Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/599

Rh injured commerce, had raised extravagantly the prices of the necessaries of life, and had driven silver out of circulation, depriving it of its natural function as money and converting it into a commodity to be bought and sold, while the only currency was the debased coinage, fabricated for the most part by the enemies of Spain, eager to gain the enormous profits accruing from its manufacture. As this, if unchecked, may work the ruin of the kingdom, the king declares that he has had the matter repeatedly discussed by his ministers, and as the result he orders that all the unstamped vellón money shall be melted down into bullion and be sold for silver, the proceeds being used to purchase more of the precious metal. It is expected that the vacuum thus created will bring silver into circulation, and to aid in this all the bullion brought by the galleons shall be coined; moreover, the savage edict of 1628 against the introduction of vellón is repeated; even the importation of copper is prohibited, and the laws forbidding the export of the precious metals are ordered to be enforced with the utmost rigor.

Had this policy been steadily pursued, perhaps it would in time have restored health to the currency, but it was neutralized by the financial exigencies of the state, which kept the mints busy in turning out debased coinage. It was impossible under the circumstances for the contractionists to win more than a temporary ascendency, and with the progressive dilution of the currency the premium on the precious metals obstinately kept advancing, in spite of the laws which punished such traffic as a crime. A decree of January 21, 1640, declares that this has become more inexcusable in view of the large amount of silver brought by the galleons in 1639 and the activity of the mints in coining vellón. To render its chastisement more certain, the rate of twenty-eight per cent is permitted in open market, but only for four months, after which it will be lowered; special judges are provided whose sole business shall be to try infractions of this law; every case that is heard of shall be prosecuted, and negligent judges shall be severely punished. The laws forbidding the export of the precious metals shall be still more vigorously enforced, especially those which require merchants bringing foreign goods into the country to take away an equivalent amount in merchandise.

The revolt of Portugal and Catalonia brought fresh financial complications, and recourse was again had to the ruinous expedient of a further debasement of the currency. A cédula of February 11, 1641, orders all the four-maravedi vellón pieces to be surrendered to the mints, where they will be paid for at their current value; this is to be done within thirty days, after which they can not be paid out or otherwise used. They are then to be restamped and issued at the valuation of eight maravedis; all