The History of Currency, 1252 to 1896 Part 32

3. _Zahender_ = 1/10 Rhenish gold gulden, 80 to mark, 15 loth fine.

4. _Groschen_ = 1/21 Rhenish gold gulden, 12 loth fine, 136 to mark.

Besides these coins, the ordinance recognised temporarily a whole series of then-current pfennige. Thus--

Strasburg pfennige, 126 to the gulden.

Wurtemberg " 168 "

Rappen " 157-1/2 "

Rhenish " 210 "

Saxon " 252 "

Rader " 312 "

As explained in the text (p. 96), this ordinance came nowhere into observance, and twenty-nine years later Charles V. issued his second Imperial Ordinance at the Reichstag of Augsburg (1551).

The system then attempted to be inst.i.tuted was based on a mark of fine silver = 10 florins 12-1/2 kreutzers but in denomination a double system was employed--

1. Gold gulden = 60 kr.

2. {Gold gulden } = 72 "

{Gulden groschen}

1. The Reichs gulden (= 1 gold gulden = 72 kreutzers) was prescribed thus--7-1/2 to the mark, 14 loth 2 grs. fine (see account of thaler, _supra_).

2. The kreutzer-piece was prescribed--237 to the mark, 6 loth 1 gr.

fine (= 626-3/4 to the mark of fine silver).

3. The groschen (= 1/24 Reichs gulden)--94-1/2 to the mark, 7 loth 5 grs. fine (= 207-99/131 to the mark of fine silver).

Accompanying these regulations, however, there was a tariff as before, but more comprehensive, for the temporary recognition of a miscellaneous ma.s.s of coins of the Rhine, the Netherlands, Lower Saxony, Higher Saxony, Franconia, and the mark of Brandenburg. Thus--

GROSCHEN.

Reichs groschen, at 12 pfennige, 24 = 1 gulden, at 72 kreutzers.

Groschen of Misnia and Franconia, at 12 pfennige, 25-1/5 = " "

Rhenish _albi_ and Netherland stuyvers, at 8 pfennige, 28 = " "

Lubeck sch.e.l.lingen, at 12 pfennige, 28-4/5 = " "

Groschen of the Mark, at 8 pfennige, 38-2/5 = " "

PFENNIGE.

Of the Tyrol, 300 = 1 gulden, at 60 kreutzers.

Of Lubeck, 288 = " "

Of the mark of Brandenburg, 256 = " "

Of Saxony and Franconia, 252 = " "

Of Austria, 4 loth fine, 649 to the mark, 240 = " "

Of Bavaria, 210 = " "

Of the Rhine, 186-2/3 = " "

Of Swabia, 180 = " "

Of Wurtemberg, 168 = " "

Rappen, 250 = " "

Of Strasburg, 120 = " "

This ordinance obtained no more vogue than its predecessor, the main cause of its slighting being the dissatisfaction of the powers of Upper and Lower Saxony at the tariffing of the thaler, which they declared to be too low, and accordingly advanced (1555) to 24 groschen (= 32 Marien groschen = 72 kreutzers).

The third Imperial Ordinance was issued at Augsburg on the 19th August 1559. Practically the same standard and basis was maintained as in the preceding ordinance, the mark of fine silver being coined into 10 florins 13-1/2 kreutzers in the larger species.

But in the detail of these larger species an important difference was established.

The silver gulden had hitherto been equal to the gold gulden. The actual specie silver gulden in pieces of the time was nominally equivalent to 60 kreutzers. But since 1551 there had been minted a Reichs gulden in specie equal to 72 kreutzers.

In order to mark the difference it was determined to coin in future only silver gulden = 60 kreutzers, while the gold gulden was put at 75 kreutzers.

The specie authorised by this third Imperial Ordinance therefore were--

1. Gold gulden, 72 to mark, 18-1/2-carat fine, to equal 75 kreutzers.

2. Silver Reichs gulden, 9-1/2 to the mark, 14 loth 16 grs. fine, to equal 60 kreutzers.

3. Thaler, or 72 kreutzers silver gulden, to be discontinued.

4. Kreutzer, to equal 1/80 gulden, 243-1/2 to the mark, 6 loth 4 grs. fine (= 626-1/7 to the mark fine).

5. Reichs groschen, to equal 1/24 gulden, 8 loth fine, 108-1/2 to the mark; and a few other species.

The lower denominations (pfennige and h.e.l.ler) were minted on the basis of the mark = 11 florins 5 kreutzers.

Almost immediately, protestations were raised against this ordinance, especially by the Lower Westphalian Circle, and it remained quite inoperative. The succeeding Reichstag at Augsburg again authorised the issue of the thaler (8 to the mark, 14 loth 4 grs. fine, so that the fine mark = 10 florins 12 kreutzers).

As late as the Reichstag of Regensburg (1594) desultory attempts were made to establish a uniform system, but all practical idea of it had long ceased, and the regulation of Mint matters henceforth fell into the separate jurisdiction of the various Circles. The Lower Circles went their own way at their meetings at Cologne (1566, 1572, and 1582), as did the Upper Circles in their separate meetings in 1564 and 1572 at Nordlingen and Nurnberg.

At its meeting at Luneburg in 1568 the Lower Saxon Circle adopted a system not far removed from that of the third Imperial Mint Ordinance of 1559. The mark of fine silver was to be coined into 10 florins 43-11/67 kreutzers, and the thaler was fixed at 24 groschen (=72 kreutzers).

Underneath this separately concerted action of the Circles, however, licence and disorder prevailed in the issue of smaller pieces of a grossly depreciated nature, before which the good heavy silver species disappeared, leaving the greatest confusion, together with a continual rise in prices or fall in the standard. The imperial proclamations of 20th January and 24th September 1571 were of no avail against this process, and by 1585 the mercantile rate had risen, thus--

Philipps thaler = 82 kr.

Reichs thaler = 74 "

Gulden groschen = 64 "

In 1596 the Imperial Commissioners at Frankfort provisionally recognised as a tariff--

Gold gulden = 80 kr.

Reichs thaler = 72 "

Gulden groschen or thaler = 64 "

But later in the same year these authorities at Strasburg set the Reichs thaler at 84 kreutzers (mark of fine silver = 12 fl. 36 kr.). As the disorder of the _Kipper und Wipper Zeit_ broke over the Empire, in consequence of the process of wilful depreciation, the Emperor made several public attempts at its arrestation by letters addressed to the various Circles separately (1601, 1603, and 1607). Meanwhile, the Reichs thaler had risen to 90 kreutzers (mark of fine silver = 13-1/2 florins).

According to this valuation the gulden of 1551 of 72 kreutzers was set at 94 kreutzers, and the gulden of 1559 of 60 kreutzers was set at 79 kreutzers.

It was on this latter basis (of the 60-kreutzer Reichs gulden of 1559 = 79 kreutzers) that was founded the later Misnian, Franconian, and Kammer-Gerichts currencies of the eighteenth century, which did not materially differ amongst themselves, thus--