SPANISH EXPERIMENTS IN COINAGE. 583 



injured commerce, had raised extravagantly the prices of the 

 necessaries of life, and had driven silver out of circulation, de- 

 priving it of its natural function as money and converting it into 

 a commodity to be bought and sold, while the only currency was 

 the debased coinage, fabricated for the most part by the enemies 

 of Spain, eager to gain the enormous profits accruing from its 

 manufacture. As this, if unchecked, may work the ruin of the 

 kingdom, the king declares that he has had the matter repeatedly 

 discussed by his ministers, and as the result he orders that all the 

 unstamped velldn money shall be melted down into bullion an,d 

 be sold for silver, the proceeds being used to purchase more of the 

 precious metal. It is expected that the vacuum thus created will 

 bring silver into circulation, and to aid in this all the bullion 

 brought by the galleons shall be coined ; moreover, the savage 

 edict of 1628 against the introduction of vell<5n is repeated ; even 

 the importation of copper is prohibited, and the laws forbidding 

 the export of the precious metals are ordered to be enforced with 

 the utmost rigor. 



Had this policy been steadily pursued, perhaps it would in 

 time have restored health to the currency, but it was neutralized 

 by the financial exigencies of the state, which kept the mints busy 

 in turning out debased coinage. It was impossible under the cir- 

 cumstances for the contractionists to win more than a temporary 

 ascendency, and with the progressive dilution of the currency the 

 premium on the precious metals obstinately kept advancing, in 

 spite of the laws which punished such traffic as a crime. A de- 

 cree of January 21, 1640, declares that this has become more 

 inexcusable in view of the large amount of silver brought by the 

 galleons in 1639 and the activity of the mints in coining vellon. 

 To render its chastisement more certain, the rate of twenty-eight 

 per cent is permitted in open market, but only for four months, 

 after which it will be lowered ; special judges are provided whose 

 sole business shall be to try infractions of this law ; every case 

 that is heard of shall be prosecuted, and negligent judges shall be 

 severely punished. The laws forbidding the export of the pre- 

 cious metals shall be still more vigorously enforced, especially 

 those which require merchants bringing foreign goods into the 

 country to take away an equivalent amount in merchandise. 



The revolt of Portugal and Catalonia brought fresh financial 

 complications, and recourse was again had to the ruinous expe- 

 dient of a further debasement of the currency. A cedula of Feb- 

 ruary 11, 1641, orders all the four-maravedi velldn pieces to be 

 surrendered to the mints, where they will be paid for at their 

 current value ; this is to be done within thirty days, after which 

 they can not be paid out or otherwise used. They are then to be 

 restamped and issued at the valuation of eight maravedis; all 



