only 20d.”[1] Similar depreciations took place in the cases of the Spanish maravedi and the Portuguese rei. At the present these coins are so subordinate, where they have not been abolished, as to possess little practical interest.
It is well to notice before concluding the question of depreciations that it is the poorer classes who especially suffer from a change in the coinage. The reasons of this are very plain, for from their ignorance they are less able to understand the nature of the alteration, and, even if it were not so, the absence of available resources places them at a disadvantage in comparison with others. Masters and dealers are quick to discount—so to speak—the nominal value of the depreciated money, and prices are much more speedily adjusted to the new state than wages, so that it may be confidently asserted that a debased coinage is especially injurious to the more helpless classes of society. The same remark applies to an over-issue of inconvertible paper.[2]
7. Economic Aspects of the Production of the Precious Metals.—In considering various monetary questions it is essential to have some acquaintance with the economic aspects of the production of gold and silver. The technical matters connected with the processes of preparing those metals for use are to be found in the articles Gold and Silver (q.v.). The first point to which we will here direct attention is the field over which production extends. At one time or other these two metals have been found in every continent. Asia Minor in early times possessed its gold fields, or rather auriferous sands.[3] Ceylon also undoubtedly contained gold mines. China and India both produced silver to a considerable extent. Egyptian remains show that gold was commonly known in that country, probably procured from Nubia and Abyssinia, On the opposite side of Africa, too, the name of Gold Coast shows that that metal was thence exported. Neither Asia nor Africa, however, has been the main contributor to the stock of money in more modern times. The mines of Laurium in Attica were a source of supply to the Greeks, and were worked as a state monopoly. At an earlier date the Babylonian and Assyrian empires had each large accumulated stores of gold. The Phœnician importations of gold from the Red Sea coasts (Ophir) are known from Scripture.[4] The Persian kings from the time of Darius levied tribute on all their provinces, in gold from India, in silver from the remaining districts; and the larger part of this was stored up in the royal treasuries.[5] This tendency of sovereigns to accumulate had all through ancient history important effects on the economic structure of society. At present it is quite natural to assume that the materials of money are distributed by means of international trade, and tend to keep at an equal level all the world over, an assumption which is in general well grounded, though an important exception exists. Ancient history presents a widely different set of forces in operation. Gold and silver were produced by slaves under the pressure of fear, and were drawn towards the ruling parts of the great empires; in a word, war, not commerce, was the distributing agency. From this condition of affairs it is easy to see that whatever may be the reasons for assigning to cost of production a potent influence over the value of money in modern times (and grounds have been already advanced for the belief that this influence has been exaggerated), no such reasons then existed. The production of the precious metals was carried on, as the great buildings and other works of those periods, on non-economic grounds, and therefore produced quite different effects. The whole history of the Persian monarchy to its overthrow by Alexander (330 B.C.) shows that the mass of the precious metals hoarded up continued constantly to increase. On the capture of Persepolis by the Grecian army an enormous treasure was found there, some estimates placing it as high as 120,000 talents of gold and silver (£27,600,000).[6] All the temples, too, were receptacles for the precious metals, so that the stock accumulated at about 300 B.C. must have been very great. The only causes which tended to diminish the store were the losses arising from wars, when the various treasuries were liable to be plundered and their contents dispersed.[7] There was therefore a more unequal distribution of the material of money than at present. The growth of the Roman dominion led to important results, since under their rule the Spanish mines were developed and became a leading source of supply. The great masses of treasure set towards Rome, so that it became the monetary centre of the world. The overthrow of the Republican government and the peace which followed also affected the conditions of production. The inefficiency of the Roman administration made it advantageous to let out the mines to farmers, who worked them in a wasteful and improvident manner, while the supply of slaves was reduced, thus depriving the lessees of their principal agency for carrying on production. The result was a continuous decline in the store of money. Mr Jacob has made an attempt to estimate the amount at the death of Augustus (14 A.D.), and he arrives at the conclusion that it was £358,000,000.[8] Without placing much value on this necessarily conjectural estimate, it is safe to assume that this period marked the highest point of accumulation.
it is of course impossible to attach any value to even the most carefully-guarded numerical estimates. The phenomenon which has since so often attracted notice—the drain of the precious metals to the East—began at this time, and was a subject of complaint to the Roman writers,[9] while the stock of gold and silver being thrown into more general circulation suffered more from abrasion, and was more likely to be lost than when stored up in the royal treasure-houses and temples. These causes tended to depress the scale of prices, while the barbarian invasions produced a strong effect on the supply by drawing off the mining population and damaging the various erections used for working the mines. The conjectural estimate is, that about 800 A.D. the total supply had been reduced to £33,000,000 (or about one-eleventh of what it had been at the death of Augustus).[10] A new period in the history of gold and silver production may be fixed at this date. The Moors, now firmly established in Spain, began to reopen the mines in that country which had been allowed to fall into disuse. Other European mines also were opened.[11] The international system of currency based on the pound of silver as a unit which was introduced by Charlemagne must have tended to economize the wear of the metals. We may therefore conclude that
from this date (800 A.D.) the supply was sufficient to coun-
- ↑ Lord Liverpool, Coins of the Realm, p. 125.
- ↑ Readers requiring full details on the subject of the various currency changes may consult Lenormant, Monnaie dans l'Antiquité, for ancient times; Lord Liverpool, Coins of the Realm, for England; and the works of Le Blanc and Paucton for France.
- ↑ The Pactolus in Lydia was widely famed for its “golden sands.”
- ↑ 1 Kings ix. 28.
- ↑ See Herodotus, iii. c. 96; also Grote, Hist., iv. pp. 162 sq.
- ↑ Grote, xi. p. 499, note 3.
- ↑ A commercial agency which existed for the distribution of gold and silver was the Phœnician system of trading, which extended all over the Mediterranean.
- ↑ Jacob, Production and Consumption of the Precious Metals, i. p. 224.
- ↑ See Pliny, H. N., xii. c. 18.
- ↑ Jacob, i. p. 237.
- ↑ It was at this time that the most productive European mines were discovered, namely, those of Saxony and the Harz Mountains, as well as the Austrian mines, which were the chief sources of supply during the Middle Ages.
