Part 716

"The quantity, particularly of gold, … was, in the earlier historical periods, according to unexceptionable testimony, extremely small. In the time of Crœsus, according to Theopompus, gold was not to be found for sale in any of the Greek States. The Spartans, needing some for a votive offering, wished to purchase a quantity from Crœsus; manifestly because he was the nearest person from whom it could be obtained. … Even during the period from the seventieth to the eightieth Olympiads, (B. C. 500-460,) pure gold was a rarity. When Hiero of Syracuse wished to send a tripod and a statue of the Goddess of Victory, made of pure gold, to the Delphian Apollo, he could not procure the requisite quantity of metal until his agents applied to the Corinthian Architiles, who, as was related by the above-mentioned Theopompus and Phanias of Eresus, had long been in the practice of purchasing gold in small quantities, and hoarding it. Greece proper itself did not possess many mines of precious metals. The most important of the few which it possessed were the Attic silver mines of Laurion. {2203} These were at first very productive. … Asia and Africa furnished incomparably a larger quantity of the precious metals than was procured in Greece and the other European countries. … Colchis, Lydia, and Phrygia, were distinguished for their abundance of gold. Some derive the tradition of the golden fleece from the gold washings in Colchis. Who has not heard of the riches of Midas, and Gyges, and Crœsus, the gold mines of the mountains Tmolus and Sipylus, the gold-sand of the Pactolus? … From the very productive gold mines of India, together with its rivers flowing with gold, among which in particular the Ganges may be classed, arose the fable of the gold-digging ants. From these annual revenues the royal treasure was formed. By this a great quantity of precious metal was kept from circulation. It was manifestly their principle to coin only as much gold and silver as was necessary for the purposes of trade, and for the expenditures of the State. In Greece, also, great quantities were kept from circulation, and accumulated in treasuries. There were locked up in the citadel of Athens 9,700 talents of coined silver, besides the gold and silver vessels and utensils. The Delphian god possessed a great number of the most valuable articles. … The magnificent expenditures of Pericles upon public edifices and structures, for works of the plastic arts, for theatrical exhibitions, and in carrying on wars, distributed what Athens had collected, into many hands. The temple-robbing Phocians coined from the treasures at Delphi ten thousand talents in gold and silver; and this large sum was consumed by war. Philip of Macedonia, in fine, carried on his wars as much with gold as with arms. Thus a large amount of money came into circulation in the period between the commencement of the Persian wars and the age of Demosthenes. The precious metals, therefore, must of necessity have depreciated in value, as they did at a later period, when Constantine the Great caused money to be coined from the precious articles found in the heathen temples. But what a quantity of gold and silver flowed through Alexander's conquest of Asia into the western countries! Allowing that his historians exaggerate, the main point, however, remains certain. … Alexander's successors not only collected immense sums, but by their wars again put them into circulation. … The enormous taxes which were raised in the Macedonian kingdoms, the revelry and extravagant liberality of the kings, which passed all bounds, indicate the existence of an immense amount of ready money."

_A. Boeckh, The Public Economy of the Athenians, book 1, chapter 3._

MONEY AND BANKING: Phœnicia.

"Nearly all the silver in common use for trade throughout the East was brought into the market by the Phœnicians. The silver mines were few and distant; the trade was thus a monopoly, worth keeping so by the most savage treatment of suspected rivals, and, as a monopoly, so lucrative that, but for the long and costly voyage between Spain and Syria, the merchant would have seemed to get his profit for nothing. … The use of silver money, though it did not originate with the Phœnicians, was no doubt promoted by their widespread dealings. The coins were always of known weight, and standing in a well-known relation to the bars used for large transactions."

_E. J. Simcox, Primitive Civilizations, volume 1, page 400._

"It is a curious fact that coinage in Phoenicia, one of the most commercial of ancient countries, should have been late in origin, and apparently not very plentiful. There are, in fact, no coins of earlier period than the third century which we can with certainty attribute to the great cities of Tyre and Sidon. Some modern writers, however, consider that many of the coins generally classed under Persia—notably those bearing the types of a chariot, a galley, and an owl respectively— were issued by those cities in the 5th and 4th centuries B. C. But it is certain, in any case, that the Phoenicians were far behind the Greeks in the art of moneying. With the invasion of Persia by Alexander the Great came a great change; and all the ancient landmarks of Asiatic government and order were swept away. During the life of Alexander the Great the coins bearing his name and his types circulated throughout Asia; and after his death the same range of currency was attained by the money of the early Seleucid Kings of Syria—Seleucis I., Antiochus I., and Antiochus II., who virtually succeeded to the dominions of the Persian Kings, and tried in many respects to carry on their policy. Of these monarchs we possess a splendid series of coins."

_S. Lane-Poole, Coins and Medals, chapter 6._

MONEY AND BANKING: The Jews.

"It would seem that, until the middle of the second century B. C., the Jews either weighed out gold and silver for the 'Price of goods, or else used the money usually current in Syria, that of Persia, Phoenicia, Athens, and the Seleucidae. Simon the Maccabee was the first to issue the Jewish shekel as a coin, and we learn from the Book of Maccabees that the privilege of striking was expressly granted him by King Antiochus VII. of Syria. We possess shekels of years 1-5 of the deliverance of Zion; the types are a chalice and a triple flower. The kings who succeeded Simon, down to Antigonus, confined themselves to the issue of copper money, with Hebrew legends and with types calculated not to shock the susceptible feelings of their people, to whom the representation of a living thing was abominable—such types as a lily, a palm, a star, or an anchor. When the Herodian family came in, several violations of this rule appear."

_S. Lane-Poole, Coins and Medals, chapter 6._

ALSO IN: _G. C. Williamson, The Money of the Bible._

MONEY AND BANKING: Rome.

"In Rome the generic terms for money seem to have been successively, pecunia, As, nummns, and moneta. … Moneta … is derived from the name of the temple in which, or in a building to or next to which the money of Rome was coined after the defeat of Pyrrhus, B. a. 275, more probably after the capture of Tarentum by the Romans, B. C. 272. It probably did not come into use until after the era of Scipio, and then was only used occasionally until the period of the Empire, when it and its derivatives became more common. Nummus, nevertheless, continued to hold its ground until towards the decline of the Empire, when it went entirely out of use, and moneta and its derivatives usurped its place, which it has continued to hold ever since. Moneta is therefore substantially a term of the Dark Ages. … The idea associated with moneta is coins, whose value was derived mainly from that of the material of which they were composed; whilst the idea associated with nummus is a system of symbols whose value was derived from legal limitation. {2204} From the fact that our language sprang from the Dark Ages, we have no generic word for money other than moneta, which only relates to one kind of money. For a similar reason, the comparative newness of the English tongue, we have no word for a piece of money except coin, which, properly speaking, only relates to one kind of piece, namely, that which is struck by the cuneus."

_A. Del Mar, History of Money in Ancient Countries, chapter 28._

The extent and energy of the Roman traffic, in the great age of the Republic, during the third and second centuries before Christ, "may be traced most distinctly by means of coins and monetary relations. The Roman denarius kept pace with the Roman legions. … The Sicilian mints—last of all that of Syracuse in 542—were closed or at any rate restricted to small money in consequence of the Roman conquest, and … in Sicily and Sardinia the denarius obtained legal circulation at least side by side with the older silver currency and probably very soon became the exclusive legal tender. With equal if not greater rapidity the Roman silver coinage penetrated into Spain, where the great silver-mines existed and there was virtually no earlier national coinage; at a very early period the Spanish towns even began to coin after the Roman standard. On the whole, as Carthage coined only to a very limited extent, there existed not a single important mint in addition to that of Rome in the region of the western Mediterranean, with the exception of the mint of Massilia and perhaps also of those of the Illyrian Greeks at Apollonia and Epidamnus. Accordingly, when the Romans began to establish themselves in the region of the Po, these mints were about 225 subjected to the Roman standard in such a way, that, while they retained the right of coining silver, they uniformly—and the Massiliots in particular—were led to adjust their drachma to the weight of the Roman three-quarter denarius, which the Roman government on its part began to coin, primarily for the use of upper Italy, under the name of the 'piece of Victory' (victoriatus). This new system, based on the Roman, prevailed throughout the Massiliot, Upper Italian, and Illyrian territories; and these coins even penetrated into the barbarian lands on the north, those of Massilia, for instance, into the Alpine districts along the whole basin of the Rhone, and those of Illyria as far as the modern Transylvania. The eastern half of the Mediterranean was not yet reached by the Roman money, as it had not yet fallen under the direct sovereignty of Rome; but its place was filled by gold, the true and natural medium for international and transmarine commerce. It is true that the Roman government, in conformity with its strictly conservative character, adhered—with the exception of a temporary coinage of gold occasioned by the financial embarrassment during the Hannibalic war—steadfastly to the rule of coining silver only in addition to the national-Italian copper; but commerce had already assumed such dimensions, that it was able in the absence of money to conduct its transactions with gold by weight. Of the sum in cash, which lay in the Roman treasury in 597, scarcely a sixth was coined or uncoined silver, five-sixths consisted of gold in bars, and beyond doubt the precious metals were found in all the chests of the larger Roman capitalists in substantially similar proportions. Already therefore gold held the first place in great transactions; and, as may be inferred from this fact, the preponderance of traffic was maintained with foreign lands, and particularly with the East, which since the times of Philip and Alexander the Great had adopted a gold currency. The whole gain from these immense transactions of the Roman capitalists flowed in the long run to Rome. … The moneyed superiority of Rome as compared with the rest of the civilized world was, accordingly, quite as decided as its political and military ascendancy. Rome in this respect stood towards other countries somewhat as the England of the present day stands towards the continent."

_T. Mommsen, History of Rome, book 3, chapter 12 (volume 2)._

In the later years of the Roman Republic the coinage became debased and uncertain. "Cæsar restored the public credit by issuing good money, such as had not been seen in Rome for a length of time, money of pure metal and exact weight; with scarcely any admixture of plated pieces, money which could circulate for its real value, and this measure became one of the principal sources of his popularity. Augustus followed his example, but at the same time took away from the Senate the right of coining gold and silver, reserving this exclusively to the imperial authority, which was to exercise it absolutely without control. From this time we find the theory that the value of money is arbitrary, and depends solely on the will of the sovereign who issues it, more and more widely and tenaciously held. … The faith placed in the official impress fostered the temptation to abuse it. … In less than a century the change of the money of the State into imperial money, and the theory that its value arose from its bearing the effigy of the sovereign, produced a system of adulteration of specie, which went on growing to the very close of the Empire, and which the successors of Augustus utilized largely for the indulgence of their passions and their prodigality."

_F. Lenormant, Money in Ancient Greece and Rome (Contemporary Review, February, 1879)._

MONEY AND BANKING: Mediæval Money and Banking.

As regards the monetary system of the Middle Ages, the precious metals, when uncoined, were weighed by the pound and half pound or mark, for which different standards were in use, the most generally recognised being those of Troyes and Cologne. Of coined money there existed a perplexing variety, which made it almost impossible to ascertain the relative value, not only of different coins, but of the same coin of different issues. This resulted from the emperor or king conferring the right of coinage upon various lords spiritual and temporal, from whom it was ultimately acquired by individual towns. The management was in most cases entrusted to a company, temporary or permanent, inspected by an official, the coin-tester, originally appointed by the sovereign, but afterwards by the company, and confirmed by the king or bishop. The house where the process of coining was performed was called the mint, and the company who held the rights of coinage in fee was known as the Mint House Company, or simply the House Company. Very generally the office was held by the Corporation of Goldsmiths. The want of perfect supervision led to great debasement of the currency, especially in Germany and France; but in England and Italy the standard was tolerably well maintained. {2205} Payments in silver were much more common than in gold. Before the Crusades the only gold coins known in Europe were the Byzantine solides, the Italian tari, and Moorish maurabotini. The solidi, which were originally of 23 to 23½ carat gold, but subsequently very much deteriorated, were reckoned as equal to twelve silver denars. They passed current in Southern and Eastern Europe, Hungary, Germany, Poland, and Prussia. … Solde, sol, and sou are only repeated transformations of the name of the coin, which have been accompanied by still greater changes in its value. The tari or tarentini derived its name from the Italian town where it was originally struck. It was less generally known than the solides, and was equal to one-fourth the latter in value. The maurabotini or sarazens were only of 15 carats gold. The name survives in the Spanish maravedi, which, however, like the sou, is now made of copper instead of gold. In the thirteenth century augustals, florentines, and ducats, or zecchins (sequins), were coined in Italy. The first-mentioned, the weight of which was half an ounce, were named in honour of Frederick II., who was Roman Cæsar and Augustus in 1252. The florentines, also known as gigliati, or lilies, from the arms of Florence, which they bore on one side, with the effigy of John the Baptist on the reverse, were of fine gold and lighter than the solidi, about 64 being reckoned equal to the mark. The ducats or zecchins were of Venetian origin, receiving their first name from the Duca or Doge, and the other from the Zecca or Mint House. They were somewhat less in value than the florentines, 66 or 67 being counted to the fine mark. Nearly equivalent in value to these Italian coins were the gold guilders coined in the fourteenth century in Hungary and the Rhine regions. The Rhenish guilder was of 22½ or 23 carats fine, and in weight 1/66; of a mark of Cologne. The silver guilder was of later production, and the name is now used as equivalent to florin. … In silver payments, the metal being usually nearly pure, it was common to compute by weight, coins and uncoined bullion being alike put into the scale, as is still the case in some Eastern countries. Hence the origin of the pound, livre, or mark. The most widely diffused silver coin was the denarius, which was, as in ancient Roman times, the 11/240 of a pound. The name pending or pennig, by which the denarius was known among the old Teutonic nations, seems to be connected with pendere, to weigh out or pay; as the other ancient Teutonic coin, the sceat, was with sceoton, to pay, a word which is preserved in the modern phrases 'scot free,' 'pay your scot.' … Half-pennies and farthings were not known in the earliest times, but the penny was deeply indented by two cross lines, which enabled it to be broken into quarters or farthings (feordings or fourthings). From the indented cross the denarius was known in Germany as the kreutzer. … With such a diversity of coinage, it was necessary to settle any mercantile transaction in the currency of the place. Not only would sellers have refused to accept money whose value was unknown to them, but in many places they were forbidden to do so by law. Merchants attending foreign markets therefore brought with them a quantity of fine silver and gold in bars, which they exchanged on the spot for the current coin of the place, to be used in settling their transactions; the balance remaining on hand they re-exchanged for bullion before leaving. The business of money-changing, which thus arose, was a very lucrative one, and was originally mostly in the hands of Italian merchants, chiefly Lombards and Florentines. In Italy the money-changers formed a guild, members of which settled in the Netherlands, England, Cologne, and the Mediterranean ports. In these different towns and countries they kept up a close connection with each other and with Italy, and at an early period (before the thirteenth century) commenced the practice of assignments, i. e., receiving money in one place, to be paid by an order upon their correspondents in another, thus saving the merchant who travelled from country to country the expense and risk of transporting specie. In the thirteenth century this branch of business was in extensive use at Barcelona, and in 1307 the tribute of 'Peter's pence' was sent from England to the Pope through the Lombard exchangers. From 5 to 6 per cent., or more, was charged upon the transaction, and the profitable nature of the business soon led many wealthy and even noble Italian families to employ their money in this way. They established a member of their firm in each of the great centres of trade to receive and pay on their account. In Florence alone (about 1350) there are said to have been eighty such houses. Among these the Frescobaldi, Bardi, and Peruzzi are well-known names; but the chief place was taken by the famous Florentine house of the Medici, who had banking houses established in sixteen of the chief cities of Europe and the Levant. In the north of Europe, before long, similar arrangements were established by the merchants of the Hanseatic League. … Assignments of this kind were drawn out in the form of letters, requesting the person by whom the money was due to pay it over to another party, named in the bill, on account of the writer, specifying also the time within which and the form in which the payment was to be made. They were thus known as letters, billets, or bills of exchange, and appear in Italy as early as the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Among the earliest examples in existence are a letter of exchange, dated at Milan in 1325, payable within five months at Lucca; one dated at Bruges, 1304, and payable at Barcelona; and another, dated at Bologna, 1381, payable in Venice. … 'The first writers who treat of bills are Italians: the Italian language furnishes the technical terms for drafts, remittances, currency, sight, usance, and discount, used in most of the languages of Europe.' … Of other branches of banking the germs also appeared in the Middle Ages. Venice seems to have been the first city to possess something answering to a deposit bank. The merchants here united in forming a common treasury, where they deposited sums of money, upon which they gave assignments or orders for payment to their creditors, and to which similar assignments due to themselves were paid and added on to the amount at their credit. The taula di cambi (exchange counter) of Barcelona was a similar institution, as also the bank of St. George, at Genoa."

_J. Yeats, Growth and Vicissitudes of Commerce, appendix F._

The name "Lombards" was frequently given, during the Middle Ages, to all the Italian merchants and money-lenders—from Florence, Venice, Genoa, and elsewhere—who were engaged throughout Europe in banking and trade.

{2206}

MONEY AND BANKING: Florentine Banking.