The Standard of Value. 271 



and a quarter per cent. Compared with the later crimes of the 

 same sort, it bears the relation of petty larceny to the work of the 

 highway robber. But, he sets the example, which his successors are 

 not slow to follow. Edward III, in 1345, orders the pound of silver 

 coined into twenty- two shillings two pence, and two years later into 

 twenty-two shillings six pence, and in 1354 into twenty-five shillings. 

 And so, the work of depreciation having been gotten well under way, 

 it goes on, until in the reign of Edward VI in 1550, the pound weight 

 of fine silver, through debasement of the standard of quality and re- 

 duction of weight, a pound Troy* of silver, is coined into two hundred 

 and sixty-six shillings, eight pence; and the (£) pound sterling, is 

 made to contain only about eight per cent of its original weight of 

 silver, as twenty shillings is at all times the legal pound. It is cred- 

 itable to the English people that a large part of this debasement of 

 the standard was corrected in restoring the coinage under Queen 

 Elizabeth, to represent about one-third of its original value, by the 

 coinage of the Troy pound of the old standard silver, first into sixty 

 and later into sixty-two shillings; at which it remained until 1816, 

 when the weight of the shilling was lessened, for the purpose of mak- 

 ing the silver coin a subsidiary currency, and no longer a standard of 

 value. 



The monetary history of France exhibits a similar, and even a much 

 greater degradation; which also applies to Italy and the most of 

 central Europe. Under Charlemagne about the beginning of the 

 ninth century the livre or pound — i. e.,the Rochelle poundf weight of 

 silver, was established as the unit of money, and the standard of value. 

 The successive depreciations of the coinage — commonly called in 

 Europe "the raising of the moneys," by the rulers succeeding Charle- 

 magne, have brought the coinage of those countries down to so ridic- 

 ulous a result that the livre, or "pound" at present in circulation, 

 contains less than one and a half per cent of the quantity of pure 

 silver originally contained in the livre of Charlemagne. And yet, 

 through all these debasements of the weight of the coins through the 

 ten centuries and more, since Charlemagne, the name — " livre " — 

 has been retained; and (excepting with France) is still retained by 

 these countries. France seems to have regarded the designation of 

 * Uvre " to a coin containing the ridiculous fraction of only about 



