APPENDIX II

THE MONETARY SYSTEM OF VENICE

The Venetian monetary system of history employed a double basis or unit:—

1. The lira di piccioli, the principal system, and the one which endured through the whole life of the Republic, from the tenth century to the introduction of the decimal system in 1806.

2. The lira di grossi—an ideal system, i.e. money of accompt only, and of importance for a much less extensive period. It originated in the thirteenth century, and was abandoned by the end of the sixteenth.

The "lira" of the first of these systems is derived from the "libra" of Charlemagne, and, like it, was divided into 20 soldi, each soldo being subdivided into 12 denari.

For long the only coin actually minted was this denaro (parvus, parvulus, piccolo or minuto), a silver coin. The first of these thus issued appertain entirely to the system of the Empire of Charlemagne. They bear the name of Louis the Pious (814-40), and approximate in weight to his pieces. The dismemberment of Charlemagne's Empire is followed by a gap in the Venetian coinage, and the series only recommences in the eleventh century. These latter still appertain to the system of the revived Roman (Germanic) Empire, and bear the names of Henry II. (1002-24), Conrad II. (1027-39), and Henry IV. (1056-1106).

From this latter date onwards the imperial monies cease at Venice, and the series of Ducal monies—the monies of the republic of Venice—begin with the Dogeship of Vitale II. (1156-72). From the same period there is noticeable that deterioration in weight which marks all the systems of mediæval Europe. The denari of Doge Sebastiano Ziani (1172-8) and of the two succeeding Doges are scarcely one-quarter the weight of the Charlemagne denarius.

This depreciation led, in the year 1200, to the issue of a piece of higher denomination, namely, the grosso—still a silver coin, but valued at 26 piccioli or denari; and for about seventy years the grosso displaced the picciolo. About 1270, however, the coining of the picciolo recommenced under Doge Lorenzo Tiepolo, but at a slightly reduced value, 28 piccioli being rated to the grosso, instead of 26 as in the year 1200. Up to the great recoinage of 1476 the grosso remains the main coin of reference. Its gradual but incessant depreciation can be traced in the table of silver coins given on p. 318.

Under the eleventh doge, Giovanni Dandolo (1280-89), the coining of gold began in Venice. In 1284, the date of the first issue, the gold ducat or sequin (zecchino) of Venice was valued at 18 grossi, giving a ratio of gold to silver of 10.6. The subsequent changes of the ratio have already been stated (see text, supra, p. 40). From 1282, 67 ducats were coined from the Venetian mark. This number was increased in 1491 to 67 1⁄2, and in 1570 to 68 1⁄4. The course of the sequin throughout is given in the table on p. 316. It was the monetary trouble which they produced that led to the great recoinage accomplished under Doge Nicolo Tron (1471-73) and his successors, Nicolo Marcello (1473-74) and Pietro Mocenigo (1474-76).

From the date of this recoinage onwards the silver grosso was abolished as a coin, and a new silver coin, the lira, valued at 20 soldi, was instituted. This is the first appearance of a real and effective lira as a coin. Hitherto the name had only been that of a weight. By the decree of 1472, 36 of these lira were to be coined out of the mark of silver.

On account of the name of the doge this coin was known as the Lira Tron for centuries. In its turn it underwent a ceaseless depreciation (see table on p. 318).

In the middle of the sixteenth century there was so much silver in the Venetian Mint waiting to be coined for the merchants that the State, finding it could only issue 35,000 pieces a month, which, in small pieces of 442 soldi, would take a year to exhaust the stock, determined for the ease and encouragement of the merchants to issue a large silver piece, the ducato d'argento, 7 1⁄4 to the mark of silver by tale, and rated at 124 soldi.

Under Doge Nicoló da Ponte (1578-85) this piece becomes the scudo d'argento, which begins in 1578 with an equivalence of 7 lira.

In1578the scudowas rated at7lira0soldi.

"1608""8"8"

"1621""8"10"

"1630""9"0"

"1635""9"6"

"1665""9"12"

"1702""10"0"

"1703""10"10"

"1704""11"0"

"1705""11"4"

"1706""11"8"

"1708""11"10"

"1709""11"12"

"1718""11"14"

"1739""12"8"

On this basis the monetary system of Venice continued till the seizing of the Mint by the Democrats in 1797.

For several years, during which they held possession, they issued a coin called Tollero, of the nominal value of 10 Venetian lire, i.e. 5.16 Italian lire, but really only equal to 4.99 of the latter.

In 1802 the Italian Republic was erected by Buonaparte. The monetary law of the Republic, dated 30th April 1804, provided for the coining of a national money on a unit or basis of the silver lira, of the weight established by the law of 27th October 1803, namely, 4 deniers, and of .9 standard.

The unit gold coin to be 1⁄125 of the new established livre in weight (= 8 deniers), and of .9 standard, to equal 31 lire.

In 1805 Napoleon declared himself King of Italy, but the change was not followed by any radical revolution of the coinage system.

From 1806 the decimal system was introduced into Italy, and on the reduction of the numerous independent monetary systems the Venetian lira was computed at .5116 of the Italian, i.e. 51.16 centesimi.

As a matter of fact, however, the Venetian lira did not totally thereupon disappear from use.

By decree of December 21, 1807, the ducat (zecchino) of 67 47⁄41 Venetian grs. was rated at 12.03 lire Italiane.

Under the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom, which succeeded, the main Italian monies were assimilated to those of Austria. The money of account was, at Milan, the Austrian lira (= 100 centesimi = 20 Austrian soldi at 5 centesimi each).

There remains to be described the second and less important basis of the Venetian system, that of the lira di grossi. It was throughout—i.e. from the thirteenth century, when it originated, to the close of the sixteenth, when it disappeared—an ideal system, i.e. of account only.

A supposititious lira di grossi was taken and divided into 40 soldi, each soldo was subdivided into 12 denari, and each one of these denari was equivalent to the grosso, the actual coin existing in the system—already described.

The lira di grossi therefore maintained at first the same relativity to the lira di piccioli that the actual grosso did to the actual picciolo, namely, 26:1. This relation, however changed subsequently with the depreciation of the actual grosso (the lira).

In1278the ratio ofthe two was28:1

"1282""32:1

"1343""48:1

"1472,onwards tothe discontinuance of the system62:1

A curious feature about this system was that in its turn it subdivides. In 1343 a double (hypothetical) grosso was adopted; one of 48 piccioli, the other of 32, both of them subdivided into thirty-two parts as, again, an ideal system.

In 1472, therefore, the Venetian silver system consisted of—

1. Lira di piccioli, an actual coin represented by the Troni, and containing 128 grs. of silver, .9472 fine.

2. The ideal lira di grossi, then equivalent to 10 ducats, divided into 20 ideal soldi, each equivalent to 1⁄2-ducat, each soldo again subdivided in 12 grossi, the grosso being now no longer the actual coin of that name but ideal, like the above multiples; and each grosso in its turn subdivided into 32 parts, to which the name of piccioli was given, though as ideal as its multiple the grosso. For distinction's sake probably, these ideal grossi and piccioli occur in history as grossi a oro and piccioli a oro.

TABLE OF THE GOLD DUCAT OR SEQUIN OF VENICE.

(According to Nicolo Papadopoli, Sul Valore Delia Moneta Veneziana, p. 33.)

Date. Coin. Declared or Deduced Value in Venetian Lira of History.Value in Modern Italian Lire of the Venetian Lira of History.

Lire.Soldi. Lire.Centesimi.

1284 Ducat = 18 grossi of 32 piccioli each 2 8 5 012

1324 "= 24grossi. 3 2 3883

1350 " = 96soldi. 4 16 2 506

1399 " = 93 " 4 13 2 587

1417 " = 100" 5 0 2 406

1429 ... 4 4 2 313

1443 ... 5 14 2 110

1472 ... 6 4 1 940

1517 ... 610 1 850

1520 ... 6 16 1 769

1529 ... 7 10 1 604

1562 ... 8 0 1504

1573 ... 8 12 1 398

1594 ... 10 0 1 203

1608 ... 10 15 1 119

1638 ... 15 0 0 802

1643 ... 16 0 0 752

1687 ... 17 0 0 707

1739 ... 22 0 0 546

TABLE OF THE GOLD DUCAT OR SEQUIN OF VENICE.

(According To Vincenzo Padovan, La Nummografia Venziana Documentato, pp. 135, 365.)

Date.Value of Ducat in Date.Value of Ducat in

Lire. Soldi.Lire. Soldi.

1284301594 (October 12)100

12873216011012

13103416051014

13203616081015

13603101633140

13703121410

13773131638, November 20150

13783141643160

13793161687170

138031816971710

13824016981715

1384441699180

1399, October 741317011810

14014181815

1417, November 11501702190

142153195

1429, July 29541910

1433510200

1443, January 235141704205

1472, March 29641707208

1517, October 1661017082010

15186142015

15206161711215

1524742110

1529710 17132115

1533718 17162118

156280Thenceforward to the fall of the Republic220

1573812

816

158490

912

TABLE OF THE SILVER COINAGE OF VENICE.

(From Papadopoli, ubi supra, with additions.)

Year Coin.Value in Lire of Venice declared or calculated.Weight of the Lira in Venetian Grains.Standard.Value of the Venetian Lira in Lira of the Modern Italian Decimal System

Lire. Soldi.

1200Grosso instituted by Enrico Dandolo; weight in Venetian grains, 42.1; value=26 piccioli; 9 6⁄16 grossi to a lira 0 108 388.61 .9652 4.313

1270Grosso = 28 piccioli; 8 16⁄28 grossi to a lira 0116 360.85 ... 4.005

1282Grosso = 32 piccioli; 7 1⁄2 grossi to a lira 0 13 315.75 ... 3.504

1350Grosso = 48 piccioli; 5 grossi to a lira 0 2 210.5 ... 2.336

1379Weight of the grosso reduced to 38.4 Venetian grains; 5 of these grossi to a lira ... 192.0 ... 2.130

1399Weight of grosso reduced to 35.17 Venetian grains ... 175.85 ... 1.951

1429New regulation; the mark of silver to yield 31 lire of money 1 0 148.64 ... 1.649

1472Lira (Tron), 36 to mark ... 128.0 ... 1.395

1527Lira (Mocenigo) 1 4 105.0 .9479 1.144

1561Institution of the silver ducat; weight=635.5586 Venetian grains; 7 1⁄4 to a mark 6 4 102.51 ... 1.117

1578Institution of the scudo 70 87.86 ... 0.957

1608Scudo raised to 8 8 73.21 ... 0.798

1630 " " 9 0 68.33 ... 0.746

1665 " " 9 12 63.96 ... 0.697

1704 " " 11 0 55.81 ... 0.608

1718 " " 11 14 52.47 ... 0.573

1739 " " 12 8 49.35 ... 0.537

1797Tollero of the Democrats; weight = 550 Venetian grains 10 0 55.0 ... 0.522