With the change in 1871 this repose was disturbed. A commission was thereupon appointed, in October 1872, to consider the situation, which reported in the following December. It proposed to prohibit the free minting of silver, and this was enacted by the law of 21st May 1873. As long as there was still a hope of Germany continuing her old system, the commission merely proposed to coin a gold piece side by side with the silver money. When, however, Germany adopted the gold standard, the commission, in its additional report of 26th June 1873, proposed to do the same by the introduction of a legal tender currency of 10- and 5-florin pieces in gold, and the withdrawal of the silver standard coins issued under the law of 1847. This measure did not meet the approval of the States-General. For the moment Holland had therefore no standard of value, the Mint being closed to silver, and gold being unrecognised. The consequent heavy fall in the exchange led to an agitation which resulted in the enactment of the law of 6th June 1875, which opened the Mint to the public for the coining of golden 10-guilder pieces of .9 fine, to be legal tender concurrently with the silver florins at the ratio of 1 to 15.625 (calculated on a quotation of 60.35 price per oz. of silver). The law was only enacted for a year, and in the following May 1876 an
attempt was made to pass a bill for the introduction of an exclusive gold standard, and for the demonetisation of silver. The bill was rejected by the First Chamber, and the law of 1875 renewed for another year, and then (by the law of 9th December 1877) renewed "until otherwise determined upon by law."
The result was the permanence of the limping standard—a gold piece with free minting, side by side with silver pieces whose minting is restricted, but gold and silver pieces being alike of unlimited legal tender.
On the 28th March 1877 the States-General passed a law establishing, in the Dutch East Indies, the double standard on the same basis as in Holland, i.e. with the formal suspension of the further coinage of silver. This law was promulgated in Java on the 7th June 1877.
PORTUGAL IN 1868
Portugal.
The first law respecting gold in Portugal is dated 4th August 1688.
By that law the price to be paid in the Lisbon and Oporto Mints for a mark of gold (22 carats) was 96,000 reis (533 fr. 33 cents). This same gold was valued at 102,400 reis (568 fr. 88 cents). For a mark of silver of 11 dinheiros (i.e. 11⁄12 fine) the value was fixed at 6000 reis (33 fr. 33 cents), producing, when minted, 6300 reis (35 francs). The legal ratio at that date (1688) was 1:16 (for purchase price of the metal), 1:16.25 (for the Mint issue rate).
In 1747 the value of a mark of coined silver was changed, and rose from 35 francs to 41 francs 66 cents (7500 reis), an enactment which changed the ratio at a blow to 13.6.