This eminent scholar, in the
sixth volume of the Memoirs of the Academy, prepared wholly by
himself, has introduced an elaborate essay on the value of the
currency in the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella. Although this
period - the close of the fifteenth century - was somewhat
earlier than that of the Conquest of Peru, yet his calculations
are sufficiently near the truth for our purpose, since the
Spanish currency had not as yet been much affected by that
disturbing cause, - the influx of the precious metals from the
New World.
In inquiries into the currency of a remote age, we may consider,
in the first place, the specific value of the coin, - that is,
the value which it derives from the weight, purity, &c., of the
metal, circumstances easily determined. In the second place, we
may inquire into the commercial or comparative worth of the
money, - that is, the value founded on a comparison of the
differences between the amount of commodities which the same sum
would purchase formerly, and at the present time. The last
inquiry is attended with great embarrassment, from the difficulty
of finding any one article which may be taken as the true
standard of value. Wheat, from its general cultivation and use,
has usually been selected by political economists as this
standard; and Clemencin has adopted it in his calculations.
Assuming wheat as the standard, he has endeavoured to ascertain
the value of the principal coins in circulation, at the time of
the "Catholic Kings.
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