The History of Currency, 1252 to 1896 Part 9

In contrast with this all the succeeding periods have, up to 1660, a distinct character and statistical bearing. An enormous and ever-increasing advance in general prices occurs, but it is no longer, as before, on level lines of the two metals equally. The proportion of the production of the two metals changes, so rich was the yield of the silver mines of Potosi. From being the same with that of gold, the value of silver produced suddenly rises to three times and then to four times that of its rival; and at once the ratio changes, bringing with it all its accompaniment of feverish instability and flux.

[Sidenote: STATEMENT OF THE RATIO, 1500-1660]

The average result in the ratio was as follows:--

1545-60 11.30 1561-80 11.50 1581-1600 11.80 1601-20 12.25 1621-40 14.00 1641-60 14.50 1661 15.0

As far as can be ascertained the detailed statement of the ratio during the whole period, 1500-1660, is as follows:--

+------+------+------+-------+------+---------+------------+-------+------+ | | | N | | | | | | | | | | e | | | | | | | | | E | t | | | Germany |S.W. Germany| | | | Date.| n | h |France.|Spain.|(Imperial|(Wurtemburg,|Venice.| Date.| | | g | e | | | System).| Strasburg, | | | | | l | r | | | | Colmar). | | | | | a | l | | | | | | | | | n | a | | | | | | | | | d | n | | | | | | | | | . | d | | | | | | | | | | s | | | | | | | | | | . | | | | | | | +------+------+------+-------+------+---------+------------+-------+------+ | 1474 | | | | 9.824| | | | 1474 | | 1475 | | | |10.985| | | | 1475 | | 1480 | | | |11.555| | | | 1480 | | 1483 | | | |11.675| | | | 1483 | | 1484 | | | | | 11.37 | | | 1484 | | 1489 | | 10.5 | | | 11.2 | | | 1489 | | 1497 | | | 11.83 |10.755| | | | 1497 | | 1506 | | | |10.262| | | | 1506 | | 1511 | | | | | | | | 1511 | | 1517 | | | | | 10.31 | | 11.32 | 1517 | | | | | | | (Erfurt)| | | | | 1519 | | 10.15| 11.76 | | | | 12.04 | 1519 | | 1524 | | | | | 11.38 | | | 1524 | | 1527 | 12.23| | | | | | 10.03 | 1527 | | 1529 | | | | | | | 11.07 | 1529 | | 1537 | | | |10.760| | | | 1537 | | 1539 | | | 11.68 | | | | | 1539 | | 1540 | | 10.62| 11.82 | | | | | 1540 | | 1542 | | | | | | 11.27 | | 1542 | | 1548 | | 11.0 | | | | | | 1548 | | 1549 | | | 11.86 | | | | | 1549 | | 1550 | | | 12.07 | | | | | 1550 | | 1551 | | | 11.47 | | 10.83 | | | 1551 | | 1552 | 11.1 | | | |(Imperial| | | 1552 | | | | | | | Edict) | | | 1552 | | 1553 | 11.05| | | | | | | 1553 | | 1554 | | 10.70| | | | | | 1554 | | 1559 | 11.79| | | | 11.44 | 11.55 | | 1559 | | 1560 | | | 11.77 | |(Imperial| | | 1560 | | | | | | | Edict) | | | | | 1561 | | | | | | | 10.81 | 1561 | | 1562 | | | | | | 11.01 | 11.53 | 1562 | | 1566 | | | |12.294| 11.55 | | | 1566 | | 1572 | | 12.42| | | | | | 1572 | | 1573 | | | 11.76 | | | | 12.33 | 1573 | | 1575 | | | 11.68 | | | 11.11 | | 1575 | | 1576 | | 12.67| | | | | | 1576 | | 1578 | | | | | | | 10.61 | 1578 | | 1579 | | 10.62| | | | | | 1579 | | 1582 | | | | | | 11.40 | | 1582 | | 1583 | | | | | | 10.93 | | 1583 | | 1585 | | | | | 11.63 | | | 1585 | | 1586 | | 10.66| | | | | | 1586 | | 1587 | | | | | | 12.03 | | 1587 | | 1589 | | 11.21| | | | | | 1589 | | 1590 | | | | | | 11.86 | | 1590 | | 1590 | | | | | | 11.32 | | 1590 | | 1591 | | | | | | 10.95 | | 1591 | | 1593 | | | | | | 11.18 | | 1593 | | 1594 | | | | | | 11.70 | 12.34 | 1594 | | 1596 | | 10.90| | | 11.50 | | | 1596 | | 1597 | | | | | | 11.78 | | 1597 | | 1597 | | | | | | 12.16 | | 1597 | | 1598 | | 11.29| | | | | | 1598 | | 1599 | | | | | | 11.05 | | 1599 | | 1601 | 10.90| | | | | 11.86 | | 1601 | | 1602 | | | 11.88 | | | 12.22 | | 1602 | | 1603 | | 11.64| | | | 12.24 | | 1603 | | 1605 | 12.15| | | | | 12.01 | | 1605 | | 1605 | | | | | | 12.49 | | 1605 | | 1606 | | 11.92| | | | | | 1606 | | 1607 | | | | | | 12.61 | | 1607 | | 1608 | | | | | | 12.16 | 11.04 | 1608 | | 1608 | | | | | | 12.46 | | 1608 | | 1610 | | 12.54| | | 12.2 | | | 1610 | | 1611 | 13.32| | | | | 12.08 | | 1611 | | 1612 | | | |13.52 | | 12.30 | | 1612 | | 1613 | | | | | | 12.35 | | 1613 | | 1613 | | | | | | 12.29 | | 1613 | | 1615 | | 12.03| 13.90 | | | 12.31 | | 1615 | | 1617 | | | | | | 12.58 | | 1617 | | 1618 | | | | | | 12.11 | | 1618 | | 1619 | | 12.10| | | | | | 1619 | | 1620 | 13.34| | | | | | | 1620 | | 1621 | | 12.5 | | | | | | 1621 | | 1622 | | 12.65| | | | | | 1622 | | 1623 | | | | | 11.64 | 11.74 | | 1623 | | 1624 | | | | | | 13.42 | | 1624 | | 1624 | | | | | | 12.58 | | 1624 | | 1626 | | 12.65| | | | | | 1626 | | 1630 | | | | | | | 10.31 | 1630 | | 1631 | | | | | | 13.42 | | 1631 | | 1633 | | 12.65| | | | | | 1633 | | 1634 | | | | | | 15.10 | | 1634 | | 1635 | | | | | | 14.80 | | 1635 | | 1636 | | | 15.36 | | | | | 1636 | | 1637 | | | | | | 15.10 | | 1637 | | 1638 | | 13.39| | | | | 14.38 | 1638 | | 1640 | | | 14.49 | | | | | 1640 | | 1643 | | | 13.5 | | | | 15.37 | 1643 | | 1645 | | 14.13| | | | | | 1645 | | 1648 | | | | | | | | 1648 | | 1651 | | | | | | | | 1651 | | 1652 | | 14.13| | | | | | 1652 | | 1653 | | 14.13| | | | | | 1653 | | 1656 | | | 14.71 | | | | | 1656 | | 1660 | | | | | | | | 1660 | | 1663 | | 14.43| | | | | | 1663 | | 1665 | | | |16.47 | | | 14.39 | 1665 | | 1667 | | | | | 12.88 | | | 1667 | | 1669 | 14.48| | | | 15.13 | | | 1669 | | 1679 | | | 14.91 | | | | | 1679 | | 1690 | | | | | 15.13 | | | 1690 | +------+------+------+-------+------+---------+------------+-------+------+

To treat of these countries in detail.

[Sidenote: THE NETHERLANDS IN SIXTEENTH CENTURY]

Netherlands.

During the period under consideration, the seventeenth century especially, the monetary history of the Netherlands supplies the key to that of the surrounding nations. The history of her monetary exchanges has yet to be written, and of her Mint ordinances very little is accessible, as compared, e.g., with France. But this is more than compensated by the numerous "plakkaats" or proclamations of the tariff of coins, which are to us practical indicators of the rates of exchange.

The Netherlands, as has been already said, were the centre of European commerce in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, as the Italian States had been in the fourteenth and fifteenth; and every change in the precious metals or in the coins showed itself in the Antwerp Bourse as surely and swiftly as to-day in London. As prompt to take knowledge of these changes as Florence had been two centuries earlier, the authorities tabulated the various coinages which were current in the Low Countries,--and practically that meant the coinage of commercial Europe,--tariffed them against their own by proclamation, and instantly accommodated themselves to each new change or variation of value by a new proclamation and a new tariff. These proclamations, therefore, give us the measure and course of the monetary movements of the time in fullest and most welcome details.

It has been already shown that this action of the government of the Netherlands has a twofold aspect. From one side it expresses and regulates the natural flow and ebb of commerce, just as exchange rates and bullion remittances do to-day. And in this sense it was perfectly normal, healthy, and sound, more especially in so far as it provided for the gradual drawing away overplus metal to the East. But the Governments of Europe were yet under the spell of the delusion as to a balance of trade payable in gold--that delusion which was, later, dignified in history by the name of the mercantile theory. Nor had they yet lost the traces of that mediaeval craft and lawlessness which rose from, and prompted to, the mere desire of robbing or pilfering their neighbour's store of precious metal as the first act of self-defence. Further than this the monetary system of Europe--unconsciously bimetallic and with an appalling variety of ratio prevalent at the same moment in different places--lay open, helpless and defenceless, and inviting to the bullionist, financier, or arbitragist. In so far as this element of national greed and dishonesty, or private and unprincipled gain, entered into the legislative enactments of the Netherlands, it condemns them as mercenary, and the monetary straits or tightness, not to say crisis and panic which ensued, as unnecessary and therefore in the highest degree lamentable.

[Sidenote: SIXTEENTH-CENTURY ARBITRAGE]

In a blind way the age saw what was going on behind the financier's screen, however little it understood the theory of it. In many a sixteenth-century doc.u.ment, preserved among the State papers in the Record Office at London, abuse is piled on the Netherlands for their practices in enticing away the coin of the realm. One of the correspondents of the Privy Council in the days of Elizabeth, 1575, writes thus from the Netherlands: "The Low Country merchants return great stores of money hither by exchanges, and by the proceeds, as the exchange may serve for their purposes, they send away her majesty's coin and bullion into the Low Countries in great quant.i.ties, and the rather by reason of the Hollanders trading with the East, by which means the realm will be secretly robbed, if it be not prevented." Twenty years later the whole subject was again gone into, for the fiftieth time, for the advice of the English Privy Council, and it was shown how "foreign exchangers contrived, by arranging a rise or fall in particular monies, to undervalue English monies, and draw them out of the kingdom.

Prevention has been vainly attempted by Acts of Parliament, by sending over Sir Thomas Gresham to the Low Countries to complain, and by establis.h.i.+ng the office of exchanger, which was discontinued as injurious to the State. A bank was proposed, but the Queen had not to spare the 100,000 needed to start it. It is now proposed to settle the exchange at 10 or 12 per cent., to be fixed yearly, according to the state of affairs, 20 per cent. or more being sometimes paid now."

The _navete_ and helplessness of the suggestions contained in these concluding words need not blind us to the real and pressing gravity of the monetary situation to which they relate, and which periodically beset each and every European Government throughout the centuries under consideration.

Such, therefore, is the aspect of these monetary ordinances or plakkaats of the Netherlands in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

To speak of them in detail.

The first of the Low Country proclamations, containing an _evaluatie_, or tariff, is dated 2nd January 1516, and it marks the commencement of the influence of the American discoveries. (See table below.) By the succeeding proclamation of 4th February 1520, golden reals were subst.i.tuted for the golden florin. Its provisions remained nominally in force for twenty years or so, but almost immediately the movement towards higher prices made itself felt, and it was in consequence of this, and after fruitless negotiations with the merchants of Antwerp, that Charles V. issued a series of four closely consecutive proclamations (1521, March 1522, 19th June 1524, 25th November 1525).

The first three concern gold, the last only bears witness to the rise of silver by attempting to check it and call it down. Similarly, in his ordinance of 10th December 1526, he enacted that the price ruling on the 4th February 1520 should be again used, and should be reached at two drops or intervals, so as to create the less disturbance between debtor and creditor. The ordinance proved fruitless, and was twice renewed, in 1531 and 1539. In spite of them all, the rise in prices against which the authorities tried to fight, continued and had to be recognised. By the ordinance of 11th July 1548 a higher limit of values was permitted.

Then, for a dozen years or so, attempts were made, by the proclamations of 23rd March 1552 and 24th October 1559, to make those prices of 1548 the basis, and to compel a return to it in the future, while recognising temporarily the higher prices ruling at the moment. And so the process repeats itself continually--a further rise of prices, complaints of the disorder in the currency and exchanges, and a new _evaluatie_ issued, regulating the exchanges at the higher rate for the moment, and providing for the reduction of prices to previous limits, from and after such and such a date.

[Sidenote: THE NETHERLAND PLAKKAATS]

In the accompanying table wherever two figures are coupled together thus,

2 4} 1 19}

the higher figure represents the price ruling at the date of the ordinance, the lower figure is the price to which return was to be made from and after some date fixed thereby. A simple glance at the tables will show how futile and foredoomed was every such attempt to rule and compel the exchanges. For the explanation of these tables it will be sufficient to give the dates of the Netherlands ordinances, premising that up to 1586 the series was applicable to the whole Netherlands, but that from that date there is a separate series for the Seven United Provinces, and for the Spanish Netherlands.

Netherlands Plakkaats.

27th July 1572.

7th February 1573.

22nd June 1574 (countenances the rise of prices over those of 1572 only until the end of the year).

3rd December 1575.

19th April 1576 (for Holland and Zealand, and to continue for only six months, when, by the ordinance of 25th October of the same year, a considerably lower limit was prescribed).

1579. In this year no less than four plakkaats were issued, with the object of enforcing a reduction of prices, but in vain, and the last of the four, issued on the 19th December, was obliged to recognise some portion of the rise of prices which it was attempted to counteract.

9th October 1581. In less than a year the effect of the strenuous attempt in 1579 had been completely swept away, and a further advance had to be recognised.

From 1586 the series of proclamations divides into two, as has been said, owing to the revolt and establishment of the United Netherlands.

The one set, relating to the Spanish Netherlands, includes proclamations of

30th April 1590, again recognising provisionally a further advance, and renewed on

15th December 1593,

21st October 1594,

16th November 1599,

23rd June 1602 (with some slight alterations),

30th December 1605, attempting to restrain a farther advance,

30th June 1607,

13th May 1609,

30th September 1610,

22nd March 1611, again recognising the inevitable advance.

The last named remained in force until 21st May 1618, with the exception of not being applicable in Volkenburg, Dalen, and Limburg, where the abnormal height to which monies had risen necessitated a special ordinance (4th March 1616), lowering the price to the limit of 22nd March 1611, by five separate three-monthly steps or intervals.

[Sidenote: THE PLAKKAATS OF THE UNITED PROVINCES]

The second and separate series of monetary ordinances issuing from their High Mightinesses, the States-General of the United Provinces, is remarkably parallel to the above. It begins with the ordinance of 2nd September 1594: "In view of the rising price of gold and silver," it says, a "lessening of that price to the limit of 1586 is ordered at three intervals, 15th September 1594, 10th November, 10th January 1595."

Like the contemporary enactment of the Spanish Netherlands, it proved ineffectual, and a further rise had to be recognised in the ordinance of 2nd March 1596, and again of 2nd April 1603. The preambles of these ordinances, which are preserved in the huge collections of Can and Scheltus, generally recite their purpose of providing against the disorders in the coinage, caused by the daily rise in price, by the greed and licence of the times, and by the inrush of the silver coins of other states. Such is specially the tenor of that of 21st March 1606, one of the most famous of these ordinances. Two years later an attempt was made to reduce prices to the limit of 1606. It proved ineffectual, and by the proclamations of 1st July 1610, 26th September 1615, and 13th February 1619, further advances were recorded. By the last-named, renewed on 5th June 1621, an attempt was made to re-establish the prices of 1610.

So much for the ordinances themselves. It is only necessary to add, for their general elucidation, that they generally contain and prescribe in detail the value of each separate coin circulating in the Low Countries at the particular time, coupled with an engraving of the coin, as an a.s.sistance to the people in recognising them. Indeed, some of the ordinances, that of 1606 for instance, contain engravings of upwards of 1000 different pieces--a significant witness to the international welter of coins in the Netherlands exchange. Dissected in detail, with regard to only a few of these coins, the tabular result is as follows:--

THE NETHERLAND PLAKKAATS +---------------------------------++----------------------------------+ | German Gold Guldens. || Spanish Ducats. | |(75 to a Mark of Gold, 18 Carats || (70 to a Mark of Gold, 23 Carats | | 4 Grs. Fine.) || 7-1/2 Grs. Fine.) | +-----------+---------------------++-----------+----------------------+ | | Declared Value || | Declared Value | | | in Netherlands || | in Netherlands | | Date. | Currency as by the || Date. | Currency as by the | | | Plakkaats. || | Plakkaats. | | +----------+----------++ +----------+-----------+ | | Florins. | Stivers. || | Florins. | Stivers. | +-----------+----------+----------++-----------+----------+-----------+ | 1499 | 1 | 8 || 1499 | 1 | 19 | | 1522 | 1 | 10 || 1522 | 2 | 3 | | 1526 | 1 | 12 || 1526 | 2 | 4 | | | 1 | 8 || | 1 | 19 | | 1539 | 1 | 9 || 1539 | 2 | 1 | | | 1 | 8 || | 1 | 19 | | 1548 | 1 | 10 || 1548 | 2 | 1 | | 1552 | 1 | 11 || 1552 | 2 | 2 | | 1559 | 1 | 12 || 1559 | 2 | 5 | | 1572 | 1 | 15 || 1572 | 2 | 7 | | 1573 | 1 | 19 || 1573 | 2 | 15 | | 1574 | 1 | 16 || 1574 | 2 | 13 | | 1575 | 2 | 0 || 1575 | 3 | 0 | | 1576 | 2 | 0 || 1576 | 3 | 3 | | | 1 | 17 || | 2 | 12 | | 1577 | 2 | 0 || 1577 | 3 | 3 | | 1579 | 2 | 3 || 1579 | 3 | 4 | | | 2 | 4 || | 3 | 0 | | | 2 | 2 || | 2 | 18 | | | 2 | 3 || | 3 | 0 | | 1581 | 2 | 8 || 1581 | 3 | 6 | | 1590 | 2 | 9 || 1590 | 3 | 10 | | 1605 | 2 | 10 || 1599 | 3 | 15 | | 1607 | 2 | 12 || 1609 | 3 | 19 | | 1609 | 2 | 15 || 1618 | 4 | 1 | | 1611 | 2 | 16-1/2 || | | 1618 | 2 | 17-1/2 || United Netherlands. | | || 1586 | 3 | 8 | | United Netherlands. || 1594 | 3 | 12 | | 1586 | 2 | 8 || | 3 | 10 | | 1594 | 2 | 12 || | 3 | 8 | | | 2 | 10 || 1596 | 3 | 9 | | | 2 | 8 || 1603 | 3 | 16 | | 1596 | 2 | 10 || | 3 | 15-1/2 | | 1603 | 2 | 14 || | 3 | 15 | | 1606 | 2 | 15 || 1606 | 3 | 16 | | 1608 | 2 | 17 || 1608 | 4 | 0 | | | 2 | 16 || | 3 | 18 | | | 2 | 15 || | 3 | 16 | | | | || 1610 | 4 | 0 | | 1610 & | 2 | 18 || 1615 | 4 | 1 | | onwards | | || 1619 | 4 | 2 | | | | || 1621 | 4 | 4 | +-----------+----------+----------++-----------+----------+-----------+