all, 
 the ratio of gold to silver, which the Roman and Byzan- 
 tine monarchs, throughout all their vicissitudes, had 
 kept constant for nearly thirteen centuries, was now 
 changed almost every day, by some one or other of the 
 numerous princes who divided, distracted and misruled 
 the splendid empire of Charlemagne. Whether their 
 motives were governed by the interests of their princi- 
 palities or by the desire of private gain, is hardly worth 
 discussing. Their monetary experiments were too 
 trivial to furnish the basis of monetary principles, and 
 they yield scarcely more than a single lesson of any 
 value to posterity. It is this: that the right of coinage, 
 which during this period fell from the Basileus into 
 the hands of kings, princes, prelates and burghers, 
 was abused by the latter, not because they were rulers, 
 but because they were petty ones, so petty that their 
 private interests were scarcely less important than those 
 of the State, and, indeed, cannot always be distin- 
 guished from them. In other words, it was not the 
 
344 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 States, but the petty rulers of the Renaissant period 
 who tampered with money. 
 
 These corruptions of money,the pet theme of politico- 
 economical pedantry, were in many cases a necessity 
 of the times. It was the period of the First Renais- 
 sance. Europe, enthralled for thirteen centuries by the 
 pontiffs of Rome, had recently thrown off its shackles 
 and begun its march of progress. On Midsummer Day 
 in 1237, the emperor Frederick assembled at Vaucou- 
 vers the first secular council of nations ever held in 
 Europe; in 1241 he wrote to Henry III. that the affairs 
 of the world were no longer to be monopolized b}' the 
 priesthood; whilst the magnificent eagles which he 
 stamped upon the imperial coins in place of the agonized 
 saints of a previous period, were no less significant 
 than his resolute defiance of pontifical tyranny. With 
 the inauguration of this progressive era commenced a 
 great increase of industry, of wealth and of population. 
 Mines of gold and silver can neither be discovered nor 
 rendered productive at pleasure. They are not amen- 
 able to man's control, but are the subjects of adven- 
 titious discovery and fortunate development. Hence 
 in progressive eras supplies of the precious metals fail 
 to keep pace with the demands of society. During the 
 Renaissance felted paper was a novelty and printing 
 was unknown. How was a measure of value to be 
 supplied sufficiently ample to sustain prices? The people 
 answered this question by clipping the coins, and the 
 princes of Germany tacitly supported the action of the 
 people by degrading and debasing their subsequent 
 issues. It is scarcely to be expected that these multipli- 
 cations of money should have kept even pace with the 
 demand for its use. The clippings probably failed to 
 supply the additional requirement for money; the legal 
 
GERMANY 345 
 
 degradations and debasements probably exceeded it. 
 Because princes sometimes took advantage of the pub- 
 lic necessity for increased money to make some profit 
 for the State by debasing it, is no just warrant for con- 
 demning either their honesty or wisdom, especially at 
 this late day, when the circumstances of the times are 
 unknown or forgotten. They probably did the best 
 they could do under the circumstances. As the stock 
 of gold and silver relatively diminished, these metals 
 increased in value. Rents and other fixed payments 
 running through long terms became unjustly and op- 
 pressively augmented. To have refrained from debas- 
 ing the coins would have been to increase the burdens 
 of the people until they found relief in revolt and the 
 overthrow of the State. 
 
 Debasement of the coinage during the period of the 
 Renaissance, was in fact commonly inaugurated not by 
 the prince, but the people. It was done by clipping, 
 sweating, or otherwise diminishing the quantity of fine 
 metal in the coins; so that, when under a subsequent 
 edict of debasement and re-coinage thej' came to the 
 mints, the princes really gained little or nothing by the 
 transaction, and merely gave the force of law to what 
 was already an accomplished fact. 
 
 In vain were the most terrible penalties enacted 
 against those who tampered with money — as torture, 
 hanging, drawing and quartering. These penalties 
 were boldly risked every day by people who had never 
 committed any other offense,and would probably never 
 have committed this one but for the pressure of that 
 law of legal-tender from which the mines of this period 
 afforded an insufficient relief. 
 
 I repeat, that the monetary experiments of the Re- 
 naissant period, whether in Germany or any other of the 
 
346 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 Western Christian states, are of little use as guides to 
 modern legislation. A portion of them were not the 
 experiments of States, but the financial shifts of indi- 
 viduals; another portion were dictated by the hampered 
 and stationary condition of mining as compared with a 
 growing population and commerce; while still another 
 portion (changes in the ratio) were due to the loss of 
 that central control which the Roman imperial govern- 
 ment, at Constantinople, had exercised over the coin- 
 age and the silver valuation of gold. Hence it is that 
 among the few writers on money who have conde- 
 scended to consult history on this subject, and who 
 have a case to make against this or that kind of money, 
 they invariably select this period of chaos for the foun- 
 dation of their special pleadings. Leave out of view the 
 Roman control of money and its loss with the fall of 
 Constantinople, ignore the influence of the Moslem and 
 Gothic monetary systems, avoid all mention of the 
 usurpation of the coining prerogative by the trading 
 companies, adventurers and monopolists of the sixteenth 
 and seventeenth centuries, and you can prove anything 
 you like about money, — you can even prove that money 
 is not money at all, but merely bits of metal whose 
 value is governed by the present economic cost of their 
 production in the mines! 
 
 Although the right of coinage continued to be exer- 
 cised by numerous rulers in Germany, down to the 
 period (1817) when it fell to the new empire, yet it was 
 practically absorbed for several centuries by the Aus- 
 trian and Prussian monarchies, whose extensive terri- 
 tories, numerous population, diversified industries, or 
 great militaiy resources, enabled their coinages to sub- 
 stantially fill the channels of circulation.' The strangest 
 
 I For history of money in Austria, see "Money and Civilization,'' ch. 
 xviii. 
 
GERMANY 347 
 
 circumstance is that the new empire had no sooner 
 acquired this most important of all imperial or regalian 
 rights, than, under the advice of Dr. Soetbeer and his 
 Metallic School, it was immediately abandoned to the 
 burghers. Fortunately, it is within the power of the 
 imperial government to resume this prerogative when- 
 ever it chooses. This is a subject to which we shall 
 revert further on. 
 
 On June 8th, 1386, that is to say, shortly after the 
 ordinance of Charles IV., the four electors of the Rhine 
 entei'ed into a coinage union which had for its object 
 the uniformity of the coins and their preservation from 
 abuse. This was distinctly a national act, the happy 
 precursor of that Bund whieh five centuries later drew 
 all the North German states from under the moldy 
 and rotten canopy of Rome to that of a common Father- 
 land. In the sixteenth century the importance of the 
 new supplies of gold and silver from America led to a 
 rise of prices, which, beginning in Spain, soon spread 
 to France and the commercial cities of Europe, but not 
 yet to Germany. In that country the comparative 
 scarcity of money was to some extent supplied by the 
 spurious mintages of an organized band of forgers, who 
 resided in France. The marquis of Tavannes,a repre- 
 sentative noble, rendered his class odious and his name 
 ridiculous by recommending the coinage of iron com- 
 modity money in place of gold and silver coins, with 
 the selfish view to arrest the rise of prices. He assures 
 us that many French nobles of this period retained pro- 
 fessed forgers in their caatles, dignified them with the 
 title of "philosophers," and fraternized with them by 
 admitting them to their tables. Because they refrained, 
 or professed to refrain, from counterfeiting French 
 coins and confined their operations to German ducats, 
 
348 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 thalers and florins, they complacently deemed them- 
 selves free from all reproach. The example set by the 
 barons was followed by the monarch. Charles IX. 
 (1560-74) was himself an expert forger of coins, and 
 devoted much of his leisure time to this elevating pur- 
 suit. The practice reached its climax in the reign of 
 his successor, Henrj' III., when, owing perhaps to the 
 precautions taken in Germany, the art of baronial 
 forgery fell into inferior hands and suffered a rapid 
 decline. Salcede, who was executed for treason in 
 1582, had purchased a large estate from the profits of 
 forging German coins.' 
 
 In the same century a Correspondenz was formed 
 between several of the German states, providing mainly 
 for uniform coinages and a general circulation. The 
 texts of several monetary ordinances of this period are 
 given by Budelius. 
 
 This century witnessed an extraordinary event in 
 Germany. During the regal period — from the thir- 
 teenth to the sixteenth century — the common ratio of 
 silver to gold in the coinages of Germany was about 
 10 for I. By an imperial edict dated at Esslingen, 
 November loth, 1524, Charles V. ordered the mark of 
 gold to be coined into 89 gold guilders, ^ fine, and 
 the mark of silver into 8 talents, or thalers, ^ fine. 
 As this talent and guilder had the same value, this was 
 a ratio of 11.38 for i. In 1546 the emperor, who, 
 
 I Tavannes, pp 132-33; Brantome, iv., cap. Fran., p, 29, in Wraxall's 
 "Hist. France," ed. 1795, ii., p. 334; Busbeg, Letter viii., in Wraxall, 
 ii., p. 438. 
 
 I The legislators who met at Nuremburg in 1437 even went so far as 
 to hint at private mintage as a remedy for the corruption of coins, a 
 suggestion that was actually realized some two centuries later. Such a 
 device, as it afterwards proved, was indeed a remedy for corrupt coins, 
 but not for an unstable and fluctuating measure of value; a proof, if any 
 were needed, that coins separately and coins collectively, or a monetary 
 system (like separate individuals and the body politic) conform to very 
 different natural laws. 
 
GERMANY 349 
 
 although he struck no gold coins in Spain, monopolized 
 the coinage of gold in Holland, Germany, Italy and 
 America, suddenly raised by proclamation the value of 
 his gold coins to 13^ times their weight in silver of the 
 same standard. These arbitrary acts lie at the base of 
 the Dutch revolt, and had much to do with the subse- 
 quent history of Germany. That vast country was not 
 yet sufficiently united for revolt, but it expressed its 
 reprobation of this measure by boycotting gold. One 
 after another the German rulers forbade or discouraged 
 the tendering of gold coins in payment of debts. From 
 this time forward the gulden was commonly paid in 
 silver coins; the ample ducaton, or talent, of silver, 
 supplanting the unpopular and discredited ducat of gold. 
 
 The arrest of commercial development, which fol- 
 lowed these conflicting acts, was one of several causes 
 which led to the disturbed state of Germany during the 
 seventeenth century. Religion has commonly been 
 assigned as the pretext both for the revolt of the Neth- 
 erlands and the Thirty Years' War. Upon a closer 
 inspection of the circumstances which gave birth to 
 these great events, the decrees of Charles V., the de- 
 monetization of gold, the fall of prices, and the indus- 
 trial depression that followed, will all be found lurking 
 behind. 
 
 But the fierce passions evoked by these wars, and 
 the horrible scenes which characterized the last one, 
 swept away all recollection of the causes that led to 
 them.' Though many valuable treaties on money had 
 been written in the interval — notably those republished 
 by Budelius — which ought to have directed public at- 
 tention to the subject, they were consigned to obscurity. 
 The Peace of Westphalia should have been accompanied 
 I Bayard Taylor's "Hist. Germany," pp. 409-10. 
 
35° HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 by the rehabilitation of gold ; but iio statesman of the 
 period appears to have perceived the plain truth, that 
 Germany could not share the commercial prosperity of 
 the maritime states of Europe so long as she excluded 
 from her legal-tender circulation one-half of the world's 
 accumulations of the precious metals. 
 
 The German monetary systems of this era were almost 
 universally based upon silver coins. In Prussia, for 
 example, the circulation (not to mention base silver 
 coins and coppers) was filled chiefly by the currency- 
 thaler, legally of 257! English grains fine silver, 
 actually 252.6 grains fine, and the gold ducat, of legally 
 53.14, actually 52.6 gi'ains fine, each ducat being nom- 
 inally valued at 2f currency-thalers. This was a nom- 
 'inal ratio of 13^, and a coinage one of 13^ for i; 
 thus— 2fX 257. 75=708.8125-^53. I4=i3i; or, 2fX 
 252.6=694.25-^52.6=13^. But gold coins were 
 not legal-tender; people accepted or refused them at 
 pleasure, and virtually their coinage was relinquished 
 to individuals who deposited their bullion in the mints 
 of Holland or England, where it was coined into ducats 
 or nobles that had no permanent legal value in Ger- 
 many. In short, the Prussian system of money stood 
 essentially in the same attitude that it did when Ger- 
 many refused the gold coins of Charles V. 
 
 Beyond the so-called empire, the effects of the ill- 
 timed ordinance of 1546, though of an entirely different 
 character, were fully as eventful. That command of 
 the ratio which Rome had so long maintained by the 
 force of pontifical law, Spain had acquired through her 
 practical monopoly of the supplies of the coinage- 
 metals from America. The edict of Charles V. flung 
 this advantage away. It taughi the kings of Spain (for 
 Charles was king of Spain as well as emperor of Ger- 
 
GERMANY 
 
 351 
 
 many) a new device whereby to replenish their treas- 
 uries. In 1641 they raised the value of their gold coins 
 M 14 times that of silver; in 1650, to 15; and in 1690 
 to 16 times. Here this strained device broke down 
 and Spain lost the hegemony of the ratio. The aban- 
 donment of the coinage of both the precious metals in 
 Holland and England to individuals, and the virtual 
 demonetization of gold in Germany, had erected, for 
 the first time in the history of the European world, a 
 conflict price, or international mint ratio of value, be- 
 tween the precious metals, which at the last-named 
 period stood at about 14! for i. Measured by the con- 
 flict-ratio, that in Spain was too high ; in Prussia too 
 low. In deference to the new arbiter oj mint ratios, 
 the crown of Spain hastened, in 1760, to lower the 
 value of its gold to I4i, and in 1775 to raise it to 15!. 
 The imperturbable Prussians simply varied the premium 
 on gold ducats. (Kelly.) 
 
 Returning from this digression to an account of Ger- 
 man monetary conventions; in 1667 was effected the 
 coinage agreement (Recess) of Zinna, to which the 
 Electors of Saxony and Brandenburg and the house of 
 Brunswick-Luneburg were substantially parties. Pass- 
 ing over some minor ordinances of 1669 and 1680, in 
 1690 a coinage union, based on the Lubeck system, 
 and establishing a common coinage rate, was effected 
 at Leipsig between the same parties. This rate was 
 made common throughout the now shadowy empire by 
 the decree of September loth, 1738. (Kelly). On 
 September 21st, 1753, a coinage treaty was effected 
 between Austria and the electorate of Bavaria,, to which 
 in the following year several other German States ac- 
 ceded. The table on page 358 shows that under this 
 treaty was struck a convention-thaler of 353! grains fine 
 
352 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 silver. In 1763 an imperial decree — which, however, 
 excepted Prussia,Hanover, Liege, Swedish Pomerania, 
 Hamburg, Lubeck and Holsteiu ; that is to say, the 
 kernel of the future North German Bund — established 
 a convention coinage rate of 20 florins, or 13^ riks 
 thalers currency, or 10 riks thalers effective, to the 
 mark of fine silver. This gives 180.4 grains fine silver 
 to the florin, 270.6 grains fine silver to the riks thaler 
 currency, and 360.8 grains fine silver to the riks thaler 
 effective. The table on page 358 shows that the Austrian 
 "effectives" struck under this convention actually con- 
 tained but 353-7 grains, and that Saltzburg alone struck 
 them of full weight. On February 22nd, 1765, and 
 January 19th, -1766, coinage unions were effected at 
 Frankfort and Worms between the Electors of Mainz 
 and Treves, the palatinate Landgrave of Hesse- 
 Darmstadt and the free city of Fi-ankfort; and in 1772 
 these conventions were modified. 
 
 Meanwhile the fluctuations of gold and the unsatis- 
 factory condition of all monetary institutes, occasioned 
 by the arbitrary mint laws of Spain and the surrender 
 of the coinage in Holland and England to individuals 
 (called "free coinage"), promoted the foundation of 
 the banks of Berlin and Breslau in 1765, and suggested 
 the Prussian royal ordinance of 1766. This ordinance 
 extended to the banks and their branches throughout 
 the king's dominions. Following an ancient Roman 
 precedent, the king authorized and ordered their ac- 
 counts to be kept in "pounds," or "thalers banco," 
 each divided into 24 banco groschen, and these into 12 
 banco pfennigs; hence there were 288 pfennigs to the 
 "pound." Although Prussia did not see fit to join with 
 Austria in the Conventio.i of 1753, she nevertheless 
 coined a silver thaler, not indeed of precisely the 
 
GERMANY 353 
 
 weight provided by that Convention, but very close to 
 it, and fully or more than equal in weight to the Con- 
 vention thalers of the other German states. This was 
 the so-called Prussian Convention thaler of (actually) 
 359 grains fine. It was also the "pound" or "banco 
 thaler" of Frederick the Great. We shall revert to 
 its historical origin later on. The currencj' thaler of 
 252.6 grains fine was 29^ per cent lighter than the 
 banco thaler. These the banks gave credit for at the 
 rate of 31^ per cent worse than banco, and thus made 
 a profit of if per cent on all deposits of silver "cui- 
 rency." (Kelly.) The gold ducats, of (nominally) 
 2f currency thalers each, fluctuated, in silver money 
 price, with the conflict-ratio. During the third quarter 
 of the eighteenth century the ducats and "Fredericks," 
 or pistoles, the latter (nominally) of 5 currency thalers 
 each, were taken by the Prussian banks at a price in 
 silver which closely agreed with the Dutch mint ratio 
 of 14^; whereas towards the close of the century, and 
 for a long time afterwards, it was distinctly influenced 
 by the combined Spanish and French ratios of 15^. 
 (Kelly. ) The banks of Prussia were authorized by the 
 decree of 1766 to issue notes of 10, 20, 50, 500 and 
 1000 "pounds" each, but these were not legal-tenders 
 until a later period. 
 
 The political storm which ravaged Europe towards 
 the beginning of the present century was not without 
 its effects on the monetary history of North Germany. 
 The Confederation of the Rhine was established in 
 1806, and expired in 1813; the paper notes of Prussia 
 were nationalized in 1806 and are in circulation to- 
 day. By a decree published in 1807 they were to be 
 taken for coined money, at a rate of exchange to be 
 officially promulgated from time to time. Between 
 
354 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 December ist, 1807, and February 28th, 1809, the pre- 
 mium on silver money fluctuated between 7 and 27 per 
 cent; in June, 1809, the notes stood at 36 per cent of 
 their nominal value; June, 1810, at 84! per cent; 
 January, 1812, 13^: December, 1812, when, of eight 
 million thalers issued, there were believed to be only 
 three quarters of a million in circulation,' the notes 
 stood at only 44^ per cent; June, 1813, 26^ per cent; 
 July, 1813, 24^ per cent; December, 1813, 49^ per 
 cent; January, 1815, 88 per cent; January 5th, 1816, 
 99 per cent; afterwards at par.^ The Saxony treasury 
 notes never fell below 98, and the government retired 
 them in 1804 at an agio, which began at 9 pfennigs and 
 ended at i pfennig, per thaler/ But Prussia was in 
 the center of the hurricane, and was obliged to increase 
 her emissions of paper, and to enforce its circulation. 
 In January, 1815, refusal to accept the notes at par, ex- 
 cept in certain cases, was made punishable by a fine of 
 500 to 1000 thalers, or by six to twelve months' im- 
 prisonment. In April, 1815, it was ordered that the 
 moiety of all taxes should be paid in paper money, or 
 that, if not, 8^ per cent should be added as a penalty. 
 In 1827 this penalty was reduced to one silver groschen; 
 and although long fallen into desuetude, it was not 
 abolished until 1870. In 1830, 1841 and 1848 the 
 banks sustained runs for the redemption of the paper 
 money. In the run of 1848 the demand did not exceed 
 40,000 thalers per day, nor altogether 100,000 thalers.* 
 Previous to this (1846) the amount annuall3' presented 
 for redemption did not exceed four-fifths of i per cent.^ 
 In the early part of the centur}' the slock of the precious 
 metals in Germany was greatly reduced by the depre- 
 
 I Decree of January igth, 1813, sec 9. 2 Roscher, i., p. 454; 
 
 ii.. p. 14. 3 Ibid , i., p. 448; ii., p. 5. 4 Bergius, "Tub- 
 
 uiger Ze tschrift," 1870, p. 226. 5 Rau, 'Archiv, " v.,pp. 125, 207. 
 
GERMANY 355 
 
 dations of Napoleon, who sent the spoil to France, and 
 thus conferred *upon its mints that hegemony of the 
 ratio (the Spanish 15^) which it held for nearly a cen- 
 tury, but to which it was entitled neither by prescrip- 
 tion, nor through its mines, nor its commercial advan- 
 tages.' 
 
 With the downfall of Napoleon, Germany resumed 
 her wonted calm and industrial progression. 
 
 On June 8th, 1815, the Confederation of the Rhine 
 was supplanted by the Germanic Confederation, which 
 for a time united not only North Germany, but also 
 Austria, Bavaria and Wurtemburg. 
 
 The monetary system of North Germany at this 
 period is described by Dr. Kelly. It was based on the 
 currency thaler, which he gives at 257.78 grains fine 
 silver. The gold ducat of 53.14 grains fine, was valued 
 nominally at 2f currency thalers — a nominal ratio of 
 I3i for I. The gold Frederick, or pistole, of 93.45 
 grains fine, was nominally valued at 5 currency thalers 
 — a nominal ratio of 13.8 for i. The first is the old 
 Charles V. ratio; the second a modification of it. But 
 neither of these ratios was effective, for gold coins 
 were not legal-tender and the ducat commanded a pre- 
 mium of 20 per cent and the pistole 15 per cent; mak- 
 ing the effective ratio about 16 for i, the same as in 
 Spain. However, during the first quarter of the cen- 
 tury the premium on gold fluctuated within limits that 
 varied the effective ratio between the Spanish mint 
 ratios of i<,i and 16; a proof, if one were needed, that 
 the hegemony of the ratio was not in Germany.'' 
 
 The system of weights for the precious metals in 
 Cologne during the sixteenth century is thus given by 
 Budelius: — 32 ieschen or eisen, or moments=i ester- 
 ling, engel, or pennyweight; 19 engels=i ounce; 8 
 
 1 This subject is treated in "Money and Civilization." 
 
 2 Kelly, i., p. 34. 
 
35^ HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 ounces=i mark. The ies contained 0.74177625, say 
 f of I English grain; the esterling, 23.737 grains; the 
 ounce, 451; and the mark, 3608 grains.' The Co- 
 logne weights of the eighteenth century are thus given 
 by Dr. Kelly: — 17 ieschen, or eschen = i pfennig 4 
 pfennigs=l quintlin ; 4 quintlins=i loth; 2 loths 1 
 ounce; 8 ounces=i mark. The ies contained 0.829045, 
 say 0.83 of' I English grain; the pfennig, 14.09375 
 grains; the quintlin, 56I grains; the loth, 225-^ grains; 
 and the ounce and mark, the same as before. To the 
 experienced metrologist it is evident that both of these 
 are hybrid systems, originating remotely in the octo- 
 nary numbers and relations of the sun-worship practiced 
 in the countries of the Baltic. In the first system it 
 takes 4864 ieschen to make a mark; in the second, it 
 takes but 4352. The odd numbers of 19 engels to the 
 ounce and 17 ieschen to the pfennig — taken in connec- 
 tion with the common use of coins in ancient times, 
 both for weights, measures and other numerical rela- 
 tions — suggest that the basis of the system was not the 
 mark, but the ies; a suspicion that, could it be safely 
 established, would upset a good many current theories, 
 both metrological and numismatic' 
 
 The weight system of Troy (Troyes) was as follows: 
 — li ieschen, or moments^i grain; 24grains=i ester- 
 ling, or pennyweight; 20 esterlings=i ounce; 8 
 ounces=imark of 3840 English grains. Here the ies 
 contains exactly f of a grain.' 
 
 The system of Nuremburg (Noribergensis) was as 
 follows: — I pfennig= 14.336 English grains; 4pfennigs 
 = 1 quintlin; 4 quintlins = l loth; 2 loths=i ounce; 8 
 ounces— I mark of 3670 grains.* 
 
 1 In this system 2 ieschen were called a duisch; 3 a trii; 4 a quart, etc. 
 
 2 Some features of this subject are discussed in "Money and Civiliza- 
 tion," chap, i., and "Ancient Britain," chap. xvii. 
 
 3 Budelius, p. 30. 4 The subdivisions are from Budelius, 
 whilst the equivalents in English grains are from Kelly. 
 
GERMANY 35 7 
 
 It is well known that the name of the ducat is derived 
 from dux or duke, but the significance of the name is 
 lost in failing to observe that the coin itself is a degraded 
 solidus, and that it was called a ducat only after the 
 right to coin it was lost b}' the Basileus and usurped by 
 the dukes, prelates or vassal princes of his moribund 
 empire. The last gold coins struck by the Basileus were 
 the solidi of the Comnenus family, toward the close of 
 the twelfth century, containing each a trifle under 60 
 grains fine gold ; the first ducat was struck by Alfonso 
 IX., of Leon, in 1225, and contained 54^ grains fine 
 gold.' 
 
 The name of the skilling is evidently derived from 
 the oriental "sical," or cut money, whence we have 
 also ''sicca," "shekel," "scissors," "chisel," and 
 many other names for cutting-instruments and their 
 products. Cut-money and knife-money were both 
 common in the Orient, and doubtless made their way, 
 at a very remote period, aci'oss the steppes of Tartary 
 to the Baltic.^ 
 
 In a former work I followed the voice of numismatic 
 authority and assigned the origin of the name "thaler," 
 or "dollar," to "thai," or "dol," a vale or valley, and 
 repeated the idle tale of Budelius about the Joachims- 
 thals and Count Schlick. I am now convinced that 
 the thaler has a far more significant origin. The an- 
 cient Greek and Roman systems both include coins or 
 sums of money called talents, neither resembling nor 
 immediately connected with the weights called talents. 
 In the regal and ducal systems of the Renaissance, 
 when the prevailing ratio was 10 silver fori gold, ^ 
 
 I "Middle Ages Revisited," ch. xx. 2 Ibid., ch. xxxvi. 
 
 3 "DellaDecima, della Moneta e della Mercatura," Florence, iveg, 
 shows thai from 1262 to 1495 the mint ratio in Florence was always 
 close to JO for I, sometimes a fraction over and sometimes under. 
 
3S8 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 broad silver coins were struck, each containing lo (in 
 the Gothic States 8) times as much fine metal as a gold 
 ducat, and known variously as a talent, ducatone, 
 cross, scudo, ecu, Or silver ducat, and valued as one 
 gold ducat. From the thirteenth century, when it con- 
 tained 565^ grains fine silver, the talent, or thaler, 
 gradually dwindled down to about 400 grains, when it 
 was known in Germany (this was in the sixteenth cen- 
 tury) as a Constitution thaler. During the following 
 century the thaler lost some 30 or 40 grains more, and 
 was called a Convention thaler. When another hun- 
 dred grains were lost it was called a currency thaler. 
 The following tables exhibit the gradual degradation of 
 this famous coin. 
 
 Talent or silver thaler of the Renaissance and afterwards. 
 
 Eng. grs. fine. 
 
 Croisat of Genoa (Newton) S^S/^ 
 
 Same piece, called scudo (Kelly) 5^SK 
 
 Scudo, Piedmont, 1770 (K) 49° 
 
 175s (K/ 489 
 
 Ducaton, Holland, old (K) 474K 
 
 " new (K) 471K 
 
 " Liege, 1671 4^5M 
 
 ' ' Tuscany, 1 676 4^° 
 
 Scudo della Croce, Venice (K) 4S8X ' 
 
 " of Genoa, 8 lire, 1796 (K) 457>^ 
 
 " Ligurian Republic, 1805 (K) 454/^ 
 
 Ecu of Lorraine, 17 10 (K) 427 
 
 German Constittttion thaleri. 
 
 Austria, Sigismund, silver gulden 452 
 
 Esslingen, Charles V., 1524, silver gulden. . . .'. 423?^ 
 
 Augsburg, " 1551, '■ 425 
 
 " " 1559, " 60 kreutzers.353>4 
 
 Cologne, reichs or riks thaler, i8th century 404 
 
 Nureraburg 402X 
 
 Hanover '. 4°°^ 
 
 Austria, before 1753 ' 390 
 
 German Convention thalers — mostly eighteenth century, 
 Hamburg reichs-thaler, 1687 to 1850, average weight. 3855^ 
 
 Frank£orl-on-Maine, 1772 365^ 
 
 Saxony 360^^ 
 
 Brunswick, 1753 359 1-5 
 
 Prussia, Nuremburg and Minheim 359 
 
 Bavaria, 1753 358^ 
 
 Saltzburg 358 1-5 
 
 Austria 1753 ( nominally 361 gr. ) actually 353K 
 
 Cologne 353X 
 
 Hesse Cassel 353 
 
GERMANY 359 
 
 Germany Currency thalers — eighteenth century {fCelly). 
 
 South Germ., riks thai. Treaty Sept. 21st, 1753, legal 270.6 
 
 Hesse Cassel, riks thaler, 1778, actual 370.3 
 
 " 17S9 250.9 
 
 Poland, 1794, new riks thaler 254.3 
 
 Prussia, riks thaler 252.6 
 
 Auspack (Prussia) old riks 250.6 
 
 Saxe-Gotha, riks 248 i 
 
 Bareuth (Prussia) old riks 223.3 
 
 These tables show the gradual degradation of the 
 thaler in Germany. In Spain and America during the 
 eighteenth century it never fell below 37 li grains fine, 
 and there it stands to-day in the coinages of the United 
 States. In Spain it has since fallen to 349.17 grains 
 fine, whilst in North Germany, where it is still an un- 
 limited legal-tender, it contains but 257 ^ grains fine 
 and is legally valued at three imperial marks. 
 
 On the 25th of August, 1837, a monetary convention 
 was concluded at Munich between several States of the 
 German empire.' 
 
 On the 30th July, 1838, a monetary convention was 
 concluded at Dresden between the States of the Zoll- 
 verein, in which the old weight of the Cologne mark 
 (3608 English grains) was recognized as equal to 
 233.855 metric grammes. The mark of fine silver was 
 agreed to be coined into 14 thalers, or 24^ florins. 
 From 1st January, 1841, the thaler above defined was 
 to be the sole full legal-tender money of the Prussian 
 States, Saxe-Royal, Electoral Hesse, Saxony, Saxe- 
 Altenburg, Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, 
 Schwartzburg-Rudolstadt, Schwartzburg-Sonderhausen 
 and the Reuss States. The florin was to be the sole 
 full legaf-tender money of Bavaria, Wurtemburg, 
 Baden, Ducal Hesse, Saxe-Meiningen, Ducal Saxe- 
 Coburg and Gotha, Nassau, Principality of Schwartz- 
 burg-Rudolstadt, and Frankfort. Besides this, a new 
 coin of 2 thalers, or 3^ florins, was to be struck, 7 to 
 I MacGregor's "Statistics,'' i., p. 543. 
 
360 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 the mark fine, which should be legal in all the States 
 of theZolIverein.^ 
 
 The coinage laws above established were ratified by 
 the Treaty of Berlin, March 8th, 1841. Coins fabricated 
 agreeably to these provisions were declared the Jegal- 
 tenders of the Union.* 
 
 On March 27f}i, 1845, a coinage treaty was effected 
 at Munich. 
 
 On October 21st, 1845, a monetary cartel was effected 
 at Carlsruhe, to provide for the punishment of all 
 offenses against the prerogative of coining and of issu- 
 ing paper money. To this cartel, and to another one 
 effected February 19th, 1853, all the States of the Zoll- 
 verein were parties. 
 
 The total circulation of a given State is the most im- 
 portant feature of its monetary system, since it is that 
 which influences prices, and can be made to exercise a 
 most powerful influence in stimulating or retarding in- 
 dustrial progi"ess. Yet it is precisely that feature con- 
 cerning which we commonly possess the least reliable 
 information. The usual method of estimating the cir 
 culatioii is to add together the coinages, the paper emis- 
 sions, and the imports of coins, and to subtract the 
 exports and an allowance for re-coinages, wear, tear and 
 loss. But this method is so defective that it can only 
 furnish a remote approximation to the truth.* The 
 table below embraces most of the estimates which have 
 fallen beneath the author's observation. Such estimates 
 as were originally made in other denominations of 
 money than German currency thalers are reduced to 
 that denomination upon the following rough scale of 
 equivalents: — 3 imperial marks (of 1871)=! currency 
 thaler; li currently thalers= i convention thaler, or I 
 
 I MacGregor's "Statistics," i., p. 544. 2 Ibid., i., p. 507. 
 
 3 For a more ample discussion of the subject consult "Science'of 
 Money,'' chap. iii. 
 
GERMANY 361 
 
 Spanish or American dollar; 6^ currency thalers=i 
 English pound sterling. Sums of money in millions of 
 currency thalers. 
 
362 
 
 HISTORY OP MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 
 Esiimated Circulation of Prussia {^Millions of Thalers) 
 
 
 Year. 
 
 Silver. 
 
 Gold. 
 
 Total 
 Coin. 
 
 Paper. 
 
 Grand 
 Total. 
 
 Pop. 
 
 Per 
 Capita. 
 
 1790 
 1804 
 1805 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 33H 
 
 6% 
 
 40 
 60 
 
 57M 
 
 5 
 10 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 6 
 8X 
 
 Estimated Circulation of New German Empire. 
 
 1837 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 240 
 
 30 
 
 8 
 
 1850 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 . 400 
 
 34 
 
 12 
 
 1867 
 
 400 
 
 20 
 
 420 
 
 60 
 
 480 
 
 38>^ 
 
 I2X 
 
 1867 
 
 403 
 
 15 
 
 418 
 
 62 
 
 480 
 
 l^% 
 
 I2>^ 
 
 1870 
 
 581 
 
 34 
 
 613 
 
 253 
 
 868 
 
 39 
 
 22X 
 
 1870 
 
 554 
 
 30 
 
 584 
 
 253 
 
 837 
 
 39 
 
 T-^Yz 
 
 1870 
 
 490 
 
 30 
 
 520 
 
 253 
 
 773 
 
 39 
 
 igH 
 
 I87I 
 
 554 
 
 30 
 
 584 
 
 260 
 
 844 
 
 40 
 
 21 
 
 1872 
 
 420 
 
 45 
 
 465 
 
 356 
 
 821 
 
 41 
 
 20 
 
 1873 
 
 426^4 
 
 106^ 
 
 533 
 
 459 
 
 992 
 
 42 
 
 23>i 
 
 1874 
 
 . — 
 
 — 
 
 557 
 
 453 
 
 lOIO 
 
 42 
 
 24}i 
 
 1876 
 
 466;^ 
 
 266>^ 
 
 533 
 
 402 
 
 935 
 
 43 
 
 21% 
 
 1876 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 346^ 
 
 335 
 
 68 r 
 
 43 
 
 isH 
 
 1876 
 
 Z33 
 
 343 
 
 676 
 
 323 
 
 999 
 
 43 
 
 23X 
 
 1877 
 
 220 
 
 230 
 
 550 
 
 317 
 
 867 
 
 43 
 
 20 
 
 1878 
 
 400 
 
 133 
 
 533 
 
 300 
 
 833 
 
 43 
 
 19^ 
 
 1879 
 
 298M 
 
 516% 
 
 815H 
 
 273 K 
 
 1088% 
 
 44 
 
 24K 
 
 1879 
 
 266% 
 
 266% 
 
 533/3 
 
 273M 
 
 806% 
 
 44 ^ 
 
 18K 
 
 1885 
 
 297 
 
 581 
 
 878 
 
 300 
 
 1178 
 
 46X 
 
 25X 
 
 1892 
 
 300 
 
 467 
 
 767 
 
 458 
 
 1225 
 
 48 
 
 24>^ 
 
 1893 
 
 315 
 
 goo 
 
 1215 
 
 470 - 
 
 1685 
 
 49>^ 
 
 ^\/ 
 
 1894 
 
 300 
 
 387 
 
 687 
 
 480 
 
 1 167 
 
 50' 
 
 23M 
 
 1895 
 
 317 
 
 616 
 
 933 
 
 480 
 
 1413 
 
 50 
 
 28X. 
 
 The authorities for the above table are as follows: 
 1700, Arthur Young.' 1804, Krug.' 1805, U. S. 
 Finance Report 1834.^ 1837,* 1850, 1867/ Del Mar; 
 
 I Rau ii p 191. says that in 1780 Berlin bank-notes commanded a 
 nremiuni but he fails to say in what. Probably in Convention thalers. 
 2 KruB i p. 244; Roscher, i., p. 374. n. i. The discrepancy in the 
 nopulati'on is probably due to the inclusion of Prussian Poland, for 
 which however, Krug makes no allowance in his estimate of the circula- 
 tion ' 3 This estimate (1805) was made by the authorities of 
 Prussia forwarded to the government of the United States and pub- 
 lished b'v the latter in their annual Finance Report. 4 Memmmger 
 credits Wurtemburg in 1840 with a total money of about 12 currency 
 tralespercapita (36 million gulden), whilst B. Hildebrand credits the 
 Electorate of Hesse in 1853 with about 8 currency thalers per capita, 
 nf which nearly one-half were paper notes (Roscher, 1., p. 374 n. 2). 
 
 < In August 1869, the various states of theConfederation(exclusive of 
 Rpv=,ria Wurtemburg, and Baden) had in circulation paper money to 
 fheamou^of 4o,652'742 thalers ('Rep. U. S. Bu. Stat.," Sept , 1873). 
 
GERMAN y 363 
 
 1867, 1870, 1870, 1870/ 1871,' Soetbeerin 1881, re- 
 vised in 1885; 1872, Rep. U. S. Bu. Statistics Sept., 
 1873; in 1873 there was a crisis;' and in 1874 an ef- 
 flux of gold;' the first two estimates for 1876 are 
 anonymous;'" the third one is from Wagner in Rep. 
 U. S. Mon. Com., 1876, i., pp. 195-6; the estimates 
 for 1877 and 1878 are anonymous; 1879, Soetbeer;" 
 1879, London "Statist" May 17, 1879; ^^^S' Soetbeer; 
 1892, Indian Curr. Com., 1893, p. 211; 1893, Leech ;'^ 
 1894, Del Mar; 1895, a German banker. 
 
 It is evident that some of these estimates are little 
 more than conjectures, based upon currency theories. 
 Soetbeer's later estimates are too high in gold. A tol- 
 erably safe and approximately correct estimate of the 
 circulation of all Germany would probably be £1 per 
 capita at the beginning of the cenutry ; something less 
 than £2 in 1850; and about £3 ibs. at the present 
 time. The average circulation of all Europe and Amer- 
 ica in 1893 was about £3 per capita, including paper 
 money. At the rate of £1 los. per capita Germany 
 has in circulation more than an average share of the 
 money of the Western world. 
 
 Besides her circulating money Germany possesses a 
 
 6 This is a revised estimate made by Soetbeer, and is probably nearer 
 the fact than his previous statements relating to this period. On 
 January 21st, 1870, the Bank of Prussia and its branches had in circula- 
 tion 142X million thalers, the other banks of the Confederation 70^ 
 millions, and South Germany say 40 millions; total, 252^ millions 
 ("U. S. Bu. Stat.," Sept. 1873). The coin estimate (after Soetbeer) is 
 given in Roscher, i., p. 374, n. 2 7 Year 1871. In this estimate 
 
 the paper money is evidently understated. 8 Year 1873. Paper 
 
 money 106 millions more than previous year. 9 In 1873-4 a portion 
 
 of the French War Indemnity gold was drawn away from Germany. In 
 i875the issues of paper money were 1,205 million marks ("U. S. Com. 
 Rel ," 1875, p. 534). 10 In 1876 the paper money was wrongly 
 
 stated at 1,038 million marks ("U. S. Com. Rel.," 1876, p. 304). Of 
 this amount 402 millions were "uncovered" "(U. S. Con. Rep.," 1875). 
 
 11 Year 1879. In Soetbeer's estimate the gold is greatly exaggerated. 
 
 12 Mint Director of the United States (Report, 1893, p. 52). The 
 Director says: "Uncovered notes, 59,680,000 Ame-ican dollars," equal 
 to 89,520,000 German thalers. As "uncovered notes'' involves an as- 
 sumption and a theory which as applied to currency statistics may not 
 be sound, I have included the whole issue of notes. However, its ex- 
 travagant amount of gold renders the estimate worthless. 
 
364 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 war-chest of the precious metals, which, according to 
 Arthur Young, amounted in 1790 to £15,000,000 ster- 
 ling in silver, and which at the present time is said to 
 consist of 40,000,000 thalers in gold.' 
 
 Before taking leave of the statistics of the circulation 
 it may be proper to observe that German monetary 
 statistics are not exceptionally inflated; that exaggera- 
 tion characterizes such statistics in most countries; and 
 that the world's commerce is in fact conducted upon 
 a much smaller metallic basis than is commonly sup- 
 posed. 
 
 In a footnote to the table given above it is held that 
 to include in the circulation of a State only that portion 
 of its paper money which is "uncovered" by a reserve 
 or guarantee of coins or securities involves an assump- 
 tion and a theory which may not be sound, and that for 
 this reason all the paper money issued was included in 
 the table. It is now in order to briefly examine this 
 subject. The assumption referred to is that when coins 
 or bullion are deposited as a reserve to secure the pay- 
 ment of notes, it is erroneous to count both the coins 
 or bullion and the notes as portions of the circulation. 
 The answer to this is that so far as regai'ds bullion, it 
 is not money, that it is not counted in the circulation at 
 all, and that to omit to count the notes issued upon its 
 guarantee, or assumed guarantee, would be to omit an 
 important element of the circulation. The same an- 
 swer applies to government bonds — indeed, to any other 
 form of reserve except full legal-tender coins. With 
 regard to the latter, could it always be positively ascer- 
 tained what proportion of the reserve consisted of such 
 coins, it is admitted that to count them, together with 
 
 I Arthur Young, "Travels in France,'' i., p. 519; "Rep. U. S. Bu. ■ 
 Stat,," Sept. 1873, p 137; "Rep. Indian Curr. Com.," 1893, p. 211. The 
 German war-fund (Act, Nov. nth, 1871) is at Spandau entirely with- 
 drawn from circulation, 
 
GERMANY 365 
 
 the notes issued upon their guarantee, as portions of the 
 circulation, would be erroneous; but such is not the 
 case. Banking establishments do not, as a rule, specify 
 what proportions of their reserves consist of full legal- 
 tender coins. For example, the Bank of England has 
 the right under the Act of 1844 to hold one-fifth of its 
 reserve in silver, which, whether coined or uncoined, 
 is not full legal-tender. But it is not required to, and 
 in fact does not, inform the public how much of its re- 
 serves consists of such silver. I am privately informed 
 that at the present time no portion of its reserve consists 
 of silver. According to Professor Greven the Bank of 
 the Netherlands enjoys a similar privilege, the propor- 
 tion of silver being not merely one-fifth, but whatever 
 the Bank deems proper. Says that authority: -'Every 
 banker knows that when he needs gold for export, and 
 the Bank (of the Netherlands) cannot pay in gold, it 
 will give him so much silver as will enable him to buy 
 a quantity of gold equal in value to so' many gold coins 
 as the notes offered for payment represent." In the 
 United States the same bag of coins often masquerades 
 now as the reserve of one bank, and now of another. 
 How far similar subterfuges are employed in the various 
 private banking establishments of Germany is not 
 known, and in the absence of such knowledge it is 
 deemed safer to include the entire paper issues in the 
 circulation. This at least is a known quantity; the 
 "reserves," as experience has too often and too sadly 
 proved, may only exist in the playful imagination of 
 that fortunate class who have secured the prerogative 
 to issue bank money. So much for the assumption that 
 the value of bank reserves should be deducted from the 
 sum of coins and notes. Now for the theory of "un- 
 covered paper." 
 
3^6 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 According to this theory the privilege to issue paper 
 money is justitied if the issuer retains a reserve, let us 
 say, in full legal-tender coins, sufficient, under ordinary 
 circumstances, to meet the demands for the payment of 
 his issues. This is a very disingenuous presentation of 
 the case; and the economists, never suspecting its art- 
 fulness, have been content to discuss the amplitude of 
 reserves and other details of a like character, wholly 
 neglecting to inquire whether there is not another 
 aspect of the reserve theory which is of superior im- 
 portance to the State, than security for payment of the 
 notes. That superior aspect is the absence of any guar- 
 antee that the notes shall remain in the circulation— a 
 guarantee that has never been demanded by govern- 
 ments and never offered by private banks of issue, from 
 the fatal day when they were first chartered to the 
 present. And yet it needs but little reflection to per- 
 ceive that the interests of the State, of society, of in- 
 dustry, of commerce and the arts, are jeopardized a 
 thousand times more by a contraction of the currency 
 than by the losses which A, B, or C may sustain in fail- 
 ing to receive payment for the notes they may hold of 
 the banks.. Such losses are the misfortunes of indi- 
 viduals, and are soon repaired ; but contraction of the 
 currency is a wound inflicted upon the State — or in 
 other words, upon the active forces which constitute its 
 strength — and against such a wound, bank reserves 
 offer no defense whatever. 
 
 Some particulars of the history of the ratio in Ger- 
 many have already been given. The following remarks 
 and table will render this account more complete arid 
 continuous. Down to the thirteenth century the ratio 
 in the coinages of the northern states of Gei-many, in- 
 cluding Lubeck and Hamburg, varied but slightly from 
 
GERMANY 367 
 
 the Roman poiitifico-imperial ratio of 12 for i. During 
 the thirteenth century the irifluence of the Roman ratio 
 for the first time exhibited signs of decline. Less silver 
 and more gold was now put into the coins of the various 
 Christian states or provinces, and still less into those 
 which, like Pomerania and the Baltic provinces, had 
 been but recently converted to Christianity, and had 
 previously coined at the Gothic pagan ratio of 8 for i. 
 For example, the talent of 1484 only contained 451 
 grains, a ratio of 8 for i ; while in the coinage of the 
 Teutonic monk-knights during the last thirty years of 
 the fifteenth century the ratio was 9 for i. 
 
 The enhanced value accorded to silver in 'the Ger- 
 man states during the Renaissant period is shown in 
 the following valuations derived from the average of 
 purchase (not the issues) of the Lubeck mint: — a. d. 
 1411, average for eight years past 12 for i ; 1451, aver- 
 age for forty years past 11.7 for i ; 1463, average for 
 twelve years past 11. 6 for i; 1475, average of several 
 North German coinages for one year 11 for i. Speak- 
 ing generally, the coinages of the Renaissance exhibit 
 a ratio of about 10 for i ; but the exceptions were nu- 
 merous. However, the ratio never exceeded 12 for i ; 
 and silver was sometimes raised to a fourth, a third and 
 even to half the value of gold, weight for weight. 
 
 With the discovery of America commenced a new 
 order of affairs. The control of the ratio, which Rome 
 had lost and the Christian princes of Europe had ac- 
 quired, was now monopolized by Spain, through its 
 command of the new supplies and its comparatively 
 vast coinages of the precious metals. We have seen 
 how these advantages were abused by Charles V., and 
 our table will therefore commence with the ratios estab- 
 ished by that monarch. 
 
368 
 
 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 The ratio between silver and gold in Germany. 
 
 
 Prussian 
 
 German 
 
 
 Year. 
 
 legal 
 
 conflict 
 
 Remarks. 
 
 
 ratio. 
 
 ratio. 
 
 
 1524 
 
 "^ 
 
 10.00 
 
 Edict Chas. V. at Ksslingen. 
 
 1546 
 
 13M 
 
 10.00 
 
 Edict Chas. V. Gold boycotled by 
 the Germans. 
 
 1551 
 
 13K 
 
 11.17 
 
 Deduced from coinages o£ Upper Ger- 
 many. 
 
 1559 
 
 13M 
 
 II 44 
 
 Deduced from coinages of Ferdi- 
 nand I. 
 
 1623 
 
 nVi 
 
 11,74 
 
 Deduced from coinages of Ferdi- 
 nand II. 
 
 1641 
 
 ^i'A 
 
 12.00 
 
 Desrotours; the empire generally. 
 
 1667 
 
 ^i/i 
 
 14.15 
 
 Deduced from coinages of Upper Ger- 
 many. Leopold I. 
 
 1669 
 
 * 13M 
 
 15. 1 1 
 
 Deduced frcm coinages of Upper Ger- 
 many. Leopold I. 
 
 1690 
 
 i3>^ 
 
 14-50 
 
 Deduced from quotations in Berlin 
 
 "banco." 
 Comage Convention of Vienna, Sep- 
 
 1753 
 
 13M 
 
 14.50 
 
 
 
 
 tember 2ist. 
 
 1766 
 
 13M 
 
 14.50 
 
 Deduced from quotations in Berlin 
 "banco." 
 
 1780 
 
 13M 
 
 15.00 
 
 Deduced from quotations in Berlin 
 "banco." 
 
 1790 
 
 n'A 
 
 15.50 
 
 Deduced from quotations in Berlin 
 "banco.'' 
 
 1821 
 
 14.0 
 
 15.50 
 
 Law, September 30th. Frederick d'or 
 103. 1 grains = 5 thalers of (nomi- 
 nally) 257% grains each. 
 
 Hamburg (only), The gold ducat 
 varied from 5 1>^ to 52%, average 
 52 J^ grains fine, but was not legal- 
 
 1687 
 
 
 14.50 
 
 tender. Average Convention thaler 
 
 to 
 
 14.8 
 
 to 
 
 3855^ grains fine; legal value, half 
 
 1850 
 
 
 15.50 
 
 a ducat; ratio 14.8; thus, 38575 X 
 2 = 771.50^52.125 = 14.8 (New- 
 ton; Kelly). 
 
 1851 
 1866 
 
 
 
 15.50 
 
 Various conflict ratios,i5.2i to 15.59.' 
 
 i5>^ 
 
 15.50 
 
 North German Bund. 
 
 1871 
 
 i5>^ 
 
 15 50 
 
 New Empire. Gold coin system 
 adopted ^ 
 
 Notes to Table. — iDuringthe years 1851-65 gold was highest in 1851, 
 and lowest in 1854. In other years the ratio fell between these extremes 
 ("Rep. U. S. Mon. Com.," 1876, i., p. 192). 2 One hundred and 
 
 fifty million currency thalers retained in the circulation; but the legal- 
 tender of all other silver coins limited to 20 marks, or 6% thalers, in any 
 one payment. 
 
GERMANS 369 
 
 It must be remembered that for a great portion of 
 the period embraced in this table we are dealing not . 
 with one government and one law, but with many gov- 
 ernments and many laws, and it should be read with 
 allowances. The legal or mint ratios shown in the 
 first column are mainly those of Prussia and the North 
 German Bund; the first ones (iif and 13^ for i) were 
 fixed by Charles V., and the second (15^ for i) by the 
 mint laws of the Bund in 1866. During the interval, 
 1790 to 1866, there appears to have been no legal ratio 
 in Prussia, and the value of gold followed the conflict 
 ratio, which, however, was mainly governed by the 
 Spanish and French mint ratios of 15^, established in 
 I77S» ^7^5 ''"'^ 1803. The Hamburg (and approxi- 
 mately the Lubeck) mint ratio during most of this period 
 was 14.8 for i; but as gold coins were not legal-tender, 
 they followed the conflict which resulted from the mint 
 ratios adopted by the principal coining states of the 
 period, namely, Spain, England and France. The 
 conflict ratios shown in the table are approximate quota- 
 tions intended to cover all North Germany; but as, 
 during the period it embraces, Germany held no con- 
 trol of the ratio, these quotations are little more than 
 reflections of the prices paid for gold (in silver) at the 
 mints of the principal foreign coining states. 
 
 We are now prepared to continue our account of those 
 monetary conventions which have done so much to 
 bring the German states under a united and powerful 
 rule. On January 24th, 1857, was effected the impor- 
 tant coinage treaty of Vienna. At this period the com- 
 mercial world was agitated by a strange disease; the 
 fear that so much gold would be produced from the 
 mines and pass into the form of money, that a disas- 
 trous rise of prices — that is, disastrous to millionaires — 
 
370 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 would ensue sufficient to shake the foundation of 
 society. In vain had Von Humboldt, whose familiarity 
 with history and whose acquaintance with mining 
 should have entitled him to speak with some authority 
 on the subject — in vain had this most illustrious of Ger- 
 mans and of savants assured the world that the vast 
 disparity between the world's stock of coins of the 
 precious metals, compared with any additions that might 
 be made to it, rendered the latter a very trifling factor 
 in the account; in vain had he shown that but a small 
 proportion of the mining product of gold and silver was 
 fabricated into money; in vain did he advert to the in- 
 creasing needs of an augmenting population.' In vain 
 had Hume and other able writers shown that rises of 
 prices occasioned by an increase of metallic money had 
 benefited not only the poor, but the rich as well. The 
 individuals who had controlled the coinage of money, 
 and augmented or restricted its volume at pleasure, the 
 money-lenders and usurers of Frankfort and Amster- 
 dam, knew better. Von Humboldt's book, "The Fluc- 
 tuations of Gold," was consigned to oblivion, and the 
 essays of the Metallic School were hailed with applause, 
 translated into all languages, and published in every 
 country of Europe and America. This school taught 
 the luminous doctrines that value is both -a noun and 
 an adverb; it is both a thing, an attribute and a rela- 
 tion; it is and it is not the same as price: "price is 
 value in relation to a substance;" money is both a noun 
 and an adverb; it is a thing and an attribute of a thing; 
 it is a commodity; it is a measurer of commodities; it 
 is also an attribute conferred upon a commodity ; stand- 
 
 I "Any increass in the productioi which our imagination could call 
 into existence would appear infinitely trifling compared with theaccumu 
 latlon of thousands of years now in circulation, especially when we con- 
 sider the small proportion coined into money and the large proportion , 
 absorbed in the arts" (Von Humboldt's ''Fluctuations of tJold,'' Berlin, 
 1838). 
 
GERMANY 37 1 
 
 ard is the material of which legal-tender coins are 
 made; it is a certain weight of a certain metal; and it 
 is a certain degree of fineness of any metal; the unit of 
 money is both the whole volume of money and each 
 indivisible fraction of it; money is metal, and metal is 
 money; finally, the national honor is subject to the 
 comparative output of the gold and silver mines! All 
 these and many other sophistries will be found in the 
 essays of Harris, Chevalier and Lord Liverpool/ It is 
 easy to perceive that tl.ey may be made to lead to any 
 conclusion. Accordingly, in England, they led Mr. 
 Maclaren to advocate life assurance on a silver basis, 
 and Mr. Cobden to recommend corn rents and pay- 
 ments in kind. In Germany this school of muddled 
 logic and easy principles loudly demanded the reten- 
 tion of silver coins for the sole money of the Father- 
 land ; and it was in the midst of this pati'iotic vocifera- 
 tion that the Treaty of Vienna was drafted and signed. 
 It was declared to be enacted in pursuance of article 
 ix. of the Treaty of Carlsruhe, July 19th, 1853, between 
 Austria, the principality of Lichtenstein and the States 
 which were parties to the Treaty of Dresden, July 30th, 
 1838. Thus the Coinage Treaty .of 1857 embraced 
 Austria, Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, Hanover, Wurtem- 
 burg, Baden, Electoral Hesse, Ducal Hesse, Ducal 
 Saxony, Oldenburg, Saxe-Meiningen, Saxe-Coburg, 
 Gotha, Saxe-Altenburg, Brunswick, Nassau, Anhalt- 
 Dessau, Cothen, Anhalt-Bemburg, Schwarzburg- 
 Sondenhausen, Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, Lichtenstein, 
 Waldeck, Pyrmont, the Reusses, the Lippes, Land- 
 graviate Hesse and the City of Frankfort. 
 
 I Chevalier's essays were published in thei ' 'Revue des Deux Mondes'' 
 shortly after the opening of California. Most of the sophistries enume- 
 rated in the text will be found in the first chapter of his subsequent 
 work. "The Fall in the Value of Gold," translated by Cobden. 
 
372 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 The right of coinage as to full legal-tender silver 
 (vereinsmunze), and as to gold coins, was conferred 
 upon private individuals. The drudgery of striking the 
 coins was to be done by the States. No limits were 
 assigned to the coinage of silver thalers or gold pieces, 
 and only temporary ones to that of florins. Gold coins 
 were forbidden to be made legal-tender in any of the 
 States. The full legal^tender coins were: first, cur- 
 rency thalers, of which thirty were to be struck from 
 500 metrical grammes, or one zollpfund of 7716 1745 
 English grains, hence each of 257. 2 grains fine ; second, 
 Austrian florins, of 45 to the zollpfund, or each of 
 171.47 grains fine; and third. South German floi'ins, 
 of N52i to the zollpfund, or each of about 147 grains 
 fine. The thalers were to pass for i^ Austrian, or if 
 South German florins; and all of these coins were to 
 be full legal-tender in all the States. The alloy to be 
 added was such as to make them all of the metrical 
 standard, or nine-tenths fine. The gold coins were to 
 be crowns of 50 to the zollpfund of fine gold, hence 
 each of 154^ grains fine. Austria alone might continue 
 to strike ducats until the end of 1865. The right of 
 coining the subsidiary silver coins, scheidemunze, was 
 reserved to the States. The smallest pieces were to 
 be one-sixth of a thaler, or one-fourth of an Austrian 
 florin. The zwanzeiger, or twenty-creutzer, or one- 
 third florin piece, was abolished. The entire emission 
 of subsidiary silver coins (this was reserved to the 
 States) was limited to five-sixths of a thaler per capita; 
 and offices were to be assigned for their redemption in 
 full legal-tender coins. Gold coins might be received 
 at the State treasuries at a price in silver coins to be 
 fixed for a period not exceeding six months at a time. 
 The position of the gold coins was that of mere bullion; 
 
GERMANY 373 
 
 and as such they ceased to circulate, and soon found 
 their way to the melting pot. 
 
 The paper-money and bank-notes of each State were 
 permitted to circulate in the other States so long as 
 "adequate" provision was made for their redemption 
 in full legal-tender silver coins. In the case of the 
 Bank of Prussia, which in J872 issued two-thii-ds of all 
 the paper money circulating in Germany, and in that 
 of the other most important banks, this was legally 
 one-third and (for a time) actually two-thirds, in thalers 
 or florins. An exception was made with respect to 
 Austria, whose circulation was almost entirely of paper; 
 but such exception did not extend beyond January 1st, 
 1859. However, Austria soon afterwards seceded from 
 the convention altogether.^ No provision was made 
 against a contraction of the currency by the melting 
 or export of coins, or by the retirement of bank issues. 
 
 In this convention we perceive the mediate germs of 
 the Latin Union of 1865, and the Scandinavian Union 
 of 1872; but of far more significance is the fact, which 
 can scarcely be doubted, that it helped to pave the way 
 to the North German Bund of 1866 and the Empire of 
 187,1. Nevertheless much remained yet to be done in 
 unifying the monetary systems of Germany. At the 
 conclusion of the war of 1866 there still remained no 
 less than ten different systems of German moneys: 
 
 1 We have no data of the gold coinage from 1857; but of 175 million 
 thalers, net, of gold coined during the years below there were estimated 
 to have remained in existence down to 1867 not more than 15 or 20 mil- 
 lions. Gold coinage in millions of thalers: Old Prussia, 1764 to 1867, 
 85.7; New Prussia (Hanover, Electoral Hesse and Frankfort), 1834 to 
 1867, 37.3; Brunswick, 1764 to 1867, 50.0; Hamburg and Lubeck, 1790 
 to 1867, T.g: Saxony, 1839 to 1867, and Ducal Hesse, 1819 to 1855 (to- 
 gether), 0.9; Bavaria, Wurtemburg, and BadeO, 1837 101867, 1.6; total, 
 177.4; less re-coinages, 2.5 net issues, 174.9 ("Rep. Ba. Stat.," Septl, 
 1873, p. 143). See also Prof. Wagner in "Rep. U. S. Mon. Com.," 
 1876, i., p. 191. 
 
 2 Some other provisions of this treaty will be found in "Money and 
 Civilization," p. 339. 
 
374 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 First, the Prussian system of the currency thaler, 
 divided into 30 groschen of 12 pfennigs each. 
 
 Second, the system of Royal Saxony, Ducal Saxe- 
 Gotha, Saxe-Altenburg and Brunswick, which divided 
 the currency thaler into 30 groschen of 10 pfennigs 
 each. 
 
 Third, the duchies of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Meck- 
 lenburg-Sti^elitzand Lauenburg, which divided the cur- 
 rency thaler into 48 skillings of 12 pfennigs each. 
 
 Fourth, the free cities of Hamburg and Bremen, 
 which divided the currency thaler into two-and-a-half 
 marks current, or into 40 skillings of 12 pfennigs each. 
 
 Fifth, the system of marks banco of the free cities 
 of Hamburg and Altona and the vicinity. 
 
 Sixth, the gold coin system of the free city of Altona. 
 This was based on the louis d'or, or pistole, of i-84th 
 of a pfund, say 92 grains of fine gold, valued at 5 cur- 
 rency thalers — a ratio of about 14 for i. Here the 
 thalers were divided into 72 groschen. 
 
 Seventh, the talent ("specie-thaler") of Schleswig- 
 Holstein, of gi talents to the Cologne mark of fine 
 silver, say 390 grains each, subdivided into 60 skillings 
 current. 
 
 Eighth, the subdivisions of the South German florin 
 sj'stem, which not only prevailed in Bavaria, Wurtem- 
 burg, Baden and Hesse-Darmstadt, but also in Frank- 
 fort-on-the-Main, Nassau, Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, 
 Saxe-Meiningen and Saxe-Coburg. 
 
 Ninth, the gold coinage system of the free city of 
 Bremen. 
 
 Tenth, the "banco" system of Prussia. 
 
 In recounting the steps by which these diverse sys- 
 tems of money-^the remains of the chaotic monetary 
 period, 1204 to 1524 — were brought into harmony, I 
 
GERMANY 375 
 
 am compelled to copy the word "standard" in a per- 
 verted sense. Standard properly means alliage, or 
 fineness; as when we say sterling standard, which 
 means for silver 0.925 fine, or metrical standard, 0.900 
 fine, A new and wholly unwarranted meaning was 
 conferred upon this word by Harris (1757); and this 
 has since passed into all the literatm-e on the subject of 
 money. Standard was by him and is now used to 
 mean the material of which the full legal-tender coins 
 of a state are made. Thus England is said to employ 
 the gold standard, India the silver standard, etc. But 
 in this sense it is misleading, because it assumes that 
 the money of England consists of gold, the money of 
 India of silver, etc. ; whereas in fact the money of Eng- 
 land consists of gold coins and bank notes, both of 
 which (except the bank notes as from the bank) are 
 full legal tender; whilst the money of India consists 
 not of silver, but of silver coins. In like manner has 
 the phrase "unit of money" been perverted. The unit 
 of money properly means all the money in a given 
 state; and, as shown in my "Science of Money," chap, 
 i., it cannot properly or distinctively have any other 
 meaning. But unit of money, or monetary unit, or 
 unit coin, has acquired the meaning of the principal 
 denomination of money, as the sovereign in England, 
 the franc in France, the imperial mark in Germany, 
 etc. This is misleading, because it assumes that the 
 value of money is determined by the quantity of metal 
 contained in the so-called unit; whereas it is in point 
 of fact determined by the arithmetical denominations 
 and aggregate volume of all the "units," including 
 paper notes, no matter how much or how little metal 
 -the former may contain. This principle is admitted, 
 but often forgotten, by all the leading economists and 
 
376 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 writers on mouej'. With these explanations we are 
 ready to proceed with our history. 
 
 The various steps taken or proposed by the German 
 government of 1866 toward further unifying the coin- 
 age are recounted at length in the "United States Com- 
 mercial Relations," 1867, p. 447. The most important 
 of the proposed steps was an en :ire re-coinage for the 
 whole of Germany, and the substitution of gold for sil- 
 ver as the material of the full legal-tender coins. These 
 great measures relating to the monetary system of Ger- 
 many have since been actually realized ; and, as usual 
 with all great events, they have been ascribed to a 
 wrong origin. They are attributed to the Franco-Prus- 
 sian war and the Indemnity provided by the treaty of 
 Frankfort; whereas in point of fact they constituted, 
 together with the right of individual coinage and the 
 privilege of issuing bank notes, a political move, in- 
 tended to allay any opposition which the aristocratic 
 and moneyed classes of Germany might be disposed to 
 evince toward that Unification in which their import- 
 ance was otherwise sooner or later destined to be oblit- 
 erated. In a word, the "gold standard" was part of 
 the price of German liberty. Its origin, though not its 
 motive, is very distinctly set forth in the following 
 official communication from Consul-General Murphy to 
 the State Department of the United States, dated 
 Frankfort, August 13th, 1867, and printed in the volume 
 of Commercial Relations above cited: — "As there have 
 been made already several proposals in regard to the 
 establishment of a unit coin for the whole of Germany, 
 which will be discussed as soon as the North German 
 parliament will have appointed a committee to deliberate 
 on the subject of a joint measure, weight and coin, I 
 beg to furnish a few remarks taken from a treatise of 
 
GERMANY 377 
 
 a privy councillor of the Prussian government. . . . 
 It is also proposed that the German states should change 
 the silver standard into the gold standard." 
 
 To trace the origin of this movement it is necessary 
 to observe that the claim of individuals to have their 
 bullion coined into money at their own pleasure was no 
 sooner asserted in Holland, Germany and England, 
 than it led to another claim in behalf of the class to 
 which such individuals belonged. This was that the 
 money so coined should pass current, not merely in the 
 State of which they were subjects, but in all States — 
 a claim that took form in the organization of societies 
 for the promotion of so-called International Coinage. 
 An organization of this character was formed so early 
 as the beginning of the seventeenth century, since 
 which time numerous others have emerged into exist- 
 ence, all of them supported by men of the highest re- 
 spectability, intelligence and wealth. Several of these 
 organizations, still in existence, date back to the middle 
 of the present century; and it is to their efforts, more 
 than to any other agency, that is to be ascribed, first, 
 that demonetization of gold which was so distinctly 
 ratified and confirmed by the treaty of 1857, and that 
 subsequent demonetization of silver, which vyas planned 
 before 1867 and effected in 187 1-3. 
 
 Thus, in the International Monetary Conference 
 held in Paris in 1866, Privy Councillor Meinecke, the 
 Prussian commissioner, declared that in the interest of 
 international circulation (a sophistical phrase that dis- 
 closed the motive power behind him) his government 
 might be willing to abandon its "silver standard" m 
 favor of a "gold standard;" but first they had to come 
 to an understanding on the matter with the other states 
 of the North German Confederation as well as with 
 
378 History of monetary systems 
 
 those of South Germany, who had signed with them the 
 mint treaty of 1857/ That the motive power behind 
 Meinecke was not the interests of the Prussian govern-^ 
 ment is evinced by the arguments advanced in John 
 G. Fichte's well-known work in favor of a distinctive 
 national money, and from the declaration of Von 
 Schultz, that to sign away the independence of the 
 State in reference to money vvould constitute an act of 
 ti'eason.^ 
 
 The Franco-Prussian war of 1870 furnished an op- 
 portunity for furthering the interests of individual coin- 
 age. The world's production of gold, which in 1852 
 amounted to £38,740,000, had gradually fallen in 1868 
 to £21,940,000, and in 1869 to £21,240,000; and it 
 was foreseen that, at least for some years, it would fall, 
 as it did fall, still lower On the other hand, the world's 
 production of silver, which in 1852, and for many years 
 before and afterward, stood at about £8,000,000 per an- 
 num, suddenly jumped during the years 1864-9 to£io,- 
 000,000 per annum, and with the practical opening of 
 the great Comstock lode bade fair to reach, as it did 
 reach, a much higher total.' We have seen that the 
 Treaty of Vienna was dominated by the California 
 scare of cheap gold. It is quite evident that the mone- 
 tary provisions of the Treaty of Frankfort were equally 
 dominated by the Nevada scai'e of cheap silver. These 
 provisions are set forth in another work.* In effect, 
 they stipulated that the five milliards (£200,000,000) 
 war indemnity to be paid by France should be paid in 
 gold coins or their equivalent. The indemnity, together 
 
 1 "Commercial Relations," 1867, pp. 448-9. 
 
 2 "Science o£ Money," p. 47, note i; "Money and Civilization," p. 
 288, note i: "Int. Cont.," 1878; 'Int. Conf ," 1881, p. 9; London 
 "Times," Feb., 1886. Sir Wm. Harcourt said he was "not willing 
 to place the currency of England at the mercy of foreign States." Lon- 
 don "Times," April 4. 1895 Almost precisely the same thing was said 
 by Alexander Hamilton a century previously. 
 
 3 ''Hist. Prec. Met.," ch. xxii. 4 "Mon. and Civ.," ch. xvi. 
 
GERMANY 379 
 
 with interest and other charges, amounted in fact to 
 about £234,512,292. It was paid during the interval 
 between May loth, 1871 and December 4th, 1874, and, 
 according to M. Leon Say, with only £20,491,797 in 
 coins, of which nearly one-half were silver, the balance 
 being liquidated by bills of exchange for French credits 
 in foreign countries. According to another account, 
 France lost £40,000,000 in gold and gained £2,600,- 
 000 in silver, while Germany gained £33,540,000 in 
 gold, and lost £2,600,000 in silver, the difference be- 
 tween the forty millions of gold lost by France and the 
 thirty-three and a half millions of gold gained by Ger- 
 many having gone to other countries. ("Mon. and 
 Civ.," ch. xvi.) 
 
 It was with this promised accession of gold that Ger- 
 many adopted the Mint laws of 1871-3, and authorized 
 those increased emissions of paper money which brought 
 upon her a panic in the midst of a plethora. So long 
 as a State resigns its prerogative of coinage and the 
 issuance of circulating notes into the hands of indi- 
 viduals, so long is it exposed to monetary crises. These 
 phenomena were unknown previous to 1572 in Holland, 
 and 1666 in England; they will never cease until the 
 fatal legislation of those years is repealed — in short, not 
 until the State assumes the control of its own mints and 
 paper emissions. The laws of 187 1-3 had for their ob- 
 ject, First, the creation of a new and uniform coin for 
 the whole German empire. This was the imperial 
 mark, of which 1395 went to the zollpfund weight of 
 fine gold. Each mark would therefore contain 0.35842 
 metrical gramme, or 5.532 English grains fine gold. 
 This money (in pieces of 5, 10 and 20 marks) was to 
 be full legal-tender. Second, except as to the old cur- 
 rency thaler, of which there were supposed to be from 
 
380 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 135 to 150 millions still in circulation, and whose full 
 legal-tender function was retained for the present, no 
 silver coins were thenceforth to be legal-tender for more 
 than 20 marks. These provisions entirely reversed 
 the policy of 1857; then gold was demonetized, now 
 it was silver. Third, new subsidiary silver coins were 
 provided for (called silver marks), of which 100 were 
 to be struck from a zollpfund of fine silver; hence each 
 mark contained 5 grammes, or 77.15 grains, fine. The 
 emission, until further notice, was limited to 10 marks 
 per head of population. These coins were made re- 
 deemable at the imperial and state treasuries with full 
 legal-tender coins. Fourth, "whenever the mints 
 should not be engaged in coining for the government 
 they were free to coin (only) twenty-mark gold pieces 
 on private account, on payment of a seigniorage not to 
 exceed 7 marks per pfund of pure gold." This sub- 
 stantially surrendered the gold coinage to individuals, 
 yet wisely left the mint gates in keeping of the Crown. 
 Fifth, provision was made for calhng in all the old 
 silver coins except the thalers above mentioned, recoin- 
 ing them into imperial silver marks, and selling the 
 surplus silver if any. This surplus, as the event pi'oved, 
 amounted nominally to about 200,000,000 thalers, and 
 it was the German demonetization of silver and the sale 
 of this vast amount of bullion in the London and other 
 markets that precipitated the fall in silver which oc- 
 curred soon after. Sixth, all paper money issued by 
 the states was to be withdrawn by January ist, 1876, 
 and replaced by imperial paper money. This excellent 
 provision was not extended to the issues of private 
 banks. 
 
 The legal equivalents between the old and new 
 money were — i currency thaler=3 marks, and the 
 
GERMANY 38 1 
 
 Other pieces in proportion. The ratio of silver in the 
 thalers to gold in the marks is 15^ for i; and as at 
 present (there is now a "market price" of silver) there 
 is a profit of about 100 per cent in coining the thalers, 
 it is natural to expect that a good many surreptitious 
 silver coins of full weight and fineness will find their 
 way into the circulation. This is a danger which in- 
 vites the solicitude of the German imperial government. 
 
 The table relating to the circulation, however faulty 
 may of its details, furnishes the best guide as to the 
 manner in which these various provisions were actually 
 carried into execution. In 1870 the silver circulating 
 in Germany probably did not exceed 500,000,000 
 thalers; it has since been reduced to about 300,000,000, 
 of which probably one-half consists of thaler pieces. 
 The gold scarcely exceeded 30,000,000; it has been 
 successively increased and diminished, until now (ex- 
 cluding the war-chest) it amounts to about 367,000,000 
 to 400,000,000 thalers. The paper circulation, which 
 before the war did not exceed 150,000,000 thalers, has 
 since'amounted to over 450,000,000; it was then cur- 
 tailed and is now increased to 480,000,000. The pres- 
 ent circulation therefore consists of about 300,000,000 
 thalers silver, 367,000,000 gold and 480,000,000 paper; 
 total 1,167,000,000 to 1,200,000,000 thalers, or about 
 24 thalers or 72 marks per capita of population. An 
 eminent German authority who was consulted on the 
 subject estimated it one-sixth higher. 
 
 The statistics of the reduction of gold and silver ores 
 in Germany have been ingeniously employed to swell 
 the estimated production of silver throughout the world. 
 It may be stated at the outset that nearly all of the gold 
 and most of the silver produced in Germany is from 
 foreign refractory ores, whose metalliferous contents 
 
382 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 have already been credited to the countries of their 
 production. These are chiefly America, Australia and 
 Spain. The product of gold in Germany for the year 
 1830 was about 10 pounds troy, chiefly in Saxony and 
 Hanover; in 1850, 20 pounds; i860, 70 pounds (aver- 
 age of three years); 1870, 167 pounds (average of 
 three years); 1880, 800 pounds; 1890, 3,600 pounds; 
 at the present time it is about 6,000 pounds, and valued 
 at about £300,000 sterling. This gold is extracted in 
 minute proportions from lead and copper ores. The 
 peroxide of iron obtained in roasting arsenical ores is 
 impregnated with chlorine gas, washed with water,and 
 the gold precipitated with sulphureted hydrogen. The 
 resulting sulphide is roasted, washed with hydrochloric 
 acid, and smelted with borax and niter. The produc- 
 tion of silver in 1830 was about 72,000 pounds troy; 
 1850, 100,000 pounds; i860, 150,000 pounds;^ 1870, 
 240,000 pounds ; 1880, 360,000 pounds; 1890,800,000 
 pbunds, and at the present time about 900,000 pounds, 
 of which about two-thirds are from foreign ores. The 
 production of native silver, therefore, does not exceed 
 300,000 pounds, or in value about £450,000 sterling. 
 In Dr. Soetbeer's work, translated and printed by the 
 American government in 1887 for the guidance of 
 statesmen (U. S. Cons. Rep., No. 87, p. 477), the pro- 
 duction of silver in Germany is stated at more than 
 twice this sum ; and in that sciological monument, the 
 "Report of the Director of the Mint upon the Produc- 
 tion of the Precious Metals in 1892," it is stated at 
 more than thrice. Both of these works were printed 
 on the government press in vast numbers, ahd distrib- 
 uted gratis to the public. They were soon followed 
 by the legislative cessation of full legal-tender silver 
 
 I For 1865 the product of the Hartz was given at 28,000 pounds troy; 
 Prussia, 68,000; Saxony, 80,000; and other German states 2,500: total 
 178,300 pounds (Phillips on "Gold and Silver," p. 320). 
 
GERMANY 383 
 
 coinage(repeal of the Bland and Sherman Acts), a tre- 
 mendous fall in the price of securities, the insolvency 
 of numerous credit institutions, and a general paralysis 
 of trade. 
 
 These disastrous consequences are not confined to 
 the United States, but are common to the commercial 
 world to-day. They are directly attributable to the 
 selfish and unpatriotic clamor of a class of whom Cob- 
 den in England, Chevalier in France and Soetbeer in 
 Germany were the gifted exponents and dupes. The 
 result is, they have killed the goose that laid the golden 
 eggs. Their views, unhappily carried into practice, 
 have ended in an almost total paralysis of trade; and 
 this will lose to their masters ten times more money 
 than the latter can possibly gain by the demonetization 
 of one of the precious metals and the contraction of the 
 basis of credit. Like Storch, like Bunge, like every 
 zealot who has been permitted to influence the monetary 
 policy of an empire, they have been the evil geniuses 
 of their Fatherland. Soetbeer knew but little of the 
 numerous monetary experiments which had been made 
 in Germany. He was totally ignorant of those which 
 had been made in other countries. His works evince 
 no knowledge of the conditions under which the pre- 
 cious metals have been won from nature, nor obtained 
 by one nation from another. He fancied that the value 
 of coins was due to the economical cost of producing, 
 by the aid of free labor, the material of which they 
 were composed; and he had the effrontery to reduce 
 them all to kilogrammes of gold and silver. Such was 
 his great talent and persistency that he infected a 
 numerous and intelligent school with the same mad 
 notions. The thousands of millions which the Spaniards 
 extorted from the tears and blood of the Indians, the 
 
384 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 plunder which Bonaparte carried out of Germanj'jnay, 
 even the vast Indemnity which the Germans recently 
 exacted from France, and which was paid under his 
 very nose, he weighed with the scales of a bullion 
 dealer and he reduced to a fanciful "cost of produc- 
 tion." With the experience of ages treasured up in the 
 laws of the empire in which he dwelt, with the Roman 
 Institutes and Codes at his elbow, he totally failed to 
 comprehend the meaning of value or the function of 
 money; and by reducing the latter to metal he converted 
 the complicated transactions of modern societary life to 
 the savage level of barter, in which that which is offered 
 with the right hand is valued by something held in the 
 left. The idea that numisma, nummus, money, is a 
 Measure, a measure whose limits can only be equitably 
 adjusted by the State, never entered his mind. Yet he 
 might have readily found it in Plato and Aristotle, and 
 Paulus and Humboldt; nor could he have failed to find 
 it in the laws of his own country, had he ever deemed 
 it worth his while to read them with care. His per- 
 nicious advice was followed so blindly as to extort from 
 the suffering farmers and peasants a cry of distress ex- 
 pressed in no less than two hundred petitions to the 
 Imperial Chancellor and the Reichstag (December 
 loth, 1886), which piteously begged for relief from the 
 evils of hoarded money and the clutches of the usurer. 
 Germany has a brilliant future before her. Her peo- 
 ple are hardy, industrious and intelligent; her religion 
 comes from the free air of the Baltic; her laws are 
 based upon the garnered wisdom of ages; her mechan- 
 ical aptitude is the legacy of Rome; her domain is 
 spacious, her soil exuberant, her climate genial, and 
 her ruler enterprising, progressive, and impatient to de- 
 velop the vast resources of the State to whose guidance 
 
GERMANY / 385 
 
 he has been called. But he may rest assured that in 
 these times such development depends in no slight 
 degree upon the adoption- of a stable and equitable sys- 
 tem of money; and that such a system is not the one 
 demanded by the class of individuals who practically 
 monopolize the issues of the imperial mints, and by 
 means of this all-powerful engine usurp for themselves 
 functions that rightfully belong to the German people 
 and the German state. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 PRIVATE COINAGE. 
 
 Five great eras in the history of. money — Pontifico-royal period — Re- 
 publican period — Pontifico-imperial period — Royal period— Private 
 Coinage period — Moslem origin of private coinage — Omission of 
 the coinage prerogative from the Koran — Its assumption by the 
 Moslem conquerors of India — Private coinage practiced by their 
 permission — Consequent degradation of the Indian monetary sys- 
 tems — Arrival of the Portuguese in India — Private coinages of 
 Albuquerque at Goa — Private coinages of the Dutch in India — 
 Private coinages of the British East India Company — Idolatrous 
 eCEigies on their -coins — Private coinage enunciated in the Star 
 Chamber of England — Private coinage sanctioned by Charles II., 
 who concedes or bargains away the royal prerogative — Disastrous 
 consequences to the commercial world — Frequent failures of banks 
 of issue — Incompetency of the banking class to regulate either 
 national or international Measures of Value — Demand for the re- 
 sumption of the State prerogative — Progress of this movement to the 
 present time. 
 
 If we survey the entire history of money (not merely 
 as in Chap. V., with reference to the Ratio), it divides 
 itself into five distinct periods. First, the Pontifico- 
 royal period, which lasted from the earliest times to the 
 epoch of the Greek republics. In the pontifico-royal 
 period money was coined exclusively in the temples, 
 and stamped with tha sacred emblems of religion. 
 Second, the Republican period, when money was con- 
 trolled by the senates of Sparta, Clazomenas, Byzan- 
 tium, Athens and Rome. Third, the Pontifico-imperial 
 period, when the coinage was assumed by the Caesars, 
 and so regulated by them that for thirteen centuries its 
 essential features remained substantially unaltered. 
 Fourth, the Kingly period, when the princes of the 
 West, having freed themselves from the dominion of 
 
 386 
 
PRIVATE COINAGE 387 
 
 Rome, seized the coinage prerogative and exercised 
 it independently. Fifth, the period of Private Coinage, 
 when the goldsmiths and merchant adventurers char- 
 tered to trade with and despoil or conquer the Orient, 
 obtained control of the royal prerogative of coinage, 
 and thus opened the door to that last of degradations, 
 Private Coinage, This period has not yet ended. 
 
 But although the East India companies introduced 
 private coinage for the first time into the states of 
 Christendom, this was not the beginning of it. Like 
 many other modern institutions of money. Private 
 Coinage is of Moslem origin. In the Empires of an- 
 tiquity the minting of money was a sacerdotal function, 
 and as such it was exercised as to gold and controlled 
 as to silver by the sovereign-pontiffs of Rome and Sas- 
 sanian Persia, when Mahomet and his undaunted fol- 
 lowers issued from Arabia to overthrow these great 
 powers. Whether in scorn of what he regarded as their 
 idolatrous religions, or from a neglect due to his own 
 illiteracy, Mahomet omitted from the Koran those sacred 
 injunctions which at that period were necessary to pre- 
 serve the coinage prerogative from violation. It was 
 in consequence of this neglect that the brave but rapa- 
 cious adventurers who conquered India deemed them- 
 selves at liberty to abuse the coinage, until their issues 
 ceased to command public respect. This is where pri- 
 vate coinage crept in to supply that indispensable pub- 
 lic Measure of Value which the State had failed to 
 preserve from degradation and instability.' 
 
 Such, in fact, was the position of affairs in many of 
 
 the Moslem states of India when Albuquerque, after 
 
 I The public, societary, or communal nature of the Measure of Value 
 is recognized in the Mint Code, 33 Vict,, ch. 10: "The Treasury may 
 from time to time issue to the master of the Mint, out of the growing 
 produce of the Consolidated Fund, such suras as may enable him to pur- 
 chase bullion in order to provide supplies of coin for the public servue." 
 
388 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 subduing the petty principality of Ormuz, raised the 
 flag of Portugal upon the battlements of Goa. Among 
 the conqueror's earliest acts was the issuance of an un- 
 authoi-ized and debased coinage of gold, silver and 
 copper. His professed object was to relieve a local 
 dearth of coins, and to gain credit and renown for his 
 lord the king; his real one to buy the gold which he 
 might fail to plunder, and sell it (in Portugal) at cent 
 per cent profit. Among the native coins of Goa and 
 of Southern India generally was the gold hun, stamped 
 with the boar emblem (the varaya), one of Vishnu's in- 
 carnations. This coin corresponded in weight and 
 fineness with the Arabian dinar, whilst the dirhem had 
 its exact counterpart in the bargan of silver, of which 
 ten went in value to the hun, or varaya. The ratio be- 
 tween the silver and gold in these coins was therefore 
 6 or 7 for i, whilst at the same time that in the coin- 
 ages of Portugal was 11 or 12 for i. When the Dutch 
 gained a footing in the Indies they found there a simi- 
 lar state of affairs, and they fell into similar practices 
 of private coinage and monetary chicane. The example 
 became infectious. The British East India Company 
 followed suit. It struck idolatrous coins, under native 
 permission, in 1620; and, with the door thus ajar to 
 private coinage, it was easily pushed wide open. An 
 intrigue with this object was introduced into the Star 
 Chamber during the reign of Charles I., which blos- 
 somed during that of his son, in the Act 18 Charles II., 
 c. 5, an Act that bargained away the Measui-e of Value, 
 upon which must depend, for countless generations, the 
 share of all public burdens and the distribution of all 
 wealth. Under this legislation the royal prerogative 
 was placed in abeyance; and, bej'ond its power to deter- 
 mine the ratio, the State practically lost its control of 
 
PRIVATE COINAGE 389 
 
 money. In 1816 the Crown was persuaded to suspend 
 the exercise of its power over the ratio. In this manner 
 was silver demonetized. By the operation of an obscure 
 and unnoticed clause in the Mint Act of 1870, so much 
 of the power as the Crown retained to terminate such 
 suspension and demonetization was removed, and the 
 last remnant of a prerogative whose exercise is essential 
 to the autonomy of the State was innocently surrendered 
 to private hands. Practically, since 1816 the Measure 
 of Value for the vast transactions of the British Empire 
 has not been Money, which may be limited by law and 
 counted by tale, but Metal, which cannot thus be regu- 
 lated, and which therefore has been resigned practically 
 to the control of a class whose chief interest in the State 
 has been to render it subservient to their own private 
 advantage. 
 
 What has been the result? From the day when the 
 royal voluptuary resigned a prerogative which, more 
 than any other one, pleads for the continuance of kingly 
 rule, to the present time, the commercial community 
 has been subjected to alternate epochs of monetary con- 
 traction and expansion, in which much of what it ac- 
 cumulates at one period is insidiously filched from it at 
 another. The reader has but to glance at Chapter 17 
 of this volume to be convinced of the entire truth of this 
 observation. The suspensions of banks of issue therein 
 shown involved losses to the note-holders and others 
 amounting to more than all the gold and silver money 
 in the world several times over. Not only this; the 
 surrender of the prerogative of coinage has tended to 
 estrange the Crown from the People, whose disappoint- 
 ment has manifested itself in many painful symptoms. 
 No man who takes pride in the glorious past of this 
 Mother of States, and who would preserve that past 
 
390 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 from obliteration, should refrain from referring to these 
 dangers, or pointing the way to avoid them in future. 
 More than this; such dangers menace not the peace of 
 England alone, they affect the entire commercial world. 
 
 The plain facts are these: two centuries ago the 
 king of England plundered the goldsmiths of London 
 of all their ready money. Partly for the reasons already 
 mentioned herein, and partly, perhaps, to make amends 
 for this act, his son substantially sold and surrendered 
 to the goldsmiths the State prerogative of coinage. 
 Owing to England's commercial supremacy (due to the 
 energy of her people, not to the plans of goldsmiths) 
 this made the latter the sole arbiters of .the Measure of 
 Value, not merely of England, but of the Western 
 world. These tremendous powers have be6n wielded 
 with such inadequate perception of the equities and 
 consequences they involved, with such lack of scientific 
 or financial skill, and in so narrow and selfish a spirit, 
 that its arbiters have repeatedly plunged the commercial 
 woild into bankruptcy and confiscated or inequitably 
 redistributed its accumulated earnings, either for their 
 own benefit or else to save themselves from the effects 
 of their own blundering. 
 
 From this selfishness, ill-management, blund«ring 
 and recklessness, from the evidence which they have 
 given before government commissions on this subject, 
 both in this country and in others, from the countless 
 books and pamphlets in which they have contradicted 
 each other, both as to fact and opinion, on the subject 
 of money, as well as from many other evidences, it has 
 become quite obvious that the goldsmith class, which 
 includes the managers of banks of issue, are less com- 
 petent to understand and regulate the Measure of Value 
 than are the representatives of the People, whose patri- 
 
PRIVATE COINAGE 39 1 
 
 otism, conservatism, and societary instinct furnish a far 
 more reliable beisis for the stability of Money than 
 the doctrines, the preju:lices, or the selfishness of a 
 limited class/ 
 
 Even amongst themselves this class has been unable 
 to agree with regard to the diagnosis of monetary 
 troubles, or the proper remedies to apply. Chaos in 
 legislation had bred chaos in doctrine. All that has 
 been perceived clearly, either by them or anybody else, 
 is that since the era of Private Coinage and Pi-ivate 
 banks of issue the industrial and commercial world has 
 suffered repeated reverses, for which no indemnity has 
 been offered an^ no practical remedy discovered. But 
 the synchronism of these events has itself disclosed the 
 source of the trouble and indicated the correct treat- 
 ment. That treatment is the resumption by the State 
 of its ancient prerogative of money. Upon referring to 
 Chapter i8, which gives an account of the present 
 monetary systems of various States, the reader will 
 observe that Private Coinage has been forbidden as to 
 silver in all the Western States (except Mexico), and 
 that as to gold it is a dead letter, because all the avail- 
 able supplies of this metal have become concentrated 
 in four or five principal States, chiefly as war-funds. 
 The Movement to couch the world's indebtedness in 
 only one of the two metals which had previously an- 
 swered for the bases of its monetary systems, has served 
 its purpose; but it has had other results than those antic- 
 ipated by its promoters. It has already terminated the 
 private coinage of silver; it now threatens to put an 
 end also to the private coinage of gold. 
 
 I Consult the writer's examination of Mr Albert Gansl, banker and 
 agent of the Rothschilds before the U. S. Monetary Commission, printed 
 in their Report at Washington, 1876, i., app.,p.49. Also Mr. Chaplin's 
 examination of Lord Farrer, "Rep. Royal Com. on Agricultaral Dis- 
 tress," 1895, partii, 
 
392 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 The States which in 1873 were dyped into doublin<^f 
 their indebtedness have outlived their resentment, and 
 become reconciled to a loss which has enabled them to 
 dispense for the future with that mischief of Private 
 Coinage, which alone rendered such loss possible. 
 Most of them now exercise, for the first time in centuries, 
 a more or less complete control over their own mone- 
 tary systems; and the sense of relief and security which 
 has followed the change has communicated itself to 
 other States, and stimulated a popular demand for the 
 entire interdict of Private Coinage. Such is the gist of 
 the Resolution passed at the recent Convention of St. 
 Louis, and such will also doubtless be. the outcome of 
 many future monetary and political conventions. In 
 effect, the demand is that the State or Crown should 
 resume its ancient prerogative; the State now is iden- 
 tical with the Crown, for the State alone can stop the 
 alternate melting down, shipping to and fro and re- 
 coinages of metal which lie at the base of monetary 
 disturbances. The contention henceforth may be not 
 whether the symbols of money shall be made of one 
 metal or of two metals, but that the State and not the 
 money-changers shall control its issues. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 STATISTICS OF THE RATIO. 
 
 Different ratios at some periods in Orient and Occident — Coinage con- 
 _ trolled by priesthood — Ratios in India from earliest times to 1893 — 
 Ratio in Roman Republic and Empire — Ratio in Spain from 1475 
 to 1895 — Ratio in Portugal from 1510 to 1891— Stable ratio under 
 Roman Empire — Evil effects of private coinage — Results of closing 
 mints to silver. 
 
 The coinage ratios of silver to gold in the Gothic 
 and Saxon States, the Moslem States, England, Scan- 
 dinavia, the Netherlands and Germany have been shown 
 in their appropriate chapters. To complete the subject 
 it only remains to adduce the ratios in India, Rome, 
 Spain and Portugal.' 
 
 At the earliest period of which we have any positive 
 knowledge the coinage ratio in the Orient was 6 or 6i 
 for I, whilst at the same time it was 13 for i in Persia. 
 Down to the epoch of Mahomet it seems to have been 
 the policy of every state in the West, which secured 
 any important share of the Eastern trade, to value its 
 gold coins at twice the quantity of silver for which 
 they exchanged in the Orient. Such was the case with 
 Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Macedon, Egypt under the 
 Ptolemies, and Imperial Rome. It is evident that no 
 such enormous disparity of value as this could have 
 been maintained if private coinage had been permitted, 
 either in the Orient or Occident. Neither could any 
 small or weak state have upheld such a condition of 
 affairs. -The control of money and trade must have 
 been in very powerful hands to maintain gold in the 
 West at twice its value in the East, or silver in the East 
 at twice its value in the West. Whose hands were 
 these? The answer is, the priesthood; the priests of 
 
 I The coinage ratios in China, Japan, Persia, Assyria, Judea, Egypt, 
 Greece, the Italian States, France, Austro-Hungary, Russia, and some 
 of the American States are given in my former works. 
 
 393 
 
394 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 Brama or Budha in the East, the priests of Cyrus, 
 Darius, Tiglath-pil-Esar, Nebu-Nazaru, Osiris, Alex- 
 ander, Ptolemy and the Caesars in the West. With the 
 advent of Mahomet all this changed, the priests of the 
 West lost their power, and the same ratio prevailed at 
 Delhi, Bagdad and Cordova. When Rome resumed 
 her sway over the long-lost province of Spain the East- 
 ern ratio entirely disappeared from the coinages of 
 Europe; when her emissaries reached India it began 
 to fade from the Orient. To-day the ratio of Caesar, as 
 modified by the legislation of Charles V., Philip V. 
 and Louis XVI., dominates the monetary system of 
 every state in the world. 
 
 Ratio of Silver to Gold in India. 
 
 Year. 
 
 Ratio. 
 
 Remarks. 
 
 1650 
 1367 
 
 521 
 
 332 
 312 
 
 A. D. 
 
 400 
 629 
 
 4 
 5 
 6 
 
 6X 
 
 Archaic epoch. Inference deduced from the use 
 of electrum coins composed of gold and silver. 
 Gibbon ('Misc. Worlcs," vol. iii., p. 420) says 
 the commonest ratio in remote times was i := i. 
 Agatharchides; Strabo, lib. xvi., c. 18; and Del 
 Mar, "Hist. P. M.," p. 239. Chabas ("Re- 
 searches on the Papyrus of Boulak")says \% = i 
 in Egypt. 
 
 Vedic epoch. Inference deduced from quaternary 
 tale relations in the Vedas, noticed by Thomas 
 ("P. K. D.,"p. 4). 
 
 Braminical epoch. Pococke. Inference deduced 
 from quinquennial tale relations of moneys in 
 Braminical scriptures. 
 
 First Budhic epoch. Prinsep. From weights of 
 coins, Leon Faucher deduces ratios of 2j^ and 
 6@S for I. 
 
 Second Budhic epoch. India (valley of the 
 Indus) plundered by Darius Hystaspes. Persian 
 ratio 13 for i. Herodotus, Sir A. Cunningham, 
 p. 5, says 8 for i in India, but I think"he is mis- 
 taken. 
 
 India (valley of the Indus) plundered by Alex- 
 ander. Alexandrine (Egyptian) ratio iz>^ 
 for I. 
 
 India (valley of the Indus) plundered by Selencus 
 Nicanor, Epiphanes. 
 
 Fahian mentions gold, silver, and copper coins and 
 
 cowries in India. 
 Hiuen Tsiang mentions gold, silver, and copper 
 
 coins in India (Beal, i., 54). 
 
STATISTICS OF THE RATIO 
 
 39S 
 
 Year. 
 
 A. D. 
 700 
 
 Ratio. 
 
 1587 
 
 1599 
 
 1 601 
 
 1620 
 
 e% 
 
 1 150 
 
 8 
 
 1290 
 
 4@io 
 
 1295 
 
 7(? 
 
 1324 
 
 7@8 
 
 I35I 
 
 (>% 
 
 1398 
 
 7 
 
 1450 
 
 7 
 
 1498 . 
 
 6@8 
 
 1510 
 
 &y? 
 
 1520 
 
 6@8 
 
 1542 
 
 9 
 
 1545 
 
 9 
 
 1553 
 
 9% 
 
 9.0 
 
 Remarks. 
 
 India plundered by the Moslem, whose raids ex- 
 tended a. D. 698-1001. This is the period when 
 the latest alterations are believe;d to have been 
 made in the Code of Manu. Its tale relations 
 of coins are chiefly octonary. 
 
 Delhi. "Middle Ages Revisited," ch. xi., note 
 39A. 
 
 Marco Polo. Ratios prevailing in places on his 
 route, the highest being at the seaports of 
 China ("Middle Ages Revisited," ch. xi., note 
 39a). 
 
 Jul-al-ad-din mohurs, 163.8 grains fine; later ones, 
 154.84 grains fine (Harrison). 
 
 Mahomet-bin-Tuglak. Thomas ("P. K. D.," pp. 
 
 232-7). 
 
 Firoz-Shah. Tale relations octonary. Eight silver 
 adalis 140 grains fine = one gold mohur 175 
 grains fine; a ratio of 6% for i. 
 
 India plundered by Timur or Tamerlane the Tar- 
 tar. 
 
 Bahlol-Lodi. Reduction of the silver tanka to 
 56 grains (Cunningham, 24). 
 
 Voyage of Vasco de Gama ("Hist. Money Anc," 
 p. 106). 
 
 Native ratio at Goa between gold huns and silver 
 bargaus. 
 
 Coasts of India plundered by Portuguese, Dutch, 
 and French ("Hist. Mon. Anc," p. 106). 
 
 Sher Shah. Earliest arrivals of silver from Ameri- 
 ca. Rupee 174-4 grains nearly fine. (Har- 
 rison; Thomas, "P. K. D.," p. 5, says 178 grains; 
 
 elsewhere 175 grains). 
 
 Regular silver shipments from Acapulco, about 
 ;f 200, 000 a year. 
 
 Akbar the Great, Grand Mogul. Rupees 170^ 
 grains fine (Harrison). Private coinage inter- 
 dicted. Seigniorage i'/z per cent. For ratio 
 and seigniorage, "P. K. D.,'' 424-6. 
 
 East India Companies formed. Portuguese, 1587;^ 
 Dutch, 1595; English, 1599; the last incorporated, 
 1613. 
 
 Queen Elizabeth refuses permission to the East 
 India Company to circulate Spanish coins in 
 India, and requires them to use coins with the 
 royal effigy. Hence the "portcullis" coins. 
 Portcullis" silver coins, viz. dollars, halves, 
 quarters, and eighths, struck in London by the 
 Crown for the East India Company for use in 
 India. A few years later, similar coins were 
 struckof gold (Humphreys, "Coin Manual," pp. 
 461, 524; Harrison; Thurston). 
 
 East India Company mint erected at Madras, 
 which strikes "three-swamy" or Laksmi pa- 
 godas, by permission of the native Rajah (Har^ 
 rison; Thurston). 
 
396 
 
 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 Year. 
 
 ' A. D. 
 1639 
 
 1655 
 
 i666 
 167 1 
 1677 
 
 1697 
 
 Ratio. 
 
 1739 
 
 IO@II 
 
 1749 
 
 10. 
 
 1759 
 
 10. 
 
 1766 
 
 16.4 
 
 1769 
 
 14.8 
 
 1774 
 
 15.0 
 
 1793 
 
 14.8 
 
 1800 
 
 15.0 
 
 I8I8 
 
 15.0 
 
 1821 
 
 14.8 
 
 1821 
 
 13-9 
 
 1821 
 
 iS-o 
 
 1833 
 
 15.0 
 
 Remarks. 
 
 Private coinage suggested in the Star Chamber of 
 England. 
 
 Cromwell destroys the East India Company's 
 charter, but is compelled to renew it. 
 
 Private coinage authorized in England,i8 Chas. II., 
 ch. 5. 
 
 East India Company's mint erected at Bombay 
 (Poole; Harrison says 1678). 
 
 East India Company authorized by the British 
 Crown to coin gold, silver, copper, or lead, with its 
 own devices. 
 
 Auranzib, Grand Mogul. Ratio deduced from 
 materials in Gibbon. Gold coins of this em- 
 peror competed in the circulation with the native 
 gold buns of Southern India. Both were oi 
 the same contents. 
 
 India plundered by Nadir Shah, of Persia. 
 
 India plundered by the East India Company (Tay- 
 lor's "Hist. India;" Partington's Encycl., art. 
 "East India Company"). 
 
 Wm. Winfred Webb, "Currencies of Rajputana," 
 T893. 
 
 New monetary system of East India Company. 
 Mohur, 149.72 grains fine, valued at 14 sicca 
 rupees, 175.0 to I7S-8 grains fine, both full legal- 
 tenders. 
 
 Mohnrs, 190.086 grains fine, valued at 16 sicca 
 rupees, 175 to 175.8 grains fine; both full legal- 
 tenders. 
 
 Bombay mohurs and rupees of same weight, the 
 former 0.9926 fine (same as Venetian sequin), 
 making the ratio (nearly) 15 for t (Kelly's "Cam- 
 bist," i., p. 94). 
 
 Silver coins sole legal-tenders. Mohurs 189.4 grains 
 fine, valued at 16 rupees, 175.9 grains fine. Ratio 
 14.86 for I. Harrison says 14.81. 
 
 Bombay mohur of 164.68 grains fine, valued at 15 
 Lucknow rnpees of same weight and fineness; 
 both coins fell legal-tenders. 
 
 Mohurs, 187.65 grains fine,valued at 16 sicca rupees, 
 175.9 grains fine, both coins full legal-tenders 
 (Harrison). Mohurs, 165 grains fine, valued at 
 15 Company rupees of same contents (Kelly, i., 
 p. 91; ii., p. 147). 
 
 Bengal. Mohur and sicca rupee, mint regulation, 
 14.857 for i; assay ratio, 14.827 for i (Kelly, ii., 
 
 P- 147)- 
 Madras. Star pagoda and current rupee, mint 
 
 regulation, 13.872 for i; assay ratio, 13.857 for t 
 
 (Kelly, ii.,p. 147). 
 Bombay. Gold rupee and silver rupee, mint 
 
 regulation and assay ratio give like results. 
 
 (Kelly, ii.,p. 147). 
 September ist. Silver coins sole legal-tenders 
 
STATISTICS OF THE RATIO 
 
 397 
 
 Year. 
 
 Ratio. 
 
 Remarks. 
 
 A. D. 
 
 
 throughout all British India. Mohurs, 165 grains 
 fine, valued at 13 rupees, same contents. 
 
 1838 
 
 iS.o 
 
 January ist. Demonetization and withdrawal of 
 sicca rupees. * 
 
 I84I 
 
 iS.o 
 
 Gold and silver coins both full legal-tenders. 
 
 1832 
 
 15.0 
 
 Silver coins sole legal-tenders. 
 
 1858 
 
 150 
 
 The British Crown resumes its prerogative of the 
 government of India. End of the East India 
 Company. 
 
 1863 
 
 15.0 
 
 First systematic issues of paper money. 
 
 1893 
 
 1S.0 
 
 June 23rd. Individual coinage of silver suspended, 
 the outstanding silver rupees remaining full legal- 
 tenders. 
 
 Some of the "portcullis" coins mentioned under the 
 year 1601 were testoons and other base issues of Edward 
 VI., countermarked with a portcullis. (Proc. London 
 Num. Soc, April 25, 1895.) 
 
 The Roman Ratio. 
 
 Year. 
 
 Ratio. 
 
 Remarks. 
 
 B.C. 
 
 316 
 
 9 
 
 Scrupulum coinage. 
 
 268 
 
 10 
 
 Ogulnius and Fabius, Consuls. 
 
 218 
 
 10 
 
 Second Punic War. 
 
 206 
 
 10 
 
 Claudius and Livius, Consuls. 
 
 78 
 
 9 
 
 Sylla. Social Wars. 
 
 4S 
 
 12 
 
 Julius Caesar, sovereign-pontiff. 
 
 13 
 
 12 
 
 Augustus Caesar, sovereign-pontiff. From the 
 Julian era no change was made in the ratio to 
 the Fall of the Empire in 1204, during the whole 
 of which time it remained fixed at 12 silver for 
 I gold. 
 
 A.D. 
 
 
 
 1204 
 
 12 
 
 Alexis IV., sovereign-pontiff. Fall of the Empire. 
 
 Turning from the ratio within the Empire, which was 
 always 12 for i, to the ratio without, we have seen that 
 down to the eleventh or twelfth century the ratio in the 
 Orient and in the Moslem kingdoms of the Levant and 
 Spain was 6^ for i ; in the Gothic or semi-Gothic 
 States — e. g. the Netherlands, Denmark and Scan- 
 dinavia — it Was 8 for i ; and in Britain (with certain 
 exceptions), Germany (before and after the Carlovin- 
 gian rule), and France, 8 to 10 for i. 
 
398 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 The following tables'of the ratio in Spain and Portu- 
 gal are recensions of my former essa5's on this subject. 
 They are given in this place in order to embrace all 
 the information which the author has been enabled to 
 collect down to the present-time. 
 
 The ratio in Roman Spain was 12 for i; in Gothic 
 Spain, 8 for i ; in Moslem Spain, down to the reign 
 of Abd-el-Raman III., 6i for i. After that period it 
 began to again yield to the influence of the Roman 
 ratio, which by this time was re-established in the 
 neighboring State of France (Edict of Charles the 
 Bald). Meanwhile the petty Gothic kingdoms of 
 Northern Spain had adopted the Moslem ratio. For a 
 time the greatest confusion prevailed, but this finally 
 ended with the general adoption of the Roman ratio 
 by the Christian princes of Spain. In the twelfth cen- 
 tury Pope Innocent III. ordered the king of Aragon 
 (Pedro II.) to restore his (silver) coins, a fact that 
 evinces the papal desire to exercise the prerogative of 
 money. In the reign of James I. of Aragon the ratio 
 was 12. After the Fall of Constantinople the ratio 
 again fell into confusion, the Moslem princes usually 
 coining at 7 or 8, and the Christians at 9 or 10 for i ; but 
 there was no uniformity in each class by itself. In the 
 fifteenth century Henry IV. coined at >ji for i.' By 
 this time the Moslem power was near its end, and its 
 influence upon the ratio almost lost. The following 
 table shows the Spanish ratio from 1475 downward: 
 I "Mon. and Civ.," p. loi; from Saez, 
 
1545 
 1546 
 1565 
 1580 
 i6o8 
 1611 
 1641 
 1650 
 1675) 
 to [ 
 
 1734 I 
 
 1760 
 
 1765 
 
 177s 
 1779 
 1786 
 1821 
 1864 
 1868 
 
 1876 
 
 1S90 
 1893 
 
 10.755 
 
 13-333 
 
 13333 
 
 13-333 
 
 13 333 
 
 13833 
 
 14.0 
 
 15-0 
 
 16.0 j 
 
 14.25 
 
 14.875 
 
 15-536 
 
 15-875 
 
 16.380 
 
 16.0 
 
 15.476 
 
 15-5 
 
 15-5 
 
 15-5 
 15-5 
 
 EdicT bi ivj e uiu a. 
 
 Expulsion of vast numbers of the Moors. 
 
 Silver permitfed to be coined in America, subject 
 to the Quinto tax. 
 
 Oriental ratios raised generally from 6^ to 10. 
 
 American bullion now chiefly silver. 
 
 One-fifth of American product sent direct to Asia, 
 
 Gold coinage forbidden in America. 
 
 Gold coinage permitted in America, 
 
 A million of Moors expelled from Spain. 
 
 Locke, on "Money." 
 
 White's "Report to the U. S. Congress." 
 
 Harris (ii., 122) notices change of ratio, Spain 
 loses control of ratio and adopts the Portuguese 
 ratio. In 1734 silver coins 6 per cent premium, 
 
 French ratio 1726 to 1785 was 14.46 for i. 
 
 Calonne. 
 
 Calonne says 14.875; a blunder. 
 
 Some coinages show ratio of 15.85, 
 
 First change since 1821. 
 
 Figuerola Law, October 19, following the Latin 
 Monetary Union. 
 
 Decree of August 20th, suspending "free" coinage 
 of silver, and announcing the intention to limit 
 silver legal-tender to 150 pesetas. Actual cur- 
 rency, inconvertible bank paper, i>^ per cent 
 under silver and 3 per cent under gold. 
 
 The ratio merely nominal; bank paper filling the 
 circulation. 
 
 Same. 
 
 The Ratio in Portugal, 
 
 Year. 
 
 Ratio. 
 
 Remarks, 
 
 A. D. 
 1510 
 1545 
 
 1580 
 164I 
 1668 
 1688 
 1722 
 1747 
 
 11,0 
 13-3 
 
 . 13-3 
 14.0 
 16.0 
 16.0 
 15-9 
 13-3 
 
 Bullion trade opened at Goa. Indian ratio 6^. 
 Trade opened with Japan, where the ratio was 
 
 8 4-10. 
 From 1580 to 1640 Portugal belonged to Spain, 
 Spanish ratio. 
 
 War with Spain ended in 1665. 
 Edict of August 4th. 
 
 Standard lowered from 0.916% to o.goS. 
 Weight of silver coins lowered . 
 
400 
 
 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 Year. 
 
 Ratio. 
 
 Remarks. 
 
 A.D. 
 1797 
 
 12.0 
 
 Suspension of coin payments 1797. 
 
 1798 
 
 13-3 
 
 Restoration of the coin weights of 1747. 
 
 1802 
 
 13-2 
 
 Slight variations of standard in coin assays. 
 
 1808 
 
 13.2 
 
 Do. do. 
 
 1811 
 
 13.3 
 
 Do. do. 
 
 1822 
 
 15-9 
 
 Lowering of gold coins in weight. 
 
 1834 
 
 15-9 
 
 — 
 
 1835 
 
 15.9 
 
 — 
 
 1838 
 
 153 
 
 Lowering of the silver coins in weight. 
 
 1847 
 
 16.4 
 
 Further lowering of the gold coins. 
 
 1854 
 
 14.2 
 
 Silver limited to 5 milreis legal-tender. 
 
 1880 
 
 14.1 
 
 No further change of legal-tender law. 
 
 189I 
 
 14.1 
 
 Suspension of coin payments Ratio merely 
 nominal. 
 
 It will be remarked that as, one after another, the 
 Western states fell under the sway of Rome, whether 
 the lord of that Empire was pagan or Christian, their 
 coining or valuing ratios obeyed the Roman rule of 12 
 for I, and never stirred from it until the Empire fell. 
 With that event order and regularity disappeared. 
 Every prince coined for himself, and often with little 
 regard for his neighbor. The consequence was the 
 wildest dissonance of the ratio. It is abundantly evi- 
 dent from the events of the period that this evil would 
 soon have cured itself. The German princes entered 
 into numerous conventions to harmonize their diverse 
 systems. At quite an early period in the history of 
 England as an independent state her sovereigns also 
 made several attempts of this character, until in an evil 
 moment Charles II. threw all these efforts away by 
 flinging his gieat prerogative to the money-changers. 
 
 However, their control of money in its larger, its 
 political sense, is drawing to an end. They have em- 
 ployed the lever of private coinage to enhance gold and 
 depress silver, until now the former stands at double 
 and the latter at half its former value. But something 
 else has also happened; the doors of the world's silver 
 mints have been shut in their faces; and in the limited 
 
STATISTICS OF THE RATIO 4OI 
 
 silver coinages of the various states, the customary ratio 
 of 15 or 16 to I has been maintained without alteration 
 ("Etalon boiteux"). If the common belief of mining 
 men throughout the world is well founded, namely, that 
 owing to the attraction of open mints, silver has hither- 
 to been produced from the mines at a loss,^ then it fol- 
 lows that the closure of the mints to silver and the 
 relinquishment of unprofitable mining will sooner or 
 later not merely restore silver to its former value, but 
 enhance it to a point where, as was the case thirty 
 years ago, gold at the customary ratio fell to a dis- 
 count in the twin metal. 
 
 I Ample testimony supporting this opinion will be found in the author's 
 "History of the Precious Metals," chap. xxix. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 BANK SUSPENSIONS SINCE THE ERA OF PRIVATE COINAGE 
 
 Suspensions of Bank of England^Samuel Bernard — Bank of France — 
 Bank of Venice — Bank of Stockholm — Bank of Copenhagen — Bank 
 of Austria — Bank of Russia — United States Banks — Caisse d'Escomjite 
 — Bank of Amsterdam — Bank of Ireland — Bank of Portugal — Bank 
 of Genoa — Banks of Prussia — Specie Banks of Copenhagen — 
 Pontifical Banks — Banks of Brazil — Country Banks in England — 
 Argentine Confederation Banks — Banks of Issue in Ireland — Bank 
 of San Carlo — English Private Banks — Banks in Papal States — 
 Banks of Brazil — Planters' Bank — Bank of the United States — 
 Turkey — Russia — Peru — Argentine — State Banks of Unifed States 
 — Sonta & Co., of Brazil — Overend, Gurney & Co. — Banca Romana 
 —Austrian Banks — Bank of Spain — Bank of France — Baring 
 Brothers — Bank of Portugal. 
 
 Suspensions of banks of issue under the system of 
 private coinage and of private issues of circulating 
 tiotes: 
 
 1696. Bank of England stopped payment of its notes 
 two years after it started (McCulloch, "Diet. Com.," 
 ed. 1844). Resumed 1698. 
 
 1 7 14. Philip V. stopped payment of his treasury 
 bills and caused the failure of Samuel Bernard, the 
 principal banker in Europe. 
 
 1717. Bank of France stopped payment and scaled 
 its prodigious issues down to a mere fraction of their 
 face value ("Mon. and Civ.," p. 238). 
 
 1 7 1 7. Bank of Venice failed before it became a bank 
 of issue; it stopped payment again this year when it 
 was a bank of issue. 
 
 1718. Bank of Stockholm stopped payment of its 
 issues. 
 
 402 
 
BANK SUSPENSIONS UNDER PRIVATE COINAGE 4O3 
 
 1745. Run on the Bank of England thwarted by 
 the device of paying in shillings and sixpence (McCul- 
 loch, 78). 
 
 1745. Bank of Copenhagen stopped payment of its 
 issues. 
 
 1762. Bank of Austria stopped paynaent of its 
 issues. 
 
 1766. Money of India changed from copper and 
 b]|tllon to silver, causing a great withdrawal of silver 
 money from Russia, Scandinavia, the Netherlands, 
 England, etc., and many bank failures in those coun- 
 tries, 
 
 1768. Bank of Russia (originally Bank of Assignats) 
 stopped payment of its issues; 1796, stopped again; 
 resumed in 1843 at the rate of one silver rouble for ^i 
 paper; stopped payment again in 1854 and has not 
 since resumed. The circulating money of Russia at 
 the present time consists entirely of inconvertible paper 
 notes and base silver and copper coins. 
 
 1775. Bank failures in the United States. 
 
 1783. France. The Caisse d'Escompte stopped 
 payment ot its issues; in 1787 it stopped again; in 1793 
 the National Convention swept it out of existence, and 
 supplanted its dishonored notes with assignats ("Mon. 
 and Civ.," p. 243). 
 
 1789. Bank failures in France. 
 
 1790. The Bank of Amsterdam, which was popu- 
 larly supposed to have a coin behind every one of its 
 issues, a belief in which Adam Smith concurred, was 
 discovered to be destitute of any coin reserve whatever, 
 and hopelessly insolvent. 
 
 1793. One-third of all the English banks of issues 
 stopped payment (McCulloch). 
 
 1796. Bank of Russia stopped (see 1768.) 
 
404 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 1797. Scarcity of silver coins in England relieved 
 by the issue of Spanish dollars and other silver coins 
 countermarked or minted by the Bank. 
 
 1797. February 26th. The Bank of England stopped 
 payment of its issues for twenty-four years, when it 
 commenced^o redeem its own notes at a discount. 
 During the process of redemption, England, being a 
 creditor State, drew so heavily upon the stocks of coins 
 in other States as to compel their banks also to stop 
 payment. This occurred in almost every State in 
 Europe and America. In short, the perturbation caused 
 by the change from copper to silver money in India 
 lasted until the opening of California,a period of nearly 
 ninety years. 
 
 1797. Bank of Ireland stopped payment of its issues 
 (McCulIoch). 
 
 1797. Bank of Portugal stopped payment of its 
 issues ("Mon. and Civ., "p. 138), 
 
 1797. Bank of Venice stopped payment of its issues. 
 This was its third failure (see above). The bank was 
 finally wound up in 1808 ("Mon. and Civ.," p. 36). 
 
 1798. The euphemistic character of the term "free 
 coinage," when applied to the coinage of England 
 under the Act of 1666 (this being virtually a monopoly 
 of the Bank), is thus exemplified by Mr. Hawkins: — 
 "In the year 1798, in consequence of the extreme 
 scarcity of silver money, Messrs. Dorrien and Magens 
 sent a quantity of bullion to the Mint to be coined, ac- 
 cording to the law, which had never been repealed, 
 b}' which it was enacted that any one sending bullion 
 to the Mint might have it coined into money upon the 
 payment of certain dues. The whole was actually 
 coined into shillings, . . . but the very day on 
 which the bankers were by appointment to have re- 
 
BANK SUSPENSIONS UNDER PRIVATE COINAGE 405 
 
 ceived the coin, an Order of Council was received com- 
 manding it all to be melted, upon the ground that the 
 proceeding had been irregular, and that no coinage 
 was lawful without the sanction of royal proclamation. 
 Very few indeed of these pieces escaped the crucible. 
 Specimens, however, exist in the collection of the 
 British Museum." 
 
 1800. Bank of Austria, originally Bank of Vienna, 
 stopped payment of its issues. In 1810 an abortive 
 attempt was made to "resume" in "redemption notes" 
 at 3 for I; iSio, abortive resumption in "anticipation 
 notes" at 5 for i ; 86, the newly established Bank of 
 Austria bought up the now demonetized "anticipation 
 notes" at their market value. In the midst of this opera- 
 tion the new bank suspended coin payments ("Money 
 and Civilization," p. 333). Resumed in 1824, when 
 the remaining "anticipation notes" were retired at 2^ 
 for I. 1848. Suspension of coin payments, which 
 still continues, the currency of Austria consisting en- 
 tirely of paper notes and minor silver and copper coins. 
 Preparations are now (1895) being made to "resume" 
 with gold coins. With this professed object a loan of 
 £40,000,000 gold is announced to have been negotiated 
 with the Rothschilds. 
 
 1800. Bank of Genoa (or House of St. George) 
 stopped payment of its issues. It had been a bank of • 
 issue since 1673 ("Money and Civilization," p 40). a. 
 
 1801. Germany. The Banks of Prussia and many 
 other states stopped payment of their issues in conse- 
 quence of the losses and apprehensions occasioned by 
 the Napoleonic wars. This monetary disturbance on 
 the Continent was soon after reflected in England and 
 America. 
 
 1804. Judging from the issuance of Spanish dollars 
 
406 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 countermaiked "Bank of England, 1804," and "Five- 
 shilling dollar," the royal prerogative of coinage ap- 
 pears to have been again exercised by the Bank. 
 
 1804; Specie-Bank of Copenhagen stopped payment 
 of its issues. 
 
 1810. Hundreds of banks stopped payment of their 
 issues in England, the United States and other com- 
 mercial states ; the consequence of monetary disturbance 
 on the Continent. 
 
 181 1. July nth. The Bank of England again ex- 
 ercised the royal prerogative by striking 3s. and is. 6d. 
 silver coins. Legend, "Georgius III., Dei Gratia Rex. 
 
 , . . Bank token, 3s., 1811" (to 1816). Gross 
 weight 227 English grains. (Keary's Herifrejr, p. 264). 
 
 1816. British mints closed to the private coinage of 
 silver, unless reopened by royal proclamation. No 
 such proclamation was issued down to 1870. 
 
 1814 — 1819 — 1825. During this period nearly all the 
 private banks of issue in the United States stopped pay- 
 ment, owing to the drain of coins to supply the Bank of 
 England. Reports of Gallatin and Crawford, Secre- 
 taries of the Treasury. 
 
 1820. Ecclesiastical States. The pontifical banks, 
 Dello Spirito Santo and Monte di Pieta, stopped pay- 
 ment of their issues, owing to the drain of metal to 
 England. All payments above 5 scudi were made in 
 the inconvertible (legal-tender) notes of these institu- 
 tions, which were at a discount in coins. 
 
 1 82 1. Bank of Brazil stopped payment of its issues 
 ("Money and Civilization,'' p. 155). 
 
 /^ 1825. To save itself from the discredit of having to 
 again "suspend," the Bank of England issued as 
 money a million of S.\ and £2 ffotes accidentally found 
 in a box (McCulloch, "Diet. Com.," p. 81). 
 
BANK SUSPENSIONS UNDER PRIVATE COINAGE 407 
 
 1825. Seventy country banks in England stopped 
 payment of their issues. 
 
 1826. Above a hundred country banks in England 
 stopped payment. The Duke of Wellington, who was 
 in the Cabinet , this year, said that but for the strenu- 
 ous exertions of the Rothschilds the Bank must have 
 stopped payment ("'Notes of Conversations with the 
 Duke of Wellington," by Philip, fifth earl of Stanhope, 
 p. 211). 
 
 1826. Argentine Confederation (La Plata). All the 
 banks stopped payment of their issues. In 1866 "re- 
 sumption" takes place at 25 for i ; 1876, suspension of 
 resumption; 1 881, resumption of "resumption ;" 1891, 
 suspension of resumption. At the present time (1895) 
 the currency of the Argentine consists entirely of in- 
 convertible paper notes, with minor coins for small 
 change. 
 
 1828. Between 1804 and this year all but eight of the 
 banks of issue in Ireland (about fifty in number) stopped 
 payment (Sir H. Parnell, "Observations on Paper 
 Money"). 
 
 1829. Spain, July 9th. Bank of San Carlo stopped 
 payment of its issues ("Money and Civilization," p. 
 117). 
 
 1830. Between 1809 and 1830, 311 English private 
 and provincial banks stopped payment (McCulloch, p. 
 95). The report of the Secret Committee appointed 
 by the House of Commons in 1836 showed a most dis- 
 graceful state of affairs (McCulloch, p. 96). 
 
 1834. Bank of England notes made legal-tender (ex- 
 cept from the Bank) for all sums above £5 (McCul- 
 loch). 
 
 1835. Banks in' the Papal States suspended (Kelly, 
 
 p. 293). 
 
408 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 1835. Brazil. All the banks stopped payment of 
 their issues, and have never since resumed. The cur- 
 rency of Brazil consists entirely of paper notes, with 
 nickel and copper coins for small change. 
 
 1837. About May ist. Louisiana. Planters' Bank 
 stopped payment of its issues, and caused the failure 
 of J. L. and S. I. Joseph, agents for the'Rothschilds in 
 New York. The stoppage of this great house, with as- 
 sets aggregating over seven million dollars, precipi- 
 tated the fall of all the banks in the United States. 
 
 1837. May 10-16. United States. The removal of 
 the government deposits from the banks, the enforce- 
 ment of Ihe law requiring collectors of the revenue to 
 refuse all except government money, and the failure of 
 the Josephs precipitated a crisis, in which fell the (sec- 
 ond) Bank of the United States (a private bank with 
 governmental patronage), together with about eight 
 hundred branches and country banks, all of which 
 stopped payment of their issues. 
 
 1839. After a temporary resumption, the Bank of the 
 United States, and with it all the country banks, stopped 
 again. General resumption took place about 1845; but 
 the effects of this wide-spread disaster were observable 
 for more than twenty years. 
 
 1841. United States. Out of the convulsion of 1837 
 the Bank of the United States was the first to raise its 
 head (1839), but it failed again, and finally', in 1841, 
 when the government withdrew its patronage. 
 
 1842. United States. Between 183d' and 1842 no 
 fewer than 311 banks of issue succumbed in the United 
 States, precisely the same number as failed in England 
 between 1809 and i83o(see above) (McCulloch, p. 114). 
 
 1847. England. Run on Bank of England. October 
 25th, Bank Act suspended. 
 
BANK SUSPENSIONS UNDER PRIVATE COINAGE 4O9 
 
 1848. Bank of France Stopped payment of its issues 
 (Tooke, "Hist. Prices," vi,, p. 48; "Mon. Civ.," p. 
 264). 
 
 1848. Bank of Austria stopped payment of its issues 
 (see above). 
 
 1848. England. Numerous English provincial banks 
 stopped coin payments (Morier Evans). 
 
 1850, Buenos Ayres. All the banks stopped pay- 
 ment. 
 
 1853. Russia stopped payment (see above, sub anno 
 1768). 
 
 1854. Turkey stopped payment. 
 
 1857. England. Commercial panic and run on the 
 Bank of England. November 12th the Bank Act 
 again suspended. 
 
 1857. United States. In consequence of the panic 
 in London, and the withdrawal of metal to support the 
 Bank of England, nearly every private bank of issue in 
 the United States was compelled to "suspend." How- 
 ever, in the course of a few months they all resumed 
 again. "^^ C^Kcr^C t^t^' Ai-^vWc' ttnJ^( ■•^^^1 ■4v>^Ajt^'*i"t 
 
 1857. Peru and Argentine stopped payment. 
 
 1861. United States. In April, 1861, the Civil 
 War broke out; in August the Federal government 
 borrowed from the private banks chartered under state 
 laws $50,000,000 — coin; on December 28, 1861 (so 
 little coin was there left in the country), the most im- 
 portant of these banks stopped coin payment of their 
 issues, whereupon all the rest (some 1800 in number) 
 followed suit. The combined circulation of these banks, 
 of which not one-fifth was ever redeemed, amounted to 
 over $400,000,000. The existing private banks of issue, 
 called "National" banks, were chartered by the Federal 
 government under the Act of 1864, and their issues are 
 
4IO HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 secured by a deposit of government stock with the 
 Treasurer of the United States. 
 
 1864. Failure of Souta & Co., of Rio Janeiro. 
 This precipitated the failure of the Bank of Brazil and 
 several other Brazilian (private) banks of issue. Where- 
 upon the government took the note issues into its own 
 hands. There have since been no failures ("Mon. and 
 Civ.," p. 159). 
 
 1866. May loth. England. Failure of Overend, 
 Gurney & Co., Limited. A commercial panic oc- 
 curred in London on the following day. 
 
 1866. Italy. During the war with Austria the Ital- 
 ian treasury and banks stopped payment in coin, the 
 former issuing corso forzali, in which the latter re- 
 deemed their issues. In 1876 Italy borrowed £16,000,- 
 000 in gold, with which to resume coin payments. By 
 the year 1893 this money found its way out of the coun- 
 try; a number of banks, including the Banca Romana, 
 failed; and to-day there is but little money to be seen 
 in circulation besides inconvertible paper and minor sil- 
 ver and copper coins. 
 
 1866. Austrian banks suspended payment. 
 
 1868. Spain. The Republic adopted the Figuerola 
 law, similar to that of the Latin Union, although it was 
 opposed by the Bank of Spain. So far as the coinage 
 of gold is concerned, it was never carried out. The 
 monarchy was restored under Amadeo in 1870 ; it fell 
 in 1873, and a new Republic was set up in 1874, where- 
 upon the Bank of Spain stopped coin payment of its is- 
 sues. Since resumed in silver. 
 
 1870. Bank of France suspended coin payment of 
 its issues ("Mon. and Civ.," p. 264). Resumed in gold, 
 1880. 
 
 1873. September i8th. Panic in New York, owing 
 
BANK SUSPENSIONS UNDER PRIVATE COINAGE 4x1 
 
 to greenback coDtraction. Temporary suspension of 
 coin or other legal-tender payments bj;^ over two thoii- 
 sand banks throughout the United States. The Treas- 
 ury issued twenty million dollars of additional green- 
 backs, the panic was allayed, and the banks "resumed" 
 (^in greenbacks) soon -afterward. 
 
 1874. Suspension of the Bank of Spain (see above). 
 
 1875. August 3rd. The banks of Peru suspended 
 coin payment of their issues. 
 
 1875. Turkey suspended. 
 
 1876. May 6th. Argentina. General suspension of 
 all the banks. Gold coins 30 per cent premium in "re- 
 demption" notes; since increased to 250 per cent pre- 
 mium. 
 
 1878. City of Glasgow and West of England banks 
 stopped coin payments. 
 
 1885. Greece suspended 
 
 1890. November. Baring Brothers, one of the 
 principal bankers and the largest bill-drawers in the 
 world, stopped payment. This caused a wide-spread 
 panic, in which numerous banking institutions fell both 
 in England and other countries. 
 
 1890. December. The demands on the Bank of 
 England caused the public discussion of a "Restriction 
 Order," or suspension of the Bank Act. The crisis 
 was allayed by the timely loan of £3,000,000 gold from 
 the Bank of France, influenced by the Rothschilds. 
 
 1891. Bank of Portugal stopped coin payments of 
 its issues. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 EXISTING MONETARY SYSTEMS. 
 
 France and the Latin Union — Germany — Great Britain — Portugal and 
 Brazil— Scandinavia — Japan — History of Financial Legislation in 
 the United States — Holland — Italy — Spain — Russia — Austro-Hun- 
 gary — Turkey — British India — China — Argentine Republic — Chili 
 
 France and the Latin Union.' — A conference between 
 "the four states whose monetary system rests on a nu- 
 meration by francs," viz., France, Belgium, Switzer- 
 land and Italy, resulted in the Latin Monetary Union 
 of December 23rd,- 1865, taking effect August ist, 1866. 
 It provided for uniform coins; the unlimited private 
 coinage of gold coins and of silver 5-franc pieces, both 
 0.900 fine, both to be full legal-tenders; and for a re- 
 stricted coinage of subsidiary silver pieces 0.835 ^"^ 
 with a legal-tender limit of 50 francs. "Unlimited 
 private coinage for nothing, or at brassage, logically 
 means one metal, and that one metal means the dearer 
 one, on account of the higher ad valorem cost of (not 
 the charge for) coining the cheaper one. Accordingly, 
 when the international delegates met again (June 17th, 
 1867), although the convention was called ostensibly 
 only to unify the coinages, it discussed the entire mone- 
 tary question, and, as the natural result of a discussion 
 which omitted all reference to- the origin, history and 
 operation of the British Act of 1666, carried a resolu- 
 tion in favor of what is called gold monometallism."' 
 This resolution was soon afterwards engrafted upon 
 the legislation of the States which agreed to the Latin 
 
 I "Money and Civilization,'' p 275, where a full account appears of the 
 origin and progress of this movement. 
 
 412 
 
EXISTING MONETARY SYSTEMS 4I3 
 
 Union, in the shape of a Naw Mint Code, which now 
 (1867) included the States of the Church, Greece and 
 Roumania; whilst efforts were made to popularize it in 
 Great Britain, Germany and the United States.' In 
 1873, after the Franco-Prussian war (and, as it was 
 pretended, in reply to the previous gold monometallic 
 legislation of Germany in 1871, for which see below), 
 France and the Latin Union limited the (State) coinage 
 of silver five-franc pieces, without, however, limiting 
 the legal-tender of the pieces already coined. The net 
 result of these measures is that at the present time 
 (1895) nearly all the gold of the various Latin Union 
 states is accumulated in France. There is but little in 
 Belgium or Roumania, and none in Switzerland, Italy 
 or Greece ; the currency of these Slates consisting chiefly 
 of paper notes and silver or subsidiary coins. On the 
 other hand, the currency of France consists of gold and 
 silver coins and Bank of France notes, backed by a re- 
 serve consisting of £70,000,000 gold and £50,000,000 
 silver, coined at 15! to i gold. The gold reserves of 
 the Bank are substantially a war-fund. 
 
 Germany. — The gold movement of 1866 is described 
 on p. 377. On October 20th, 1868, a commercial con- 
 vention (Handels-tag) was held in Berlin, at which were 
 represented 119 German cities. The subject of money 
 was discussed at length; and although not the slightest 
 reference was made to the origin, history, or operation 
 of Private Coinage, a resolution in favor of that measure 
 was adopted in the following words: "Res. 3. Mon- 
 etary unity, and at the same time such a general mon- 
 etary reform as befits the age, can be brought about by 
 the simultaneous adoption by all the German States of 
 the single standard with full application of the decimal 
 system, in pursuance of the principles recommended by 
 
 1 "Money and Civilization," pp. 276-7. 
 
414 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 the International Monetary Conference at Paris in its 
 Report of July 6th, 1867." (Mon. and Civ.," p. 276.) 
 Private Coinage is involved in the term "single stand- 
 ard," which, like "double standard," "bimetallism," 
 etc., implies that metal is money ; whereas this can only 
 even seemingly be the case when Private Coinage is 
 permitted. The military events of 1870 led to the im- 
 perial federation of the German States, April i6th, 
 1 87 1. On December 4th, 1871, an Act was passed 
 which provisionally established the "double standard" 
 at I5i; stopped the further Private Coinage of full 
 legal-tender silver,without demonetizing or retiring such 
 of these coins (thalers) as had alread}' been coined; or- 
 dered a new coinage of gold pieces of full legal-tender; 
 and made provision, without setting a time, for the re- 
 tirement of the thalers whenever the Chancellor of the 
 ^m^he should see fit. By the Act of July 9th, 1873, 
 definite provision was made for the establishment of the 
 "gold standard," not without leaving the door open to 
 the renewal of the "double standard, "should such a pol- 
 icy be deemed expedient. This was done by pei-mitting 
 the thaler silver coins to remain in circulation as full 
 legal-tenders, at three marks each. A similar pruden- 
 tial measure, that of trusting the Executive with the 
 power to alter these enactments, was incorporated in the 
 British Monetary Law of 1816. The power granted by 
 Congress to the American Executive — that of exercis- 
 ing the option to make payments out of the Treasury in 
 either gold or silver coins — is of quite a different char- 
 acter. The German Act of 1873 suspended the Private 
 Coinage of silver. All new silver coins were limited 
 in tender to 20 marks. All old silver coins were called 
 in, melted down and sold as bullion. At the present 
 time the currency consists of gold and silver coins and 
 
EXISTING MONETARY SYSTEMS 4I5 
 
 bank notes,- in the proportions shown on a previous 
 page. The gold atSpandauand a portion of the reserve 
 held by the Bank, is substantially a war-fund. 
 
 Great Britain. — In 1774 (14 George III., c. 42), in 
 consequence of the prevalence of light or underweight 
 silver coins, they were limited in tender to £25. This 
 was continued by various Acts down to 1797, in which 
 ear (38 George III., c. 59) the private coinage of silver 
 was suspended. The Act of 1816 (56 George III., c. 
 68) was passed during a suspension of coin payments 
 (except of such minor coins as were issued or counter- 
 marked by the Bank of England, for an account of 
 which see ante). By this Act the mints were closed to 
 the private coinage of silver, and all silver coins, whether 
 light or heavy, were limited in tender to 40s. In sec- 
 tion 9 it was provided that "from and after such day as 
 shall be named and appointed in and by any proclama- 
 tion which shall be made and issued for that purpose by 
 or on behalf of his Majesty, by and with the advice of 
 his Majesty's Privy Council," such legislation might 
 be revoked. Down to 1870 no such proclamation was 
 ever issued. In that year a IVezv Mint Code was en- 
 acted, section 11 of which provided that her Majesty, 
 " with the advice of her Privy Council from time to 
 time by proclamation (may) do all or any of the follow- 
 ing things, namely, to regulate any matters relative to 
 the coinage and the miniwitkin the present -prerogative 
 o/the Crown, which are not provided for by this Act." 
 The present prerogative of the Crown does not empower 
 it to revoke the silver demonetization of 1816. There 
 is no mistaking the identity of that golden thread which 
 runs through the Latin Union Mint Codes of 1867, the 
 British Mint Code of 1870, the German Mint code of 
 l87i,and,as will presently be seen, the new Mint Code of 
 
4l6 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 the United States,of 1873, and the Codes of numerous 
 other countries enacted soon afterwards. It is of pre- 
 cisely the same tissue in all of them. The present cur- 
 rency of Great Britain consists of gold (full tender) and 
 silver coins (limited tender) and Bank of England notes 
 of £5 and upwards. These last are full legal-tenders, 
 except from the Bank itself. 
 
 Portugal and Brazil. — It was largely through the 
 working of the Methuen Treaty (1703) that Portugal 
 in 1854 copied the British system of 1816, suspended 
 the Private Coinage of silver, limited the legal-tender 
 of silver coins to five milreis, and ostentatiously de- 
 clared the British sovereign a full legal-tender in Portu- 
 gal. These regulations should never have been made. 
 Neither before nor since their enactment have gold 
 payments been customary in Portugal. This is proved 
 by the course of exchange between Lisbon and Lon- 
 don. The actual legal-tender was called "lei," and it 
 consisted of a fixed proportion of coins, chiefly silver 
 and copper, and of paper notes.' Such few gold coins 
 as were formerly included in "lei" have since disap- 
 peared from the country. At present legal-tender is 
 made altogether in the inconvertible paper notes issued 
 by the Bank of Portugal. These, together with subsid- 
 iary coins, form the actual currency of the State. The 
 monetary situation in Brazil is somewhat similar; nor 
 has the commerce of either country suffered any harm 
 in consequence. The foreign merchants of Lisbon and 
 Rio Janeiro keep their accounts in £. s. d., quote the 
 local paper money at a discount, and wear tall black 
 hats in midsummer. Certain of these circumstances are 
 gravely set forth in the Report of the Director of the 
 United States Mints for 1894, as though they had to 
 do with the monetary systems of Portugal and Brazil. 
 
 I "Mon. and Civ." p. 13b. 
 
BXISTING MONETARY SYSTEMS 417 
 
 In like manner the Chinese merchants of San Francisco 
 keep their accounts in taels, mace and candareen, in 
 which they mark the fluctuations of American gold, and 
 wear plaited pigtails all the year round. Such is their 
 pleasure ; but as yet it has not been observed to have 
 had any marked effect upon the monetary system of the 
 United States of America. 
 
 Scandinavia. — On September 20th, 1872, a monetary 
 union was adopted by Sweden, Norway and Denmark, 
 which was followed by a New Mint Code, whose pro- 
 visions took effect in 1873 and 1875. Under this code 
 the private coinage of silver was suspended, and the 
 legal-tender of silver coins limited to five "specie riks- 
 dalers." At the present time the currency consists 
 chiefly of silver coins and bank notes. 
 
 Japan. — In 1872 this state adopted a New Mint Code, 
 forbade the Private Coinage of silver, limited the legal- 
 tender of silver yens or dollars and of all minor coins, 
 and adopted what is known as "the gold standard." In 
 1878 (May 27), after "the gold standard" had duly de- 
 parted from the country, the full legal-tender of silver 
 coins was restored and Private Coinage again permitted. 
 In 1883 a public loan issued in Japan, originally pay- 
 able in gold or silver coins, was made specifically paya- 
 ble in silver coins.' In 1894 the Private Coinage of 
 silver was again suspended.^ The currency is entirely of 
 silver coins and government and bank notes. 
 
 United States of America. — The Act of 1792 provided 
 
 for the coinage of a silver dollar to contain 37 li grains 
 
 of fine silver and of multiples of a dollar to contain 
 
 24.745 grains fine gold. These coins were to be struck 
 
 substantially free of expense for and on account of sucli 
 
 persons as might choose to employ the mint for that 
 
 I From 1872 to 1893 nine-thirteenths of all the gold struck since the 
 first named date left the country. "British For. Office Report," 1893, No. 
 3^5' P' 9- 2 London "Times," January 28th, 1895. 
 
4l8 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 purpose; thus establishing private coinage at a ratio of 
 value between the precious metals, in the coins, of 15 
 for I. In addition to these coins the silver dollars of 
 Spain and her American vice-royalties, besides several 
 other less important foreign coins were made full legal- 
 tenders in the United States at rates regulated by their 
 contents of metal as compared with the American dol- 
 lar. As a matter of fact the principal coins in circula- 
 tion down to 1853 were the Spanish and Spanish-Amer- 
 ican silver dollars and their fractional parts. In 1834, 
 when the gold mines of the Alleghany Range had 
 become productive (they were worked by slaves), and 
 had given rise to something more than the nominal coin- 
 age of gold which had preceded that event, it was 
 observed that the ratio of 15 for i was out of harmony 
 with the prices paid for the precious metals at the mints 
 of Spain, France and other European states. As Span- 
 ish coins were the principal ones in circulation in the 
 United States, the ratio was changed to (approximately) 
 16 for I, by lowering the American gold dollar to 23.22 
 grains fine metal ; the American silver dollar (same 
 contents as the Spanish silver dollar) remaining un- 
 changed. In 1853 the American fractional coins (parts 
 of the silver dollar) were debased in fineness and limited 
 in tender to five dollars. In 1857 the foreign coins 
 were lowered in legal-tender value; whereupon they 
 soon after ceased to circulate. In April, 1861, the 
 Southern States seceded from the Union and civil war 
 ensued. On December 28, 1861, the "State banks" of 
 issue (private corporations organized under the laws 
 of the various States) stopped payment, and then 
 notes, which at that time formed almost the only circu- 
 lating money of the country, fell into discx-edit, and 
 were either accepted at a discount or refused altogeth- 
 er. On February 25, 1862, the Federal government 
 
EXISTING MONETARY SYSTEMS 4I9 
 
 passed an act authorizing the issue of Treasury notes 
 ("greenbacks"), which were payable in themselves and 
 therefore irredeemable. In 1864 the Federal govern 
 ment passed the "National Banking Act," which was 
 designed to change the private banks, incorporated by 
 the States into private banks incorporated by the general 
 government. To promote this object they were offered 
 several advantages, among them, their notes (to be is- 
 sued upon the security of Federal bonds) were to be 
 made legal-tenders to and from the government. This 
 plan was successfully and rapidly carried out. Until 
 the close of the war and for several years afterwards, 
 the notes of these "national" banks and those of the 
 United States Treasury (greenbacks), of which latter 
 there were several issues and several kinds, formed the 
 only money in circulation. The customs duties were 
 levied in coins and these were used in payment of the 
 interest on the Federal bonds. The surplus coins (if 
 any) were sold by the government for greenbacks. 
 Beside the greenbacks, which amounted to about four 
 hundred million dollars and which may be regarded as 
 a debt, or not, according to the construction placed 
 upon the legislation of the period, the Federal govern- 
 ment had contracted debts, funded and unfunded, chiefl}' 
 the former, to the amount of nearly three thousand mil- 
 lion dollars, according to the Report of the Revenue 
 Commissioner, S. S. Hayes. In i865-6,the funded por- 
 tion of this debt had been contracted in and all of it sold 
 for greenbacks, at an average of less than forty cents to 
 the coined dollar. About one-half of this debt (chiefly 
 in six per cent and five per cent bonds, with interest 
 pa3'able optionally in gold or silver coins) was held in 
 Europe, chiefly in France, England or the Netherlands, 
 or else on European account. 
 
420 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 Under Code Napoleon, articles 1895 and 1897, all 
 debts of money in France were payable in such money 
 as was current on the day of paj'ment. Under the 
 Civil and Common laws, as laid down by Sir Matthew 
 Hale (State Trials, the Case of the Mixed Moneys), 
 the same rule was maintained in England. Indeed a 
 similar principle will be found in the legislation or juris- 
 pi'udence of all Christian States. But this did not satisfy 
 the foreign holders of the American war bonds, who, 
 fearing that the debt might be paid in greenbacks, had 
 never ceased to clamor for the retirement of that money. 
 Failing in this object, they employed everj'' means to 
 secure payment of the bonds in a better money than 
 that in which they had paid for them ; and in this en- 
 deavor they eventually succeeded. The steps will now- 
 be described by which the debt, in accordance with 
 their demands, was practically made payable in gold 
 coins only and of a fixed weight and fineness. For this 
 valuable concession no consideration was ever paid to 
 the government. 
 
 In 1868, one of the two great national parties having 
 declared itself favorable to the retention of the green- 
 back in the circulation, it was suddenly deserted by its 
 leaders on the eve of the Presidential election and, as 
 a consequence, defeated at the polls. The Chairman, 
 of the National Committee of this party was August Bel- 
 mont, who was also the agent in New York of the 
 great European house of Rothschild. The signal of 
 desertion, known as "The Betrayal," was given by 
 Manton Marble, editor of The New To7-k World, the 
 trusted organ of the party. 
 
 In March, 1869, Mr. Robert Schenck, belter known 
 in connection with the Emma mine and the author of a 
 handbook on the game of "poker," secured the passage 
 
EXISTING MONETARY SYSTEMS 421 
 
 of a bill which made the debt of the United States, at 
 that time nominally about $3,000,000,000, payable in 
 "coins" of a fixed weight and fineness. The New 
 Mint Code ol February 12th, 1873, c. 131, destroyed 
 the Private Coinage of silver by indirection, in omitting 
 the word ''dollar" from the empowering clause relating 
 to silver coins. After this, in codifying the Statutes 
 generally, December ist, 1873, sec. 3586, the Code 
 Commissioners made an unauthorized and unwarranted 
 alteration of the law by limiting the legal-tender of 
 "all" silver coins, including the outstanding silver dol- 
 lars, which, together with Spanish silver dollars, had 
 been full legal-tenders since the foundation of the Re- 
 public. Both of these Acts (of 1873) were passed during 
 a suspension of coin payments, and without eliciting 
 public attention. The Monetary Commission of 1876 
 reported that the Mint Code of February 12th, 1873, 
 was "not read except by title;" that President Grant, 
 who signed it, "had no knowledge of what it really ac- 
 complished in relation to the demonetization of silver," 
 as was evinced by his public letter of October 3rd, 1873; 
 and that the design of demonetization was (afterwards) 
 completed by an obscure provision of law upon an erro- 
 neous assurance from the Committee on Revision of the 
 Statutes. (Report, pp. 89-90. ) This surreptitious leg- 
 islation was not discovered, nor did it attract public atten- 
 tion until 1875-6. In 1878 (Bland Act) the full legal- 
 tender of silver dollars was restored, but not Private 
 Coinage. Under the rulings of the Secretary of the 
 Treasury the legal-tender of silver dollars has been so far 
 rendered nugatory that all demands upon the Treasury 
 have been met in gold coins. With regard to the de- 
 monetization of silver which was accomplished by the 
 two Acts of 1873, Mr. Carlisle, since Secretary of the 
 
422 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 Treasury, said in the House of Representatives, Feb- 
 ruary 2 1st, 1878: "The conspiracy which seems to 
 have been formed here and in Europe to destroy by 
 legislation and otherwise from three-sevenths to one-half 
 of the metallic money of the world, is the most gigantic 
 crime cf this or any other age. The consummation of 
 such a scheme would ultimately entail more misery 
 upon the human race than all the wars, pestilences and 
 famines that ever occurred in the history of the world." 
 It will be observed that in every monetary convention 
 which followed that of 1865 the professed object was 
 the unification of money, whilst the one actually ac- 
 complished was the demonetization of silver; that in 
 every case the means employed was indirection and 
 secrecy; and that the vehicle used was always a Ne-M 
 Mint Code. Mr. John Jay Knox, one of the official- 
 who in 1869-70 lent his assistance to the preparation ui 
 the American Mint Code, when the matter was brought 
 home to him acknowledged his part in it, and boasted 
 that he was "proud of his work.''' No one will begrudge 
 him the distinction it confers. The net result of this 
 measure upon the American currency is that it now con- 
 sists chiefly of paper notes. The silver dollars are 
 chiefly held in the Treasury, in place of "silver notes" 
 in circulation. Gold coins, except in the mining States 
 of the Far West, are not in circulation. The Treasury 
 continues to pay gold money by borrowing it from time 
 to time upon new issues of- Government bonds. This is 
 the same policy laid down in the British Mint Code of 
 April 4th, 1870, section 9. Owing to the limitations 
 placed upon the silver and paper issues of the United 
 States, and to the readiness of the American Treasury 
 to pa)' gold money on demand, gold coins command no 
 premium. 
 
 I London "Economist," December 26th, 1885. 
 
EXISTING MONETARY SYSTEMS 423 
 
 Holland. — The laws of May 21st, 1873, and June 
 6th, 1875, suspended the Private Coinage of silver, and 
 limited the legal-tender of silver coins to ten florins. 
 The currency is now chief!}- of silver coins and paper 
 notes. 
 
 Italy. — Under a renewal of the Latin Monetary Union 
 dated January 31st, 1874, and the law of July 17th, 
 1875, the Crown suspended the Private Coinage of sil- 
 ver, and limited the legal-tender of silver coins to 50 
 lira. To maintain those payments in gold coins to 
 which it had committed itself, the State afterwards 
 (1882) borrowed £16,000,000 in gold, all of which, to- 
 gether with what gold was previously in the kingdom, 
 has since disappeared, leaving the State pledged to pay 
 in gold, without any gold with which to pay. The 
 circulating money of Italy now consists entirely of sub- 
 sidiary silver and copper coins and of paper issues, gold 
 commanding a premium of 5 to 10 per cent in paper. 
 
 S^ain. — The Republic of 1868 (Figuerola Law, Oc- 
 tober 19th) was induced to copy the provisions of the 
 Latin Monetary Union so far as to adopt gold coins 
 for unlimited money, and to limit the legal-tender of 
 silver coins. These regulations survived the Republic, 
 the monarchy of Amadeo, 1870, the restoration of the 
 Republic in 1874, and the restoration of the monarchy 
 (Alfonso) in 1875. The law of August 20th, 1876, 
 suspended the Private Coinage of silver, except as to 
 metal produced by the mines of Spain. This last-named 
 provision has since been abrogated, whilst the suspen- 
 sion of Private Coinage continues. But its gold having 
 left the country, the State was obliged to reinvest the 
 silver pesos (five-peseta or five-franc pieces) with full 
 legal-tender power, which attribute they now enjoy. 
 The minor silver coins are limited in legal-tender to ten 
 
424 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 pesos. The currency consists entirely of silver coins 
 and Bank of Spain notes, in whicii gold coinr command 
 a premium of about 20 per cent. 
 
 Russia. — The law of November 13-25, 1876, adopted 
 gold coins as sole full legal-tenders, and reduced the 
 legal-tender of silver coins to 5 roubles 15 copeks, no 
 Private Coinage of silver being permitted.' The result 
 of these measures has been that gold coins are at a pre- 
 mium of 50 per cent, while the. currency consists en- 
 tirely of subsidiary silver coins and Bank of Russia 
 notes. The gold held by the bank does not enter the 
 circulation, and is substantiall}- a war-fund. 
 
 Austro-Hiuigary. — The decree of March, 1879, sus- 
 pended the Private Coinage of silver, but did not limit 
 the legal-tender of silver coins. ^ The law of 1892 or- 
 dered the discontinuance of the coinage of four and 
 eight gulden (gold) pieces, and substituted the gold 
 kroner of 0.304878 grammes, or 4.7 English grains 
 fine, equal in legal value to half a florin — a nominal step 
 toward uniformity with the franc system, because the 
 real money of the country consists, and has consisted 
 for a long period, only of subsidiary silver coins and 
 paper notes. The Private Coinage of kroners is not 
 permitted, so that the State has largely resumed the 
 prerogative of coinage. The ratio between the kroners 
 and the silver coins is 13.69 for i. Provision has also 
 been made for a foreign gold loan of £40,000,000, with 
 which it is stated to be the intention of the government 
 to make gold payments in kroners, as sole full legal- 
 tenders. 
 
 Turkey. — No Private Coinage is permitted in this 
 State. In 1882 full legal-tender was limited to gold 
 coins, but, except as to Cinstantinopie and some other 
 large cities, and except as to customs duties, the"'be- 
 
 I "Money and Civilization," pp. 314, 320. 2 Ibid., p. 340. 
 
EXISTING MONETARY, SYSTEMS 425 
 
 shlik" system of silver coins (o.83ofine)has since been 
 substantially restored. A full account of "beshlik" 
 money will be found in "Money and Civilization," 
 chap. xix. The present currency consists of "beshlik" 
 silver, together with paper notes. 
 
 British India, — An order in Council, dated 23rd June, 
 1893, suspended the Private Coinage of silver, but other- 
 wise made no important change in the monetary system. 
 Silver rupees therefore remain full legal-tenders for all 
 purposes and any amount. These and the note issues 
 of the Currency Department constitute the currency of 
 the country. 
 
 China. — The currency of this State consists of bronze 
 coins. In 1834 silver was surreptitiously coined at 
 Fukien, and a few years later in Canton, as well as in 
 the district of Shunlik, south of Canton. These issues, 
 however, have since disappeared. The only lawful 
 moneys of the Empire are the familiar bronze "tchen" 
 or "chuen." These, the sixteenth century Portuguese 
 called sapecas, and the English now call cash. One 
 thousand of these make, in value, a tael of (bronze) 
 money. In a mediasval Chinese scale of equivalents a 
 tael of money meant a tael (coin) of silver, which coin 
 contained something like what is now known as a tael 
 weight of silver. But the tael of 1,000 chuen has no 
 longer any relation to silver. The present cash system 
 would resemble that of the Roman nummulary system 
 of B. C. 369, mentioned. in Chap. I. , but for the fact that 
 the Roman nummi were limited and overvalued, whilst 
 cash, at all events at present, do not command more 
 than their value as metal. There is another and still 
 more important difference; the Chinese cash are open 
 to Private Coinage, but the Roman nummi were not. 
 The fall in value of the Chinese cash is due either to 
 
426 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 over issues or to counterfeiting. The cash of to day 
 should each weigh 54.7 English grains (8 to the avoir- 
 dupois ounce), and contain 54 per cent of copper, 42! 
 per cent zinc, and 3i per cent lead', but they vary in 
 composition according to the mineral or metallic re- 
 sources of the various provinces in which they are cast. 
 In the early part of the present century the annual au- 
 thorized or reported issues of chuen seem to have been 
 about 1,200,000,000, worth 1,200,000 money taels.' 
 In 1865 the authorized or reported issues were 2,460,- 
 000,000 chuen, worth 2,460,000 money tiaels," but this 
 may have been an exceptional year. In certain prov- 
 inces, and for periods of ten, fifteen, or twenty years, 
 the authorized issue;? of chuen have been entirely sus- 
 pended.' The unauthorized coinage and the counter- 
 feiting of cash are. made capital offenses;* but none of 
 these regulations are believed to be strictly observed. 
 
 Several efforts have been made by the Imperial gov- 
 ernment to supersede the chuen sj'Stem, which, since 
 the decline of the symbols to their metallic value, has 
 ceased to possess any "economical" merit beyond that 
 of non-exportability. These efforts have hitherto been 
 without success, the chief obstacle in the way being 
 Private Coinage and the profit and power which it con- 
 fers. The question of safety to the State is, however, 
 of great importance in this connection. 
 
 In 1845 (Opium war) the Emperor Taoukwang caused 
 silver dollars to be cast at Hangchow and Formosa. 
 They were called Soldiers' Pay, a name that indicates 
 their use. These were afterward so cleverlj' imitated 
 in base metal by the private coiners that they lost credit 
 and disappeared from circulation. In 1853 (Taiping 
 Rebellion), owing to the scarcity of copper, large issues 
 
 1 "H. M. A.," p. 41; "Chinese Repository," ii., p. 279. 
 
 2 Dr S. W. Bushell in "Jour. N. C. Branch of Royal Asiatic Soc.," 
 1880, N. S., No; XV. 3 "H. M. A.,"p. 40. 4 Ibid., p. 37. 
 
EXISTING MONETARY SYSTEMS 427 
 
 of iron chuen were made, but these were soon rendered 
 useless by the abundance of counterfeits, an industry 
 in which, odd to relate, the so-called Budhist (really 
 Taoist) monks made themselves prominent. Popular 
 dissatisfaction with these coins gave rise to some dis- 
 turbance at Pekin in 1857. With poetic justice they are 
 now only used for pious offerings at Taoist shrines. 
 During the Taiping rebellion the rebel Emperor (Hun- 
 seu-tseun) issued silver coins, with the legend "Sacred 
 money of the Tai'ping.'" These, of course, have dis- 
 appeared. At the same time the imperial government 
 (1852, or third year of Hieng-fung) issued two classes 
 of paper notes: first, to represent the bronze chuen; 
 second, to represent Shanghai taels of silver bullion ; 
 in other words, two money taels of coined chuen for 
 one tael weight of uncoined silver. For some unex- 
 plained reason ( probably foreign counterfeiting) the 
 chuen notes fell in 1861 (first year of Toung-che) to 3 
 per cent of their face value, or 97 per cent discount. 
 In 1880 they were only worth 10 per cent of their face 
 value, or 90 per cent discount. Being receivable, as 
 recited on. their face, "for the purchase of titles of rank," 
 the}' retained some value on account of this ignoble 
 function. The fate of the silver notes has not been 
 related, but they probably fell from the same cause — 
 forgery by foreigners. After these unsuccessful experi- 
 ments the monetary system relapsed into its previous 
 condition, namely, that of bronze coins, reduced by 
 excessive issues, or else successful counterfeiting, to 
 their commodity value; and such is the system to-day. 
 In 1887 certain Chinese officials ordered a number of 
 
 I This pretender was born at Quang-si about 1815, died by suicide at 
 Nanking, June 30th, 1864. "He announced himself as the restorer of 
 the worship of the true god, Shang-ti, . . . the brother of Jesus and 
 the second Son of God." Besides the name of Hun-seu-tseiin, he assumed 
 that of Tien-teb, or Celestial Virtue, besides many others (Haydn). 
 
428 HISTORY OF MONETARY SYSTEMS 
 
 coin presses from Birmingham. These are employed 
 at the present time (1895) by the viceroys of Kwang- 
 tung (Canton) and other provinces in striking silver 
 coins for soldiers' pay; but as yet the introduction of 
 silver money into China has been comparatively limited. 
 It is, however, going on at an accelerated rate. 
 
 Large sums of money — and at the Treat}' ports, and 
 with or amongst foreigners, all sums — are stipulated to 
 be paid in foreign silver coins, or in silver bullion meas- 
 ured by the tael weight, of which there are several local 
 varieties, the most popular being the Shanghai "cur- 
 rency tael." This consists of a Shanghai or Chauping 
 tael weight (565.7 English grains) of ingot silver, ^ 
 fine, equal to 518.56 grains fine silver, or 1.39! Amer- 
 ican silver dollars, mint value. This tael is identical in 
 weight with the European silver talent, thaler, or duca- 
 ton of the mediaeval ages, and may have had the 
 same origin. It is in this silver bullion (called shoo, 
 from the shape of the ingots, and sycee, from their 
 standard of fineness) that the recent Chinese 7 per cent 
 customs mortgage silver loan was efi^ected in London 
 and Berlin, the exchange rate paid by the subscribers 
 being 3s. English gold coin per Shanghai tael. Besides 
 the proceeds of this loan and a few million taels depos- 
 ited in banking-houses or private hoards, there is no sil- 
 ver money or bullion available for money in the Chinese 
 empire. The seven hundred and fifty million dollars' 
 worth of silver in China reported by the Director of the 
 United States Mints (Report, 1894, p. 45) evinces the 
 prodigious fertility of this gentleman's imagination, but 
 has not the remotest relation to fact, the metallic cur- 
 rency of China consisting substantially of copper sym- 
 bols. 
 
 Argentine Republic. — The law of September 29th, 
 1875, authorized the Private Coinage of gold, admitted 
 
EXISTING MONETARY SYSTEMS 429 
 
 certain foreign gold coins to full legal-tendership, 
 limited the legal-tender of silver coins to twenty dollars, 
 and forbade the Private Coinage of silver. Eight 
 months afterward (^May i6th, 1876) the government 
 bank suspended coin payments,and gold coins rose to a 
 premium of 30 per cent, since increased to about 250 
 per cent. The currency of the country is entirely of 
 inconvertible paper and minor coins. 
 
 Chili. — Under the law of January 9th, 185 1, the gold 
 peso contained 21.1845 English grains fine, and the sil- 
 ver peso 347.22 grains fine metal, a ratio of about 16.4 
 for I. The contents of these coins were repeated in the 
 law of November 26th, 1892, which stopped the Private 
 Coinage of silver, limited the legal-tender of silver pesos 
 to 10 pesos, and (the actual money of the country 
 consisting entirely of inconvertible notes and small 
 change coins) provided for "resumption" on July ist, 
 i896,in gold coins, at double their previous value in 
 silver coins — a ratio of 32.8 for i. On January 29th, 
 1895, the Senate passed an Act for the redemption of 
 the paper currency on June ist, 1895, at the rate of 
 about i8d. English gold to the paper peso; but this Act 
 yet awaits the approval of the Chamber of Deputies and 
 the purchase of gold wherewith to make such payments, 
 there being no gold coins in the country. The British 
 sovereign, formerly legal-tender for five pesos, is now 
 legal-tender for ten pesos; but this and all other enact- 
 ments encouraging the currency of gold coins are as 
 yet little more than dead letter. 
 
 From the foregoing recital it will be observed that 
 the practical political outcome of the Gold Movement 
 of 1865-73 has been to concentrate the gold coins of the 
 world in the banks of four or five of the principal States, 
 and that the currency of the remainder consists entirely, 
 or chiefly, of silver coins and paper notes. 
 
INDEX. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Aarlesden, 119, 255. 
 Abd-el-Melik, 56, 92, 126, 137, 
 
 147, 268. 
 Abd-el-Raman I., 126. 
 Abd-el-Raman II., 177. 
 Abd-el-Raman III., 126, 234. 
 Abstention from coining gold, 
 
 311- 
 Ace, 81, 99, 214. 
 
 Act of 1666 (see also Private 
 Coinage), 320, 388. 
 
 Coinage), 320, 388. 
 Adam Smith (see Smith). 
 Adrian (see Hadrian). 
 Adulteration of Coins (see Tam- 
 
 perings and Forgeries), 194, 
 
 200, 211, 227, 321. 
 Aelfric, grammarian, 177, 183. 
 Africa, 130. 
 
 Agricola cited, 122, 153, 260. 
 Albata Coins, 205, 209, 211, 213, 
 Albuquerque, 322, 387. 
 Alchemist, 240. 
 Alexandria, 130. 
 Alfred, King of Wessex, 157, 
 
 174, I7S, 311- 
 
 Alfred-Guthrum Treaty, 155, 
 160, 175. 
 
 Al-Hachem (see Hachem). 
 
 Alloys of Money (see Standard). 
 
 Al-Monstain-Billah, u., 177. 
 
 Alterations of Money, 179, 225, 
 228, 331, 338, 343. 
 
 Amber, 139. 
 
 America (see Spanish America, 
 etc.), 128, 146, 24s, 349, 3S0. 
 
 American Revolution (See Revo- 
 lutions), 349. 
 
 Amsterdam, 292, 295. 
 
 Anachronical Moneys, 114, 117. 
 
 Anglo-Normans, 187. 
 
 Anglo-Saxons, no, 151, 187, 311. 
 
 Antwerp, 314, 328. 
 
 Apotheoses, 388, 427. 
 
 Arabia (see Moslem), 105 n., 
 X28, 161. 
 
 438 
 
 Arcadius and Honorius, Sov.- 
 
 Ponts., 96, 98, 108, III. 
 Archaeology, 161. 
 Argent, Argenti, Argento, Ar- 
 
 gentum, etc., 97, 202. 
 Argentina, 428. 
 Aristotle, pref., 384. 
 Arrian cited, 40. 
 Arsacidae, 118. 
 Arsura, 160. 
 Aryandes, 81. 
 Assays (see Pix), 216. 
 Assignats, 280, 292. 
 Athelred II., King of Wessex, 
 
 181. 
 Athelstan III., King of Wessex, 
 
 158, 179- 
 Attila, 262, 272. 
 Augustus (Octavius), Sov-Pont., 
 
 3S, 100, loi, I2S, 147, 148, 319, 
 
 424. 
 Aurar (see Ora), in, 256. 
 Aureus, 154. 
 
 Austria, 315, 35i> 370, 371, 424. 
 Austriki (see lestia). 
 
 Bacchus, 131, 213. 
 
 Bahdr amd Bahdrwick, 262, 266. 
 
 Baldwin III., 194. 
 
 Bangle (see Baug, Baugle, 
 
 Rings, etc.). 
 Bank of Amsterdam, 331, 403. 
 Bank of England, 402, 415. 
 Bank of Stockholm, 292, 402. 
 Bank Suspensions, 402. 
 Banks and Bankers, 107, 292, 293, 
 
 303, 304, 322, 328, 330, 339, 352, 
 
 3S4, 400. 
 Bardewic, 262, 266. 
 Bargain, Silver Coin, 388. 
 Barter, 195, 384. 
 Base Coins (See Tamperings, 
 
 &c.), 203, 207, 212, 216, 217, 
 
 219, 230. 
 Basileus, 71, 125, 199, 250, 253, 
 
 311, 319. 320, 357- 
 
434 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Baugles (see Baugs), 115. 
 Baugs, or Ring-Money, 115, 116, 
 
 i6s, 255. 
 Bawbee, 258 n. 
 Beaumaris Castle, 216. 
 Benefices, 41. 
 
 Beornwulf, King of Mercia, 170. 
 Berbers of Africa, 131. 
 Berthulf, King of Mercia, 170. 
 Besant, Bezant, of Byzantine 
 
 Solidus, 104, i8s, 189, 194, 209, 
 
 212, 216, 23s, 247, 250, 310, 342. 
 Bills of Exchange, 195, 228, 322. 
 Black Money, 233, 235, 329. 
 Blanc Silver and Blanc Money, 
 
 206. 
 Boodle, 258. 
 Boycott of Gold, 349; of Silver, 
 
 421. 
 Bramins, Laws of the, 80. 
 Brass Coins (see Copper). 
 Brazil, 416. 
 Bread, Measured by i. s. d., 
 
 98. 
 Britain, 120; Arabian remains in, 
 
 140; Coinages of, 120; Moneys 
 
 of, 149, 139; productions of, 
 
 139; Roman Conquest of, 120. 
 British East India Company, 388. 
 Bronze Coins (see Copper). 
 Brunanburg, Battle, 179, 276. 
 Buccaneers, 289, 325, 326, 335. 
 Budhism, 427. 
 
 Bullet Money of Cochin, 116. 
 Bullion, Domestic and Foreign, 
 
 321- 
 "Bullion Money," 218, 288. 
 Bunge, 383. 
 Burgred, King of Mercia, 158, 
 
 170, 173. 
 Burgundy, iii, 314, 334. 
 Byzant (see Besant). 
 Byzantium, 91, 131, 189. 
 
 Caernarvon Castle, 216. 
 
 Caesar, Caius Julius, 34, 63, 70, 
 89, 90, loi, 119, 120, I4S, 247, 
 256, 264, 26s, 308, 319, 394, 397- 
 
 Calcott's "History of Spain," ci- 
 ted, 270. 
 
 California, Gold Scare. 338. 
 
 Canute, King of Mercia, North- 
 umbria and Denmark, 183, 
 269. 
 
 Canute II., King of "England," 
 
 158, 273. 
 Caracalla, Sovereign-Pontm, 37, 
 
 154, 257. 
 
 Carat, or Karat, 141-2. 
 
 Carausius, Joint Emperor of'the 
 West," 100, 308, 333. 
 
 Carlovingian System, 63. 
 
 Cash, 425. 
 
 Castles, 216. 
 
 Caursina, 229. 
 
 Celts, 119. 
 
 Charlemagne, Emperor of Ger- 
 many, 60, 105, 114, 153, 160, 
 170, 254, 263, 26s, 266, 27s, 308, 
 311, 312, 320, 334. 
 
 Charles Martel, 140. 
 
 Charles the Bald, 172, 334. 
 
 Charles I., King of England, 
 216. 
 
 Charles II., King of England 
 (see Act of 1666), 388. 
 
 Charles V., Emperor of Ger- 
 many, 315, 334-5, 349. 
 
 Charles IX., King of Sweden, 
 289. 
 
 Chevalier, Michel, ci*ed, 370. 
 
 Child, Sir Josiah, cited, 326. 
 
 Childeric, 109. 
 
 Chili, 429. 
 
 China, 139, 195, 425. 
 
 Christ, Jesus, 56, 74, 135, 284, 427. 
 
 Christian Moneys, 104, 272, 310. 
 
 Christian II., King of Sweden, 
 277, 300. 
 
 Christiania, 255. 
 
 Christianity, 104, 130, 140, 173. 
 
 Christina, Queen of Sweden, 
 295- 
 
 Christnalas, 88. 
 
 Chronology, 116. 
 
 Cicero, cited, 85, 108, 195. 
 
 Circulation, 123, 207, 222, 305, 
 318, 337, 361, 381. 
 
 Civil Law (see Codex). 
 
 Civilization, Affected by Money, 
 107. 
 
 Claudius I., Sovereign-Pontiff, 
 112. 
 
 Clearing-house (see Permuta- 
 tion of Merchandise). 
 
 Clippers of Coins, 188, 201-2, 
 205-8, 212, 215, 229, 231, 235, 
 313, 344- 
 
INDEX 
 
 435 
 
 Cloth Money (see Vadmal). 
 
 Clothaire, id&. 
 
 Clovis, 104, 108. 
 
 Cnut (see Canute). 
 
 Codes, Barbarian, 310, 311, 333-5. 
 
 Codex Justiniatius, 97 n, 252, 384. 
 
 Codex Theodosianus, 94, 96, 
 
 108, 154, 260, 342, 384. 
 Coelwlf I., King of Mercia, 170. 
 Coelwlf II., King of Mercia, 170. 
 Coenwlf, King- of Mercia, 170. 
 Coinage, a Mark of Sovereignty,' 
 
 147, 179, 248, 249, 319, 339. 
 Coinage of Gold, a Pontifical 
 
 Right, 247, 249, 320. 
 Coinage Systems (see Mone- 
 tary). 
 Coins, 89, 119, 179, 317, 339; 
 Counterfeit (see Forgeries) ; 
 Finds of, 309; Light (see Light 
 Coins) ; Proclamatory, 90; Res- 
 toration of, 90; Sacred, go, 
 319; Statistics of, 372 n; Used 
 as Weights, 133, 214. 
 Combustion, 191, ig6. 
 Commerce, 317, 322, 338, 349, 
 
 363, 383. 
 "Commodity Moneys,'' 291. 
 Commons, House of, 246. 
 Companies (see Corporations). 
 Comstock Lode (see Nevada). 
 Conflict Ratio (see Ratio), 335-6. 
 Constans II., Sovereign-Pontiflf, 
 
 134- 
 
 Constantine I., Sovereign-Pon- 
 tiff, 250. 
 
 Constantinople, fall of, A. D., 
 1204-82, 264, 271, 334, 342-3- 
 
 "Continental" Notes of the Brit- 
 ish American Colonies, 217, 
 240. 
 
 Contraction and Expansion, 372, 
 
 389. 
 
 Control of Money (see Preroga- 
 tive, Regalian, &c.), 331, 379. 
 389, 392- ^ . 
 
 Convention Corns, 230, 240. 
 
 Conway Castle, 216. 
 
 Copenhagen, 255. 
 
 Copper, Monetary Systems, 
 Coins, Mines, Mining, &c., 21, 
 22, 33, 35. 45. 49. 55, 83, 118, 
 190, 217, 221, 288-89, 292, 29s, 
 328, 342, 388. 
 
 Copper-plate Money, 294, 296. 
 
 Corn Rents, 196, 370 n. 
 
 Cornwall, 205-6, 209, 211-12, 216. 
 
 Corporations, 264. 
 
 Corruptions of Coins (see Tam- 
 pering); of ancient texts (see 
 Mutilations). 
 
 Cortcz, Hernando, 133, 262. 
 
 Cost of the Precious Metals (q. 
 v.), 240, 207, 401. 
 
 Counterfeit (see Forgeries), 229, 
 261, 296. 
 
 Crimen Majestatis, 192. 
 
 Crockards, 216, 220, 228. 
 
 Crown (see Royal). 
 
 Crusades, 252. 
 
 Currencies, 327. 
 
 Currency Contraction, 389. 
 
 Daler (see Dollar). 
 Danegeld, 181, 185. 
 Danes of Denmark, 171; of Eng-» 
 
 land, 171, 174. 
 Dantzic, 266. 
 
 Dealbandum (see Albata). 
 Debased Coins, 199, 227, 228, 252, 
 
 318, 330, 343, 345- 
 Degraded Coins, 199, 227, 228, 
 
 23s. 252, 330, 343. 
 Dei Gratia, 241. 
 "Demonetization" of Gold, 371; 
 
 of Silver, 306. 
 Denmark, 301. 
 
 Demonetization of Money, 99. 
 De Vienne cited, n, 57, in, 153, 
 
 214. 333- 
 Deventer, City, 266, 318. 
 Diffusion of Wealth Effected by 
 
 Money, 107. 
 Dinar, 56, 135, 156, 188, 312. 
 Dinara, 115. 
 
 Dirhem, 115, 135, 312, 388. 
 Dobla, 162, 238, 342. 
 Doit, 258. 
 
 Dollar, 381-3, 357-58. 
 Domesday Book, 123 n, 129, 160, 
 
 180, 188, 197. 
 Doom-Rings, n, 121. 
 Doomsday (see Domesday). 
 Druids, 109. 
 
 Ducat, 183, 282, 313-14, 318, 357- 
 Ducaton, 282, 314-15, 318, 328, 
 
 357. 
 Dutch, East India Companies, 
 
 387. 
 
436 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Eadgar, King of England, 267. 
 East India Companies (see Brit- 
 ish and Dutch), 396. 
 Easterling, lesterling (q. v.), 
 
 207. 
 Eastern Empire (see Roman 
 
 Empire). 
 Ecclesiastical Forgers and Adul- 
 terers of Coin, 192, 200, 206, 
 
 210, 21S, 233. 
 Ecclesiastical Laws, 192. 
 Ecclesiastical Mints and Coins, 
 
 193. I99> 200, 204-s, 210, 226, 
 
 247, 251. 
 Edgar, King of Wessex, 181. 
 Edgitha, Mother of Edward the 
 
 Confessor, 184. 
 Edmund I., King of Wessex, 180. 
 Edward Confessor, King of 
 
 Wessex, 149 n, 158, 184, 249. 
 Edward I., King of England, 
 
 156, 182, 203, 215, 219-20, 223, 
 
 234, 250. 
 Edward II., King of England, 
 
 219-20, 321. 
 Edward III., King of England, 
 
 134, 198, 216, 221, 234, 23s, 2S3, 
 
 313, 329. 342. ^ , , 
 
 Edward VI., Kmg of England, 
 
 321 n, 328. 
 Edward-Guthrum Treaty, 176 n. 
 Egbert, King of Wessex, 158, 
 
 169. 
 Egbert (son of Offa), 170. 
 Egypt, 116, 127, 148. 
 Eissel, River (see lessel). 
 Eistland, Province (see lestia). 
 Elagabalus, Sov.-Pont., 69, 260. 
 Electrum Coins, 121. 
 Elizabeth, Queen of England, 
 
 329. 395- , , _ ^ 
 
 Emirs, Corns of the, 126, 146. 
 
 Emperor- Worship, 109. 
 
 Empires, Eastern and Western, 
 246. 
 
 Endorsement, 196. 
 
 Engels, 309. 
 
 England (see Britain), 71, 149. 
 313-14. 328; ratio in (see 
 
 England's Independence (q. v.). 
 Ratio), IS7, 328. 
 
 Equities of Money, 107, 320. 
 
 Eric I., Pagan King of Den- 
 mark, 175. 
 
 Eric II., Pagan King of Den- 
 mark, 175. 
 Eric XlV., King of Sweden, 311- 
 
 12, 283-4. 
 Esthonia (see lestia), 25s, 104. 
 Ethelbert I., King of Kent, in. 
 Ethelbert II., King of Kent, 104, 
 
 los, 151, 158, 167. 
 Ethelbert, King of East Anglia, 
 
 158, 167. 
 Ethelred II., King of Wessex, 
 
 &c., 158. 
 Ethelwulf, King of Wessex, 171. 
 Etruscans, log. 
 
 Exchequer, 190, 193, 196, 220-21. 
 Exchequer Bills, 292. 
 Exports of Coin and Bullion, 85, 
 
 101, 219, 228, 230, 233, 235-36, 
 
 240, 250, 329. 
 
 Fabulous History (q. v.), 20. 
 
 Fairs, 182, 194, 252, 258-9, 261, 
 266. 
 
 Family Coins, myth of, 38. 
 
 Fatimites, 127, 144. 
 
 Fayoum, 130. 
 
 Ferdinand II., Emperor of Ger- 
 many, 320. J/^^ Cfri^i .,- , xio 
 
 Feria (see Fairs), 258. 
 
 Feudal System, 103, 105, 166. 
 
 Fiduciary Money, 100, 279. 
 
 Finds of Coin (see Treasure 
 Trove) 
 
 Fisc, 79. 
 
 Fish Money, 115, 254, 264. 
 
 Flemings, 240. 
 
 Florins, 240. 
 
 Follis, or Purse of Coins, 53. 
 
 Foreign Coins, 107, 210, 219, 231, 
 250, 255. 
 
 Forgeries (see Counterfeits), 73. 
 84, 114, 119, 141, 192, 218, 231, 
 261, 343, 347- 
 
 Frakki (see France). 
 
 Frakkland (see France), 258. 
 
 Franco Prussian War, 378. 
 
 France, 107, no, in, 117, 140, 
 150, 160, 200, 268, 412. 
 
 Fratres Ambarvales, 264. 
 
 Frederick II., Emperor of Ger- 
 many, 184, 224. 
 
 "Free" Coinage (see Private 
 Coinage), 245, 320, 342. 
 
 Free Trade, 194. 
 
INDEX 
 
 437 
 
 Frisia, n., iii. 
 
 Gardariki, 261. 
 
 Gaul, no. 
 
 German Empire, 307, 319, 343, 
 
 384, 413. 
 German Monetary System, 380, 
 
 413- 
 Germany, 22, 262, 290, 308, 34*1, 
 
 342, 3SS, 370, 372. 
 
 Getae (see Goths). 
 
 Gibraltar, 132. 
 
 Goa, 388, 395. 
 
 Godwin, Earl of Kent, 184. 
 
 Goertz's Copper Dollars, 295. 
 
 Gold Coin, 62, 68, 75, 78, 122, 
 190, 211, 230, 238, 287, 302, 320, 
 328, 337, 350, 3S7, 371 ; Earliest 
 in Europe, 320, 325, 342. 
 
 Gold, Domestic and Foreign, 
 231. 
 
 Gold Mining, 70, 72, 306. 
 
 Gold, not Coined by Vassals, 34, 
 75. 81, 134, 148, igo, 196-97, 224, 
 239, 309-10, 325. 
 
 Gold Plate, 219. 
 
 Gold Standard, 376. 
 
 Golden Bull, 342. 
 
 Goldsmiths, 216, 219, 390. 
 
 Gotfried, King of Denmark, 171, 
 269. 
 
 Goths, 108, 133, 151, 254, 263, 
 309- 
 
 Goths, Moneys of, 105, 113, 124, 
 263. 
 
 Governments and Moneys, 107. 
 
 Great Fairs (q. v.). 
 
 Greek Empire (see Roman Em- 
 pire). 
 
 Greenbacks, 280. 
 
 Gresham, Sir Thomas, 328, 335. 
 
 Groats, 221. 
 
 Grouch, or Turkish Dollar, 315. 
 
 Guerard cited, 57, in, 311. 
 
 Guilds (see Corporations), 50. 
 
 .Gulden, 312, 315, 348. 
 
 Gunnar, King of Burgundy, 262. 
 
 Gunnvaldsborg, 164, 257. 
 
 Gustavus Adolphus, 291-92. 
 
 Gustavus Vasa, 275, 277, 286, 300. 
 
 Guthrum, 70, 174, 175. 
 
 Hachem I., 238, 268. 
 Hachem II.,. 238, 270. 
 Haco, King of Norway, 181. 
 
 Hadrian, Pope, 158, 169. 
 Hadrian, Sovereign-Pontiff, 24S. 
 Hakon, Jarl, 269, 272. 
 Hale, Sir Matthew, cited, 38, 196, 
 
 208, 220, 237. 
 Halfdane, the Black, 175. 
 Hall, Marked Plate, 219. 
 Halting, Standard (Etalon Boi- 
 
 teux), 401. 
 Hamburg, City, 196. 
 Hanseatic League, 160, 195, 261, 
 
 264, 270, 275, 308, 334. 
 Hapsburg Coinagers, 312, 334. 
 Harmonies of Money, 107, 141. 
 Harold, King of Denmark, 171, 
 
 174, 269. 
 Harold, Harfager, 269. 
 Harold Hardrade, 271-72, 273. 
 Harold II., King of England, 
 
 182, 184. 
 Haroun-al-Raschid, 153, 268. 
 Harris, Joseph (1757), cited, 214. 
 Hastings, the Viking, 175. 
 Haulds, or Hauldermen, a Goth- 
 ic caste, 117. 
 Heen Tsung, Emperor of China, 
 
 182, 267. 
 Hegemony of the Ratio, 351. 
 Heligoland, 258. 
 Henry II., England, 190, 193, 
 
 199. 
 Henry HI., England, 92, 98, 
 
 188, 190, 195, 198, 210, 212, 215, 
 
 224, 238, 248, 342, 344- 
 Henry VIII., England, 322. 
 Heptarchy, systems of the, 107, 
 
 121, 165. 
 Heraclius, Sov.-Pont., 130, 141. 
 Herring Money (see Sil). 
 Hierarchies, 127, 146, 147. 
 History, 21, loi, 105. 
 Hoards of Money, 207, 216, 302, 
 
 384. 
 Hokeday, 184. 
 Holland (see Netherlands). 
 Honorius (see Arcadius). 
 Hucsos, or Hyksos, Kings of 
 
 Egypt, 116. 
 Hun, Oriental Gold Coin, 388, 
 
 396. 
 
 laku. Gold Coin, 213. , 
 Iceland, 114. i_<«'l-/ "u (^^ 
 Ideal Moneys, pref., loi. 
 
438 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Idolatrous Coins (see Christian), 
 
 388. 
 les, 18, 123, 308, 314. 
 leschen, 309. 
 
 les-sel. River, 162, 266, 274, 318. 
 lesterling (see Sterling), 
 lestia, Province, 139, 159, 258, 
 
 261, 263, 309. 
 Image Worship, 109. 
 "Imperium" Theory of Coinage, 
 
 23, 147- 
 Ina, King of Wessex, ill, 169. 
 Indemnity, Franco-Prussian, 
 
 378, 384. 
 Indentures of the Mint, q. v. 
 Independence of England, 197, 
 
 199, 210, 217, 223-24, 228, 23s, 
 
 241, 243, 245, 248, 251. 
 India, 136, 19S, 388, 425- 
 Indians, American, 383. 
 Indulgences, sale of, 278. 
 Ingot Money, 40, 292, 295. 
 Institutes of Justinian (see Co- 
 dex). 
 Interest Bearing Paper Money, 
 
 107. 
 International Conventions, 344. 
 International Moneys, 377, 412, 
 
 429. 
 Intetnments, Monastic, 170, 173. 
 Interregnum, the Great, 245. 
 Ireland, 158, 200, 208. 
 Iron Coins, 119, 347. 
 Isabella, Wife of Edward II., 
 
 232. 
 Italiote Coins, 32. 
 Italy, 423. 
 Ivan Vidfami, 263. 
 
 Jaku of Gold (see laku). 
 Japan, Japanese, 89, 122, 289. 
 Jehovah, Name of, on Coins, 285, 
 
 286. 
 Jews, 8s, 92, 97, 128, 207-8, 212, 
 
 216, 218, 229, 271, 321. 
 John, King of England, 182, 193, 
 
 207-8. 
 John II., King of France, 154, 
 
 182.' 
 John II., King of Denmark, 
 
 Sweden, and Norway, 276. 
 John of Nikios cited, 130. 
 Jornandes cited, 96, n. 
 Judith, Daughter of Charles the 
 
 Bald, 172, 175. 
 
 Julin, City, 254, 261-62, 309, 324. 
 Julius Caesar (see Caesar). 
 Justinian Code (see Codex). 
 Justinian I., Sovereign-Pontiff, 
 
 92, 97, 260. 
 Justinian II., Sovereign-Pontiff, 
 
 92, 134- 
 
 Kahinah, Queen of the Berbers, 
 
 132. 
 Kent, Kingdom, 152. 
 Khuen, Khuen-Aten, 116. 
 Klippings, 278-79, 288. 
 Knife-Money, 357. 
 Koran, 144, 146, 192 n, 387. 
 Kremnitz, 73 
 Kroner (Sweden), 306. 
 
 Land Measured by £ s. d., 98, 
 
 214. 
 Lands Granted to the Church, 
 
 171. 
 Latin Monetary Union, 372, 383. 
 Law, the Basis of Money, 36. 
 Leather Money, 18, 181-2, 200, 
 
 208, 215, 221, 263, 267, 272, 274. 
 Legal Tender, 107, 205. 
 Liber Pater (see Bacchus), 42. 
 I. s. d. System, 29, 49, 94, 9S 
 
 n, 98, 104 n, ios-6, iiS, I49, 
 
 178, 180, 181, 213, 222. 
 Libra of Money (see Livre). 
 Libra of Weight (see Livre). 
 Light Coins, 217, 233, 235, 415. 
 Limitation, the Essence of 
 
 Money,, Preface, 292, 296. 
 Livius Drusus, 83. 
 Livre of Money and Accounts, 
 
 39, 49, 54, 60, 98, 256, 259, 3 16, 
 
 342. 
 Livre of Weight, SO, Si, 59, 97- 
 Livy, cited, 57, 97. 
 Lombards, 216. 
 London, 170, 175, 238, 239. 
 Louis IX., 182, 248-49. 
 Louis, le Debonnaire, 170-71, 
 
 261, 334, 392. 
 Lowndes cited, 159 n, 191, 217, 
 
 221, 227. 
 Ludica, King of Mercia, 170. 
 
 MacLeod, H. D., cited, 60 n, 
 
 328. 
 Magna Charta, 209-10, 224. 
 Mahomet, 105, 128. 
 
INDEX 
 
 439 
 
 Mallgard, 255. 
 
 Mancus, 72, 124, 150, 155, 162, 
 
 174 n, 211. 
 Mania, 128. 
 Manillas, 117. 
 Maravedi, 115, 123, 188, 205, 216, 
 
 236-37, 316, 342. 
 Marc Antony, 29. 
 Marco Polo, 395. 
 Mark, Banco, 324, 373. 
 Mark, German Imperial, 379. 
 Mark, Money, 121, 123, 153, 162, 
 
 177 n, 180, 189, 204 n, 259-60, 
 
 274, 276, 281, 284. 
 Mark, Weight, 121, 153, 260-61, 
 
 281, 284, 302, 334. 
 Markets, 154, 194, 258. 
 Martel (see Charles Martel). 
 Massachusetts Mint, 325. 
 Massacre of St. Bride's, 181. 
 Massacre of Stockholm, 277. 
 Massacre of Jews (q. v.), 212, 
 
 212 n, 271. 
 Matthew Paris cited, 211, 227, 
 
 248. 
 Maundy Money, 49. 
 Measure of Value, pref., 215, 388, 
 
 390- 
 Menapia, 308, 333. 
 Mercantile System (see Exports, 
 
 &c.), 251, 338. 
 Mercia, a Kingdom of Britain, 
 
 152, 170. 
 Merk (see Fairs), 258 n. 
 Merovingians, 70, 109-10, 157. 
 Metallic Limitation to Money, 
 
 103. 
 Metallurgy, 158. 
 Metals, yy, 102, 324, 389; for 
 
 Money, 324. 
 Michieli, Doge of Venice, 182. 
 Mexico, 262. 
 Mikliardi, 258. 
 Miliaresion, 150. 
 Mine Slavery (see Slavery), 102. 
 Mines, Mining, 91, 100, 102, 108, 
 
 222, 248, 292, 368. 
 Mines, Royal, loo, 247. 
 Mint Act of 1666, 214, 388. 
 Mint Indentures, Acts and 
 
 Codes (see Act of 1666), 108, 
 
 220, 223, 232, 243, 336-37, 347, 
 
 352, 378, 389, 403-29- 
 Mints, 91, 100, 162, 203, 208, 216, 
 
 331, 23s, 242, 406. 
 
 Minuta, 123. 
 
 Mir, or Commune of the Rus- 
 sians, 152, 258. 
 
 Mithcal, 141, 237. 
 
 Moawijah, Caliph, 134. 
 
 Monasteries (see Internments), 
 208. 
 
 Monetary Commission and Con- 
 ventions, 236, 242, 251, 30s, 347, 
 351-52, 359-60, 368, 377- 
 
 Monetary History, divisions of, 
 386. 
 
 Monetary Policy, 383. 
 
 Monetary Systems, 21, 28, 58, 
 143, 162, 174, 191, 199, 200, 203, 
 212, 253, 267, 326, 331, 336, 341, 
 343, 380. 
 
 Money a National Institution, 
 224, 247, 378, 387; Principles 
 and Nature of, pref., 24, 36, 99, 
 103 n, 107, 119, 121-22, 253, 255, 
 291, 294, 343, 370, 378, 384, 389; 
 Right to Create, 122, 253, 319, 
 386. 
 
 Moneyers, or Minters, 91, 100, 
 156, 158, 193, 201, 203, 272. 
 
 Moneys, Alterations of, 191, 252, 
 318. 
 
 Monograms, Sacred, on Coins, 
 53. 
 
 Mons, the Gothic Hero, 279. 
 
 Moors, 399. 
 
 Moslems, 115, 125, 188, 207, 312. 
 
 Mourdanish, 237. 
 
 Mousa-ben-Nosier, 132, 159. 
 
 Municipal Money, 107. 
 
 Murcia, 152 n. 
 
 Mutilation of Ancient Texts, 117, 
 117 n. 
 
 Mythology, loi. 
 
 Napoleon, 355, 384. 
 
 National Attributes or Marks, 
 
 224, 247, 387. 
 National Money, 225, 247, 378, 
 
 388. 
 Nautae Parisiaci, 264. 
 Navicularii, 264. 
 Navigation, 308. 
 Nero, Sov.- Pont., 97. 
 Netherlands, 255, 307, 423. 
 Nevahend, Battle of, 131. 
 Nevada Silver Scare, 337, 339, 
 
 378. 
 New Amsterdam, 325. 
 
440 
 
 INDEX 
 
 New York, 323. 
 Nimeguen, 266. 
 Noble, or Half Mark, 198, 241, 
 
 314, 322. 334- 
 Nomisma, vii., 384. 
 Normans, 123. . 
 Norsemen (see Goths). 
 Northumbria, 152, 160, 170, 175, 
 
 200. 
 Norway, Norwegians, 272, 300. 
 Novgorod, Province, 152, 159, 
 
 263, 269, 271; City, 152, 159, 
 
 182, 19s; Veleki, 258, 262. 
 Numerical Character of Money, 
 
 pref., 293, 375. 
 Numero, ad, 196. 
 Numismatics, 236, 260, 273. 
 Nummulary Grammar, 225. 
 Nummulary Systems, pref., 22. 
 Numrnus, 20. 
 
 Ober-Iessel, 274 n, 307. 
 
 Obole, 152, 213, 239. 
 
 Octavius Augustus (see Augus- 
 tus). 
 
 Odericus Vitalis, 160. 
 
 Odin, 263 n, 272. 
 
 Offa, King of Mercia, 105, 151 n, 
 152, 158, 169, 180, 190, 263. 
 
 Olaf I., Trygvaeson, King of 
 Norway, 182, 258, 269, 272, 273, 
 
 Olaf II., King of Norway, 164, 
 
 257. 
 Ommiades, or Omeiads, 126, 
 
 270. 
 Ora, Coin, in, 118-19, 124, 162, 
 
 176 n, 178 n, 259. 
 Ora, Weight, 121, 188. 
 Oriental Trade and Ratio, 86, 91, 
 
 102, 269, 317. 
 Osbrecht (see Osbright). 
 Osbright, King of Northumbria, 
 
 ISS. 160. 
 Overvalued Silver Pennies, 167, 
 
 181, 187-88, 212, 220-21, 236. 
 
 Pagan and Christian Moneys, 
 
 310, 388. 
 Pagan Effigies on Corns, 290. 
 Pagodas, 388, 395- 
 Papal Indulgences (q. v.). 
 Paper Moneys (see Leather, 
 
 Pasteboard and Banks), 107, 
 
 292, 298-99, 304-S, 321, 327, 353, 
 
 361-62, 372, 375, 397- 
 
 Parliament, 246. 
 
 Pasteboard Dollars, 280, 281, 327. 
 
 Paulus cited, 21, 253, 384. 
 
 Pax Sterlings, 187. 
 
 Payment in Kind, 197. 
 
 Pegge, Dr. Samuel, cited, 212. 
 
 Pennies (see Sterlings), 150, 166, 
 
 180, 224, 232. 
 Pensum, ad, 191, 106. 
 Pepin, le Bref., 62, 109, 150, 157, 
 
 31Z, 333- 
 Permutation of Merchaiidise, 
 
 194, 268, 
 Persia, 128, 135. 
 Peso, 428. 
 Peter's Pense (see Rome-Scat), 
 
 169, 200, 253, 272. 
 Philip I., King of France, 182. 
 Philip IV., le Bel., King of 
 
 France, 219, 226, 247, 251. 
 Philip II., the Bigot, King of 
 
 Spain, 92, 321, 335. 
 Phocas, Sovereign-Pontiflf, 109. 
 "Pinetree" Shillings, 217, 245, 
 
 325. 
 Pix, Trial of the, 84, 203, 217, 
 
 247, 251. 
 Plack, Scotch Coin, 258 n. 
 Plantagdnets, 198-99, 218, 223, 
 
 250. 
 Plate and Plated Coins, 217, 219. 
 Plato cited, 21, 384. 
 Pliny cited, 17, 30, 31, 36, 82, 86, 
 
 97, 117 n, 250. 
 Pollards, 216, 219, 228. 
 Poltowa, Battle, 295. 
 Pontificate, 125, 253, 344, 350. 
 Population, 207. 
 Porcelain Coins, 267. 
 Portcullis Coins, 395. 
 Portugal, 416. 
 Pound, or Pondo, 29, 30, 59, 95, 
 
 353- 
 
 Pound of Account (see £. s. d.). 
 
 Pounds, Shillings and Pence 
 (see I. s. d.). 
 
 Precious Metals, Production and 
 Consumption, 324, 337, 378, 
 382; Cost of production,. 291, 
 346, 383, 401 ; Movements, 288, 
 326, 402; Stock on Hand, 207, 
 
 294, 345- 363, 369, 413- 
 Prerogatives of Money, 23, 24, 
 27, 35. 37, 44> 46, 48. 60, 67, 73. 
 
INDEX 
 
 441 
 
 93, lOl, 146, 166, 180, 224, 231, 
 232, 252, 319, 330, 337, 343, 387. 
 
 Private Coinage, 37, 64, 147, 231, 
 248, 288, 289, 294, 306, 322, 325- 
 28, 336-37, 346-47 n, 351.- 371, 
 376, 377, 379-80, 386-87-88-89- 
 91-92, 400; Its Origin, 387, 395. 
 
 Proconsuls, Roman, loo, 249. 
 
 Provincial Moneys, 107. 
 
 Prussia, 350, 353. 
 
 Puritans, 326. 
 
 Quantitative Theory, pret, 294. 
 Queipo cited, 143, 153. 
 Quindecemvirs, 140, 224. 
 Quinto, 146. 
 
 Ragnar Lodbrok, 171. 
 
 Ramtenkis (Rama-tankas), 88. 
 
 Ratio (Gold to Silver) : Chilian, 
 429; Chinese, 287 n, 393; Chris- 
 tian, 310, 311; Dutch, 310-11-12, 
 
 317, 321-22, 329, 332, 337; 
 Egyptian, 395; English, 158, 
 169, 184, 193, 238, 241, 314, 328, 
 397; Etruscan, 109; Florentine, 
 60; Prankish, 109, 312, 317; 
 French, 168, 193, 225, 316, 393, 
 397; Germany, 317, 343, 348, 
 350, 355, 36s, 367, 381, 397; 
 Gothic, 79, 105, 121-22, 140, i6S, 
 259, 274, 277, 283, 288, 313-14, 
 398; Greek, 259; Indian, 79, 89, 
 104, 158, 388, 394; Italian, 357; 
 Japanese, 122, 399; Moslem, 79, 
 IDS, 109, 129, 139, 140-41, 156- 
 57, 165, 170, 188, 236, 266, 309- 
 10, 394-95-98; Oriental, 87, 168, 
 259, 397, 398; Pagan, 310; Per- 
 sian, 259, 393; Portuguese, 388, 
 398-99, Prussian, 351, 367-68; 
 Roman, 37, 38, 59, 63, 79, 87, 
 91, 96, 105, 109, 123, 139, 140, 
 157, 158, 166, 172, 178, 180, 189, 
 194, 223, 238-39, 256, 259, 275, 
 309, 311, 319,332, 343, 393, 397, 
 400; Sacred, 311; Spanish, 168, 
 
 318, 35 1, 355, 397-98; Special, 
 306; Hegemony, of the, 351, 
 3SS; Conflict, 335-36, 35i, 367- 
 68; International Mint, 35'; 
 Exceptional, 366. 
 
 Rations Used as Money, 163. 
 Rayed Effigies on Coins, 50. 
 
 Raymond Lully, 240. 
 
 Redeemable Coins, 107. 
 
 Redemption Notes, 405, 429. 
 
 Regalian Rights (see Preroga- 
 tive, etc.), 236, 242, 247, 251, 
 330. 
 
 Regenfroy, King of Denmark, 
 171. 
 
 Regulation of Money (see Con- 
 trol), 240. 
 
 Religion Indicated by Moneys, 
 104, 272. 
 
 Rett, or Indemnity, 179. 
 
 French, 319. 
 
 Revolutions: Roman Money- 
 ers, 50; Ghent, 317; Nether- 
 lands, 316, 319, 321, 329, 349; 
 French, 280; England, 326; 
 British Colonies in America, 
 
 245- 
 Riksbank of Sweden (see Bank 
 
 of Stockholm). 
 Riksbank of Sweden, Daler, 
 
 New, 303. 
 Riksbank of Sweden, Daler, 
 
 Old, 393. 
 Riksbank of Sweden, Silver 
 
 Notes, 305. 
 Riksdaler, 300, 303. 
 Riksdaler, Banco, 300. 
 Riksdaler, Effective, 301. 
 Riksdaler, Specie, 301. 
 Riksgald Daler, 300. 
 Riksmynt Daler, 300. 
 Ring Money (see Bangs). 
 Rise of Prices (see Tulip), 327, 
 
 369. 
 
 "Robbers' Dens," 194. 
 
 Roderic, King of Spain, 105. 
 
 Roger II., King of Sicily, 105. 
 
 Rolla, 175. 
 
 Roman British Towns, no, in. 
 
 Roman Coins in England, 189. 
 
 Roman Empire, 319. 
 
 Roman Government Restored, 
 104, no, III. 
 
 Roman Monetary Systems, loi, 
 107, 123, 14&. 
 
 Roman Pontificate (see Pontif- 
 icate), 125, 253, 344, 350. 
 
 Roman Provinces, 100, 107, no. 
 
 Roman Sacred Constitution, 125, 
 189, 212. 
 
442 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Rome-Scat (see Peter's Pence), 
 ii6, IS3, 169 n, 272 n. 
 
 Rothschilds, The, 391 n, 407. 
 
 Rounding (see Clippers). 
 
 Royal Mines (see Mines). 
 
 Royal Prerogative (see Prerog- 
 ative). 
 
 Royal Proprietors of Banks of 
 Issue, 303, 339. 
 
 Rundstycks, 280, 289. 
 
 Runes, 114, 121-22, 152, 267, 275, 
 282. 
 
 Rupee, 425. 
 
 Rurik, 182, 266, 267, 272. 
 
 Sa;al, or lessel (q. v.). 
 
 Sacae, 254. 
 
 Sacred Character of Gold, 25, 
 
 35, 66, 74, 79, 80, 89, 104, 105, 
 
 118, 127, 148, 189, 212, 320, 324, 
 
 386. 
 Sacred College (see Quinde- 
 
 cemvirs). 
 Sagas, 113-14, 117, 257, 258, 275, 
 
 282. 
 Saiga, 162, 259, 310-11. 
 Salic, 162. 
 
 Saracens (see Moslems). 
 Sassanian Coins, 142. 
 Saxons, Saxony, 105, 254, 263, 
 
 27s, 307, 308. 
 Scad (see Scat), 115. 
 Scalam, ad, 190, 196. 
 Scandinavia, 107,, 140, 151, 254, 
 
 277. 
 Scat, 104, 107, IIS, 121, 150, 158, 
 
 161, 162. 
 Score," 95 n. 
 Scot (see Scat), 115. 
 Scotland, 200, 258. 
 Scrupulum, 27. 
 Scyphates, 88, 189. 
 Scythia, 113, 116. 
 Seigniorage, 20, 68, 100, 107, 
 35, 242, 274, 289, 302, 306, 314, 
 
 324, 328. 
 Sesterce, 30, 102. 
 Shad (see Scat), 161. 
 Shekel (see Sicca). 
 Shilling, Gold, 57, 96, 104-5, m, 
 
 123, 156, 168, 199, 209, 224, 2S7, 
 
 260, 310, 312. 
 Shilling of Account (see £. s. d.), 
 
 168, 183, 20g. 
 
 Shilling, Silver, 104 n, 168, 257. 
 Sicca, Sical, Shekel, 162, 267, 
 
 298, 357- 
 Sicilian Coins, 104 n. 
 Sicilicus, Scilling, Shilling (q. 
 
 v.), 104, iss, 357. 
 Sil, Sild, 115, 264. 
 Siliqua, 150, 237. 
 Silver Plate (q. v.), 71, 219. 
 Silver Coinage Relegated to 
 
 Vassal Kings, 197, 204, 319. 
 Silver, Domestic and Foreign, 
 
 23.1. 
 Silver Money, 71, 76, 88, 224, 
 
 329. 
 Slavery, Mining, 275. 
 Smith, Adam, cited, 331. 
 Social Aspects of Money, 122 n. 
 Soetbeer, 337 n, 347, 362, 382. 
 Solidus (see Besant), 257. 
 Sols Banco, 324. 
 Sophisms of Money, 291, 319 n, 
 
 369, 370 n. 
 Spain, 129, 140, 200, 350-51. 
 Spanish America, 321, 326, 347, 
 
 350, 383- 
 Spanish-American Silver Scare, 
 
 347- 
 Spanish-Arabian Empire, 200, 
 
 309- 
 Special Contract Law of Money, 
 
 302. 
 Spoil, 90, 121, 136, 146 200, 207, 
 
 289, 291, 335. 
 St. Albans, 210, 212, 216. 
 St. Louis Convention, 392. 
 Stability of Money, 320, 348 n. 
 Standard, 37, 212, 214, 219, 247, 
 
 252, 260, 267, 274, 283, 323, 339, 
 
 369, 371, 374- 
 Staples or Emporia, 195, 269, 
 
 270. 
 Star Chamber, 388, 396. 
 State Control of Money, 279. 
 Stephen, King of England, 193, 
 
 200. 
 Sterling, 149, 159, 160, 295. 
 Sterlings, or Pennies, 149, 151, 
 
 159, 187, 192, 208-9, 215, 221, 
 
 224, 229, 232, 235, 25s, 295, 309. 
 Stiver, 316. 
 
 Storch, Count Henri, 383. 
 Styca, 121, 162. 
 Sun- Worship, 308-9, 356. 
 
INDEX 
 
 443 
 
 Suspension of Coin Payments, 
 402. 
 
 Svastica, 121, 122. 
 
 Sveyne, Canutson, King of Nor- 
 way, 273. 
 
 Sveyne, King of Mercia and 
 Northumbria, 258. 
 
 Sweated Coins, 345. 
 
 Sweden, 276, 417. 
 
 Tael (see Talent), 425. 
 
 Talent (see Dollar), 95, 276, 282, 
 28s, 315-16, 342, 349, 357-58, 
 373, 428. 
 
 Tampering with Money (see 
 Adulterations, Debasements, 
 Degradations, and Forgeries), 
 198-99, 211, 321, 344-45- 
 
 Tanka, Silver Coin, 144. 
 
 Tarik, 132. 
 
 Tavannes, 347 n. 
 
 Taxes, 103, 142, 297, 304, 3^7, 3I9. 
 354- 
 
 Tel-el- Amarna, 116. 
 
 Ten Divisions of the Solar Cir- 
 cle, 94- fS' 
 
 Ten Silver for One Gold, 95. 
 
 Teutonic Monk-Knights, 366. 
 
 Thaler (see Dollar), 350, 379. 
 
 Theodebert, 109, 109 n. 
 
 Theodosian Code, (q. v.). 
 
 Thirty Years' War, 290, 349. 
 
 Three Necessities, The, 172. 
 
 Thrimsa, 162, 178, 183 n. 
 
 Tiberius, Sov-Pont., 308. 
 
 Tin and Tin Coins, 121, 200, 204- 
 6, 208-9, 213 n, 216, 221, 230. 
 
 Tithes, 142. 
 
 Titles of Nobility Sold, 427. 
 
 Toledo, 133. 
 
 Topes, 86 n. 
 
 Tournois, or Turneys, 234. 
 
 Tower of London (see Mints), 
 208-217. 
 
 Trade Corporations (q. v.), 346. 
 
 Transmutation of Metals, 240. 
 
 Transport-Notes, 292, 298. 
 
 Treasure-Trove, 185 n, 202, 247- 
 48. 
 
 Treasury (see Exchequer). 
 
 Treaties (see Monetary Conven- 
 tions). 
 
 Trial of the Pix (q. v.). 
 
 Tributes, 133, 134, 260, 319, 332. 
 
 Triente, 159, 209, 310. 
 
 Tulip-Mania, 325. 
 Turkey, no, 113, 424. 
 Twelve a Sacred Number, 94. 
 Twelve Divisions of the Solar 
 
 Circle, 94. 
 Twelve Silver for One Gold, 91. 
 Tyke or Turk Dialect, 149. 
 
 Uncovered Notes, 363. 
 Uniform Moneys, 320, 347, 379, 
 
 412. 
 Unit Coins, 376. 
 Unit of Circulation, 300. 
 Unit of Money, 99, 375. 
 Unit of Value, 301. 
 United States, 359, 383, 404-411, 
 
 417-22. 
 Upsala, 162 n, 263, 272-3. 
 Ural Gold Scare, 337. 
 Usurers and Usury, 234. 
 
 Vadmal, 1 15-16, 264. 
 
 Valens, Sov-Pont., 96. 
 
 Value, pref., 100, 200, 369, 384. 
 
 Vandals, 131, 266. 
 
 Varangians, 269. 
 
 Varaya, 388. 
 
 Veneti (see Vinet), 189, 195, 265, 
 
 308. 
 Vienne, De (see De Vienne). 
 Vinet, IS9, 254, 258, 261-62. 
 Vishnu, 388. 
 Von Humboldt, 369, 384. 
 
 Waldemar I., Denmark, 224 n, 
 
 271. 
 Wallenstein, 290. 
 War-Chests, 363, 415. 
 Watchtowers, City of, 149. 
 Weight, Coins Used for, 213. 
 Weights, Systems of,' 355. sj i'^ 
 Werdenhagen cited, 266. 
 Wessex, Kingdom, 171. 
 Wiglaf, King of Mercia, 170. 
 William I., King of England, 
 
 123, IS4, 184, 190. 
 William IL, King of England, 
 
 158, 192. 
 William the Bad, King of Sicily, 
 
 182. 
 Williamsby, 164, 257. 
 Winet (see Vinet). 
 Wismar, 298. 
 Wissel Bank of Amsterdam, 292, 
 
 322, 335- 
 
444 INDEX 
 
 Woote, Emperor of China, 182. York, 170, 175. 
 Worship of Augustus, 41, 131. „ , . „ 
 
 Zecchin, 183. 
 Yarranton, Andrew, cited, 326. Zikka (see Sicca), 162, 183 n. 
 Yes-sel, or Yssel (see les-sel). Zodiac, 9S n. 
 
 THE END. 
 

 'X^