590 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



of governmental regulation, it would have been accomplislied 

 "by Spain. 



All this time the prohibited cdlderilla and vellon grueso were 

 in circulation, the latter running 74 maravedis to the marc, or 

 about 56 cents of our money to the pound, while copper was 

 worth about 29. The legalized premium on gold and silver was 

 still fifty per cent. Even copper was now becoming scarce under 

 the ceaseless labor of the mints. A proclamation of May 14, 

 1683, sets forth that it is for the common benefit to have abun- 

 dance of copper money ; and, in order that all the metal in the 

 kingdom may be thus utilized, all pieces of copper brought to 

 the mints will be paid for at the rate of 3i ryals of vellon for 

 the pound. To prevent its being wasted by consumption in the 

 arts, all coppersmiths are forbidden to manufacture articles of it, 

 or to repair old ones that may be brought to them to be mended. 

 Their shops are to be visited, and their stocks of metal seized 

 and paid for at the above price ; inventories of their finished work 

 are to be drawn up, and sixty days allowed for the sale of the 

 articles. Anything concealed is declared to be forfeited, and 

 severe penalties of fine, confiscation, and exile are decreed for eva- 

 sions or infractions of the order. A false financial system had 

 brought Spain to such a pass that, with the wealth of the Indies 

 pouring into her lap, gold and silver had been driven from circu- 

 lation, and she was ransacking the shops for scraps of copper to 

 keep her mints busy. 



These resources proved insufiicient to supply the ever-growing 

 demands of a depreciated currency, and resort was had to re- 

 monetizing the molino alloyed coinage which had been prohibited 

 in 1680. By an edict of October 9, 1684, it was restored to circula- 

 tion at a valuation double that which it had borne prior to its 

 demonetization, which would seem to render superfluous an ac- 

 companying threat of penalties for its exportation, the same as 

 for gold and silver. 



Having thus apparently exhausted the possibilities of copper 

 inflation, attention was turned to gold and silver which had 

 hitherto been but little tampered with. A pragmatica of October 

 14, 1686, ordered a reduction of weight of twenty-five per cent in 

 the silver ryal by working 84 to the marc in place of 67. The 

 existing pesos or pieces of eight were rechristened crowns, and 

 were ordered to pass for ten ryals, and the smaller coins in pro- 

 portion. This was purely an inflation measure without any view 

 of reducing the discount on vellon, for the fifty per cent premium 

 was ordered to be applicable to the new light-weight silver coins, 

 of which the piece of eight was declared equivalent to twelve 

 ryals velldn, and the old one, now called a crown, to fifteen. No 

 change was made in the weight of the gold coinage, but the value 



