Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/607

Rh was raised to correspond, the single doubloon, or gold crown, being declared worth nineteen silver ryals in place of fifteen, and a month later it was further raised to twenty. In this reduction of the standard the interests of the debtor class were tenderly guarded by decreeing that outstanding obligations in gold or silver could be settled on the new basis. Some concession, however, was made on this point where suits arose as to specie lying on, deposit or bills of exchange drawn in silver or gold prior to the depreciation, for these were ordered to be paid at the old standard.

The War of Succession, which broke out in 1701, naturally brought large quantities of French silver into Spain. The quart d'écu was held for a time to be equivalent to the two-ryal piece, and came to be known as the peseta or little peso, but it was pronounced to be inferior in value, and in 1709 its further introduction was prohibited. At the same time the silver standard was reduced to eleven dineros or ·91667 fine in place of the ·9·25 at which it had stood for centuries. This did not arrest the progressive depreciation of the vellón currency, which in 1718 we find legally recognized in the equivalence of a silver ryal to nearly two ryals vellón, and not long afterward the regular exchange was as one to two. This was allowed by law, and it doubtless was frequently exceeded, for dealers kept the copper coin in bags representing fixed amounts, and those who preferred gold or silver were charged extra for it. This would have worked comparatively little evil if the inferior currency had been confined to the petty traffic for which it was originally designed, but for more than a century it had become the standard of value and the precious metals had been rendered merely a commodity. Thus in the regulations of the mints the salaries are all defined in reales de vellón or escudos de vellón, and the treasurer has to give security in twenty thousand ducados de vellón on unincumbered real estate. It was always necessary, when mentioning a sum, to specify whether it was in reales de vellón or reales de plata, and with the complexities which crept into the silver coinage we even sometimes find a further definition required, as in such expressions as "un real de plata provincial, valor de 16 quartos de vellón." The evils entailed by the system were freely admitted, but the country had been plunged so long into this financial debauchery that recovery seemed impossible. In 1718 Philip V acknowledged the grave injuries which it inflicted on trade and commerce, but the remedy which he proposed was futile. In 1743 he again deplored the manner in which greed and malice had used the increase of copper money to drive silver from circulation and reduce it to the condition of merchandise. To remedy this he ordered that payments in vellón should not exceed 300 ryals, and