The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1895-05-25
MODERN BIMETALLISM.
Interesting History which Every silver
Man should Commit to Memory.
From the Cleveland Plain Dealer

Interesting History which Every silver
Man should Commit to Memory.
From the Cleveland Plain Dealer
The first modern minting of gold was
/ In Florence in 1852. The decline of the
| Roman empire had virtually destroyed
! all Industries and with them the coin
Constantine some coinage of Byzants
were made, but we are correct in stat
ing that modern monetary history be-
gins in the thirteenth century. Charlie
mango had preserved the Roman dena-
RUS as the unit of his system, (which
was coined from silver, the same as
the penny was coined in England and
was the unit of value. The idea Of
coming gold was brought to Europe by
the crusaders. When Baldwin, Count
of Flanders, captured Byzantium in
l2O3 he brought large stores OF gold to
Venice, and thus the Italian cities of
Venice, Florence and Genoa procured
from the east a stock of gold on which
they could base a gold currency.
France copied the form; so did Eng
land.
In 1856 Emperor Charles the Fourth
conceded to seven electoral princes lib
erty to coin gold, and as late as 1872
IL was stipulated in Nuremberg that
the guilden to be coined should be as
good gold and weight as the guilden or
IOllll vi It lOTtflCe. II may bt odlu lfldl
England and all Europe followed Flor
ence in coming both gold and silver.
The lily of Florence was the distinctive
stamp on gold coins. In all these coins
and in nearly every law under which
they are permitted to be struck 1t is
the silver coin that is made the unit
of value, as, for instance, in England,
Henry the Third in 1857 coined penny
of fine gold of the weight of two silver
pennies of the time, but the silver was
current and the gold measured by the
silver.
We can state with historic accur-
acy that the fourteenth century may
be taken as the starting point for Eu-
ropean bimetallism. 1t is we'll under
stood that for 500 years previous to
the crusades Europe was dead. If there
was one thing that marked it more
than another il was the lack of money.
All Europe had dwindled to monomet-
allism and very little metal at that.
The robbery in the East and the bring
Ing back of the precious metals from
Constantinople increased the money
supplies of the commercial cities of
Italy. Trade was revived, more money
was required with which to do bust
ness and all the money that could be
made from both gold and silver was
made and bimetallism became the
symbol of prosperity and the renaiss-
ance. Prices began to raise. because
ny the TODDeTy OF the East more BOlu
and more silver had been brought into
the West. The chief supply cf silver
was from the mines of Germany, Hun
gary, Saxony and Bohemia. Gold was
brought from the interior of Africa and
Asia. and with all this effort up to
the date of the discovery of America
in 1892 IL is estimated that there were
no more than f33, 900 or substanti-
ally s15O,OO0,OOO of both gold and silver
in Europe.
There was no uniformity of ratio in
coinage between different countries. In
the Moorish parts of Spain the ratio
was or 8 to /, while in the Christian
parts it was IL to /. In England in
1474 II was 11.15 to 1, in Germany Hip,
in France IL, in Italy 1858 to /. So
great was the struggle to keep the
precious metals at home in different
countries that merchants were forbid
den on pain of death from exporting IL
and London merchants were hanged,
drawn and quartered for the offense.
Rulers of the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries used every possible device to
retain their precious metals at home
and to get the stock of foreigners. The
struggle for gold and the methods of
that struggle were barbaric in their
rudeness, craft and violence. The
struggle of to-day may be a little more
covered up, but it is just as determined
and far more corrupt and adroit.