France presents the utmost difficulty to the student of metallic money during this earliest period, by reason of these violent and arbitrary alterations of the coinage. The extreme diversity of the coins, and the perpetual changing of the composition or alloy, make it almost impossible to estimate the fluctuations in the value of money in relation to goods, or gold in relation to silver. Apart from the international struggle for the precious metals, France was torn and ruined by the English invasions, and debasement after debasement of the coinage was resorted to as a means of raising money to continue the struggle. Such debasements mark the reign of Philip le Bel, 1285-1314, and of each succeeding king, from his days to the final ejection of the English invaders, and after. A single instance will serve to show their nature. In 1342 the mark of gold, which in a normal time just preceding was valued at 41 livres 13 sols, was proclaimed equal to 117 livres, and in 1360 the mark of silver, valued normally at 5 livres, rose to 102 livres.[5] It stands to reason that such abnormal movements must be neglected in any attempt to determine the course of such fluctuations in value of the metals, and the ratio of gold and silver, as arose naturally from the metallic and currency history of the time. Eliminating, therefore, this element of forced and accidental debasements, due to political circumstance, the natural history, if it may
be so styled, of the French coinage displays the same tendency to an appreciation of money metal which marks the history of the other European countries.
TABLE OF THE MOVEMENT OF GOLD & SILVER IN FRANCE, 1300-1500.
TABLE OF THE MOVEMENTS OF THE COINAGE OF FRANCE, 1300-1500.[6]
| Date. | The Mark of Silver coined into | The Mark of Gold coined into | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Livres (Tournois). | Sols. | Livres (Tournois). | Sols. | Deniers. | |
| 1309 (Philp le Bel.) | 2 | 19 | 44 | 0 | 0 |
| 1315 | 2 | 14 | 45 | 0 | 0 |
| 1343 | 3 | 4 | 43 | 6 | 8 |
| 1350 | 5 | 5 | 53 | 18 | 9 |
| 1361 | 5 | 0 | 60 | 0 | 0 |
| 1381 | 5 | 8 | 60 | 10 | 0 |
| 1422 | 7 | 0 | 76 | 5 | 0 |
| 1427 | 8 | 0 | 72 | 0 | 0 |
| 1429 | 7 | 0 | 77 | 10 | 0 |
| 1446 | 7 | 10 | 88 | 2 | 6 |
| 1456 | 8 | 10 | 100 | 0 | 0 |
| 1473 | 10 | 0 | 110 | 0 | 0 |
| 1475 | 10 | 0 | 118 | 10 | 0 |
In this table each of the points or dates taken marks a period of return to good money after a period of debasement, and in the mind of the legislator such return to good money (monnaie forte) can only be construed as based on an estimated general or normal rate of monetary values, for each particular succeeding point of time. At
every return to good money a proclamation was issued, expressing the determination of the administration to adhere to good money, as in the halcyon days of St. Louis, etc. etc., and fixing the rate at which the monies should be coined and current. By taking these points or dates of return to good money, therefore, we eliminate the arbitrary action of the Government in periods of debasement, and arrive at a net result showing the natural movement of the metals.
The general trend of the table—or of the metals whose movements it portrays—is perceptible at a glance, and will, moreover, be found exactly similar to that of the cases of England and Germany below. On account of the arbitrary debasements by the Kings and of the numerous feudal coinages struck independently by the bishops and subsidiary lords, the question of the friction with which this process of metallic appreciation worked itself out cannot be so well illustrated in the case of France as in that of England. But so much as this may be briefly indicated. In 1294 the scarcity of silver coinage was so great that a proclamation was put forth ordering silver to be brought to the Mint, and forbidding the export of the metals. In consequence of the futility of this ordinance, a further proclamation was issued in 1309, forbidding the circulation in France of English silver sterlings and gold florins of Florence, and crying down the exchange denomination of all other foreign coins. Similar proclama
tions were issued again and again—notably in 1328. But the complaints as to the depletion of the coin of the realm became much more serious in France after Edward III. had instituted his gold coin in 1344. There was henceforth a process of double friction—(1) as arising from the difference of the declared value of the French King's coin, as compared with foreign tariffs of coins; (2) as arising from the difference between the ratio of gold to silver in France and that prevailing in other countries.