Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/596

580 the maintenance of the religious wars in France, the conquest of Portugal, the crusade which brought the triumph of Lepanto, the collapse of the Armada, and other ceaseless efforts, prompted by zeal for the faith and thirst of aggrandizement. Yet the infiltration of the currency with these little debased coins was a slow process, and its effects were correspondingly deferred, but they manifested themselves at last, and the calderilla—as this coinage came to be popularly designated—grew to be a load which the ablest statesmen of Spain for a century vainly endeavored to shake off. Apparently the process of manufacture became too slow to supply the increasing wants of the treasury, for we hear in 1602 of a restamping of the vellón coinage, doubtless to give it an increased fictitious value. At the same time Philip III made a new issue of pure copper, to the amount of 2,448,000 ducats, working 280 maravedis to the marc, the cost of metal and coinage being only 80 maravedis. Prices rose, and there was general discontent, voiced by the learned historian Mariana in a tract on the coinage written with so much vigor that it cost him an imprisonment by the Inquisition. Thus the reservoir became filled to overflowing, and the inevitable depreciation commenced. To arrest it Philip III, in 1619, solemnly decreed that there should be no more vellón money coined for twenty years; but financial promises of this nature are made to be broken, as is witnessed by Philip IV, in 1632, renewing the pledge conditionally for another twenty years. In spite of these promises, the vellón fell to a discount. There was no formal suspension of gold and silver payments; the silver fleet from Mexico and the galleons from Tierra Firma yearly poured into Spain the treasure won from the mines of the New World; but all the power of an autocratic sovereign could not maintain the parity of the currency. The inequality became so firmly established that it had to be recognized, and Philip IV, in 1625, endeavored to regulate it by a decree permitting a difference of ten per cent. Beyond this any transaction entailed on the receiver, for a first offense, the forfeiture of the principal with a fourfold fine, applicable in thirds to the informer, the judge, and the fisc; for a second offense, the same, with the addition of six years' exile. At the same time it was enacted that no one could demand gold or silver who had not given them, and no obligation to pay in gold or silver was lawful unless gold or silver was lent. These provisions show that already the vellón coinage had risen from its function as a token currency in petty dealings, and was rapidly becoming the standard medium of exchange in all commercial transactions. It is as such that we shall have henceforth to consider it, and it is to this that it owes its importance.