The History of Currency, 1252 to 1896 Part 35

4. Silver--

Prussian thaler as before, 10-1/2 to the mark gross (= 14 to the mark fine).

7. Thaler to be subdivided into 30 groschens 12 pfennige; the latter tenderable only up to 1/6 thaler.

8. Silver groschen = 106-2/3 to the mark, 2/9 silver (= 16 thalers to the mark fine).

By the law of 1821, this standard came into operation in 1626, and it remained the standard for Prussia and her provinces until the developments in modern times, specified in the text, p. 215.

At the convention of Dresden, 30th July 1838, the Prussian 14-thaler or 21-gulden standard was adopted, along with the South German or 24-1/2-gulden standard as the standard of the German Zollverein.

Subsequent to that date the Prussian system was adopted by Hanover, Brunswick, Oldenburg, Mecklenburg, Waldeck, Lippe, etc.

PRUSSIAN MINTINGS FROM THE REFORM OF 1809 TO THE END OF 1836.

Thaler pieces 70,850,560 1/6 " " 16,942,307 ---------- 87,792,867 Full-weighted silver previously in currency 95,709,282 ----------- Total of full-weighted silver 183,502,149 ===========

One-third pieces, minted 1809-11 237,151 Billon divisional money, minted 1821-36 2,949,760 ----------- Thalers 186,689,060

Withdrawn since 1809-36--

1/5-thaler pieces 319,522 thalers 1/12 " " 135,504 "

1/15 " " 428,256 "

------- 883,282 ----------- 185,805,778 ===========

The gold coinage had, in Prussia, little relativity to the silver.

From 1750 this state minted double, single, and half-pistoles, under the name, Friedrichs d'or, on the basis of 35 to the mark, 21-3/4 carats fine, for the single piece.

From 1770 the standard was lowered to 21-2/3 carats, and at this it was confirmed by the law of September 1821.

The ascertained mintings of these were as follows:--

1764-86 29,599,482-1/2 thalers.

1787-1808 26,515,490 "

1809-36 13,922,960 "

But long before 1840 almost the whole of this amount had disappeared or been melted down.

In state payments the Friedrich d'or was taken at 5 thalers, but in ordinary commerce up to 1783 they were taken at 5-1/4 thalers, a tariff which gradually rose to 5-1/3 and 5-1/2 thalers. The purchases of gold which the Bank of England made in 1816, in order to its resumption of cash payments, drove the pistole or Friedrich d'or up to 5-3/4 thalers, and it was not for ten years that it fell back to 5-2/3 thalers.

Although paid by Government at this latter, and so continued till the Mint Convention of 1853, it was only as a mercantile commodity. The only legal standard and tender in Prussia was silver (the silver thaler), to which gold was varyingly ratable, according to market fluctuations.

The Prussian system thus described remained in force until the Vienna coinage treaty of 24th January 1857, the details of which have been already stated in the text. The resolutions of that treaty were adopted by the Prussian Mint law of 4th May 1857, as follows:--

1. The Prussian pound of 500 grms., decimally divided, is subst.i.tuted for the previous standard of 233.865 grms.

2-6. The thaler continues the regular silver coin of the country--

Thirty thalers to the pound of pure silver, .900 fine.

Thus the 30-thaler standard to take the place of the old 14-thaler standard, but the two to be treated as the same.

The thaler to be coinable as a convention thaler or Vereins thaler; thaler to be subdivided into 30 groschens, at 12 pfennige.

7-8. Divisional coin limited in tender to 1/6 thaler as before, and both minted on a 34-1/2-thaler standard.

11. Gold commercial coins shall be coined under the names of "crown" and "half-crown," in the form and with the attribution of confederation coins, viz.--

1. Crown, 1/50 of a pound of fine gold (.900 fine).

2. Half-crown, 1/100 " "

These coins shall be the special gold coins of the country, and other gold pieces shall not henceforth be coined.

14. The silver value of the gold coinage shall be entirely fixed by the relation of the supply to the demand, and no one is bound to take gold in the place of the legal silver value of the country.

16. Our Finance Minister is empowered to settle the price at which the crown and the half-crown shall be taken into our pay offices.

The established rate, as well as the permission to receive crowns and half-crowns instead of silver coins in our offices, may at any time be revoked or restricted by the publication of a proclamation by our Finance Minister.

19. Our Minister of State is also authorised to fix the value above which foreign gold and silver coins must not be offered or given in payment in ordinary transactions.

The subsequent course of events and the existing Prussian (Imperial German) system have been already specified (see text, p. 215).

Hamburg.

The origin of the common Mint standard of Lubeck and Hamburg was the division of the mark into 16 schillingen, and each schilling into 12 pfennige. The metal mark and the Mint mark soon parted company, and by the time of the treaty of 1255 the two states agreed to mint the mark of fine silver into 38 schillingen 10 pfennige (= 2 marks 6 schillingen 10 pfennige).

The Wendish standard was established by the adoption in 1325 of the Hamburg-Lubeck treaty by Wismar and Luneburg.

In 1433 this Wendish standard adopted the Cologne mark as its weight basis.

COURSE OF DEPRECIATION OF THE STANDARD.

Mks. Sch. Pf.

1226--The mark of fine silver coined into 2 2 0 1255 " " " 2 9 5 1293 " " " 2 9 8 1305 " " " 2 15 5 1325 " " " 3 0 9 1353 " " " 3 10 11 1375 " " " 4 3 0 1398 " " " 4 15 2 1403 " " " 5 1 11 1411 " " " 5 12 5 1430 " " " 8 8 0 1450 " " " 9 12 2 1461 " " " 11 8 10 1506 " " " 12 8 0

The Mint Union of the Wendish states continued until the beginning of the seventeenth century, when it expired unperceived. The experience of Hamburg in the _Kipper und Wipper Zeit_, with its resultant establishment of the Hamburg Bank, has been already referred to.

In 1667 Hamburg freely joined the _Zinnaische_ standard, according to which the mark of fine silver was coined into 10-1/2 thalers (= 31 marks 8 schillingen, _Hamburger courant_). She, however, hesitated to follow the German system in its change over to the Leipzig standard in 1690, and after an interim period of weltering disorder, during which the standard varied from 30 marks to 34 marks 8 schillingen per mark fine of silver, the State adopted in 1725 the so-called Lubeck standard (1 mark fine = 34 marks), as the Hamburger courant.

This standard had existed in Holstein from 1693. In 1788 and 1789 long and serious debates were held in Hamburg on the question of the subst.i.tution of a lighter (or lower) standard. And seventy years later a change in such direction had practically effected itself, although not legislatively recognised. By 1850 the actual currency of the state consisted mostly of silver coins of the Prussian (or 14-thaler) standard, circulating at an equivalence of 1 thaler = 2-1/2 marks Hamburger courant (= 40 schillingen), an equivalence implying a standard of 35 marks courant to the mark of fine silver.

Legally, however, the 34-marks standard remained in force until the coalescence of the free state of Hamburg with the new imperial German system in our own days.

The question of the agio of the _Hamburg banco_ system belongs rather to the history of banking.