No More Learning

"gravissime
: L,
strictly dur-
"more
: A table
valua?
Cicero said:
54. Alfred
tions of Alfred starting at 71/2 in 874, and going to 10 c. 878, finally to 12 in 901. The
shows the
evolution
? ? ? ? ? ? ? 614
quote in 63 above is a footnote to this quote].
65. Crimen majestatis: L, "crime against sovereignty. "
97/670-671
97/671-672
77. /1? TCX8? /1? "w": H, "changing" [cf. 74:343].
78. Dandolo: Henry C. , "the aged and pious doge" of Venice [89:233]. The passage con? cerns the deterioration of the ratio and the standards of coinage. Dandolo worked with Innocent III to destroy and despoil Constan? tinopIe in 1204.
79. the Third Edward: The source continues from the quote in 75 above: "Many of these evidences have been already adduced. Those which will now be furnished relate chiefly to the sudden and frequent alterations of mon- ey which began after the fall of Constan? tinople, and culminated in the reign of Edward Ill. "
80. the VIIth: Edward 1841? 1910, king of England (1901. 1910).
81. Thus Dante: Lines Pound oftens dtes [Par. XIX, 118? 119]: "il duol che sopra Senna I induce, falseggiando la moneta" ("the woe brought upon the Seine / by falsi? fying the coinage"). Dante's outcry against Philip the Fair's debasement of the coinage to finance his Flemish campaign in 1302 [38: 1], part of the general debasement
Pound is concerned with here [SP, 311]. 82. Villon: [cf. 35 above].
83. & in 1311 . . . : "In 1311 the Lords Ordainers enacted that no changes should be made in the value of the coins without the consent of the barons in paliament assem- bled" [HMS, 230].
84. "coignagio stagminis": L, "tin coinage. " "Edward II . . . commanded Richard Hywysh . . . to pay on his account . . . out of the profits of the tin coinage (coignagis stag? minis)" [ibid. ].
85. religious men . . . : "Among the earliest statutes of the new reign [of Edward III] were those of 1327, against the importing of light and counterfeit coins and of 1331, against the exportation of either coins or bullion. The penalty for the latter was first made death . . . and in 1335 the Act [with
615 penalty lessened] was extended to 'religious
men' as well as others" [HMS, 233].
86. Almoravedis' . . . 9, 7, 9? : "The mara?
vedi [a Moorish gold coin] of that period [II 50? 1250] contained 40 to 43 grains of fine gold" [HMS, 236]. "The maravedi was first coined in Spain, during the dynasty of the Alinoravedis, hence its name" [HMS, 237]. "The king's council advised the
king. , . to issue a conv~ntion gold coin. . . . This advice was carried into effect in 1344 by the coinage of a gold double? florin, weighing 50 to the pound tower and 231/2 carats 0. 979 1/6 fine, the old 'standard' for gold. " A footnote says: "the expression 'old standard' . . . could only refer to the Byzan? tine or the Arabian standard for gold" [HMS, 240]. The question mark is prob. a printer's error for 1/6.
87. Scanda . . . Laconics: "Scanda was the name of a Getic city in Colchis and Scandea that of a Getic seaport at the extremity of Cythera, a large island off the southern coast of Greece. Pausanias in 'Laconics' " . . .
[HMS, 254n. ].
88. 2 doits . . . doits: "The term merk [market] is still used by the Scots. In their ancient scale of moneys there were 2 doits (fingers) to a boodle, 2 boodles to a plack, 3 placks to a bawbee, and 131/3 bawbes, or 160 doits, to a merk" [HMS, 258n. ]. The Pound text has a misprint [cf. Eastman,
StorY,118? II9].
89. Capn. Wadsworth: Joseph W. , an ances? tor of Pound's who in 1687 stole the Con? necticut State Charter and hid it in an oak tree to protect it, "to the embarrassment of legitimist tyranny" [PD,6].
90. ED. Three . . . : The gold double? florins [cf. 86 above] of 1344, "were the first Eng? lish coins of any kind upon which were stamped the words 'Dei gratia. ' Down to that time the kings of England coined by the grace of Caesar, or, as in John's case, the pope, his successor. Edward III. first coined
by the grace of God" [HMS, 241] .
91. sand. paper ordered . . . : Sandpaper was
. . .
67. in 1914: Prob. a ploy on the part of the British banks at the outbreak of WWl. Scar? city at home could only force the govern- ment to meet the banks' demands in costs of credit.
68. Coins . . . Poitou: "In 1189, upon his accession to the throne, Richard [Coeur de Lion] weighed out more than 10,000 marks from his father's treasure . . . in 1190, . . . he found it necessary to command and exhort his followers to accept his money-a tolera- bly sure indication of coinage. . . . Coins which were struck in Poitau under his au- thority are still extant" [HMS, 203? 204].
69. Caxton: "In 1192 Richard was taken prisoner. . . . In 1194 he was ransomed. . . . This ransom was collected in England and from the possessions of the English crown in France. . . . Caxton says that plate 'was mol- ten and made into money'" [HMS, 204].
70. PoIydore: "The old coin and bullion was prob. melted down [to pay the ran? som] . . . and delivered to the German Em- peror's legate-a supposition that predsely agrees with Polydore Vergil's account of the affair" [ibid. , 204? 205].
71. Villon: Not mentioned in the source [cf. 35 above].
72. "blanc": "During the Norman era farms were let . . . upon a money rent (numero) or bullion rent (blanc) . . . which Madox would lead us to infer were always made in silver" [HMS, 196]. "In explaining the use of the term 'blanc,' Madox confuses blanc silver
"Corrupt
coins
66. the plebs
not be forgotten that there were but four classes of people who had anything to do with public affairs-the imperial authorities, the royal authorities, the nobles, and the ecclesiastics.
The adulteration of money was committed chiefly by the two last? named classes" [HMS, 194].
: "Plebians. "'
"It should
and blanc money. The former was silver bul- lion, the latter a white money, sometimes called album [white] made wholly or for the most part of tin" [p. 206].
73. Bacchus . . . massacre:
made their appearance in all directions. . . . In that age the solution of all monetary problems was found in torturing the Jews. Henry [III] had resorted to this measure
[once] before the decision of the General Council [to lower the standard of royal silo ver coins in 1247]. He now resorted to it again [the 2d massacre of the Jews was in 1264] . . . but it did not work. With the second persecution of the Jews, the besants
[coins worth 4s, and the most important in trade] became still scarcer. . . . One of the last in . . . besants . . . is a Hebrew bond and mortgage executed during the reign of Henry III. . . . The besants are therein called Iaku of gold . . . Iaku being the Hebrew form of the Greek Iacchus and Roman Bacchus"
[HMS, 212? 213].
74. wheat . . . perch: "The division of the pound of account into twenty parts, and each of these into twelve, was in this reign extended to the pound weight, used for the assize of bread. Still more strangely it was imitated in the subdivisions of the agrarian acre. By the Act 51 Henry Ill. (1266) it was provided . . . that 'when a quarter of wheat is 12d. per quarter, then wastel bread of a farthing shall weight ? 6 I6s. '; by which we suppose was meant 64/5 pounds weight. A similar enactment was made as to acres. The acre was divided into 160 pence. . . . Thus . . . (a penny of land) meant a rod or perch" [HMS, 213].
75. grammar . . . prosody: "If the kings of England previous to Edward III were not vassals [of the emperor], why have we none of their ordinances? . . . It is not alone upon literary evidence that the argument relies; it stands also upon the far more certain evi- dence of coins and nummulary grammar"
[HMS, 224? 225].
76. 7rpoaoooc; . . . : H, "the regular income of taxes. "
1,
1
? ? ? ? 616
97/672
97/672-673
used instead of clipping to remove small quantities of gold or silver from coins.
92. Mons of Jute . . . record: King Christian of Denmark, "a tyrant as well as a Zealot," and his minister, "who was little better than a wild beast," by "the grossest indigni- ties . . . had fired the Gothic blood. " The Pope's legate "by the sale of indulgences and other artifices . . . [had] managed to squeeze Qut of the poorest country in Europe nearly 'two millions of florins'. . . . " At this point, "It was not merely Norway and Sweden that rose up to throw off the shackles of Rome, it was all Scandinavia. . . . Jutland . . . trans- mitted to the tyrant of Denmark a demand
of deposition which was read to him by a single unarmed man . . . whose act should never be permitted to fall into oblivion. This hero's name was Mons, and it deserves to be written over the gateway of every oppres- sor" [HMS, 278-279]. Justice, as in Dante's "Thrones," demands that he not be for- gotten. .
93. Vasa klipped . . . : "The unlooked? for result of Mons' brave act was the abdication and flight of the cowardly Christian. His uncle Frederick was chosen in his place but the real sovereign was Gustavus Vasa. . . [King] Christian . . . had introduced the klip- pings for the sake of personal profit; Gusta- vus issued them for the benefit of his country" [HMS,279].
94. Lycurgus, nomisma: "All the great en- franchisements of society have been accom- plished with the aid of fiduciary money. The Spartans won their liberties with the iron discs of Lycurgus; the Athenians . . . rehabil- itated the republic with 'nomisma,' a highly overvalued copper issue" [HMS, 279].
95. "limitation . . . OJ: "When the people take the government of a country into their own hands wealth naturally hides itself, and the first form of wealth to disappear is the precious metals. The moment a revolution or a civil war is declared gold and silver disap- pear [cf. 67 above]. Thereupon the emission of fiduciary money by the State becomes imperative" [HMS, 280]. A central thesis of
Social Credit, Douglas, and The Cantos. But the key to preventing infiation is the proper relation of "fiduciary money" to tax policy and the production of goods and services, or "limitation": "These [are the] principles of money-namely, that Money is a Mea- sure, . . . that the Unit of money is All Mon- ey within a given legal jurisdiction, [and] that the practical Essence of money is Limi- tation" [HMS, preface, 8; Science, 25-55].
96. Goertz von Schlitz: George Heinrich de Goertz, Baron von Schlitz, financial adviser to Charles XII of Sweden. "After the defeat of Charles XII. at Pultowa and his return from captivity money was scarce. . . . " Goertz had what seemed a good idea: issue copper dollars with the king's stamp as legal tender. The idea might have worked except for two factors: "First, government was too prostrate and weak to sustain a fiduciary money. Second, Goertz did not place any limitations upon the coinage. This (limita- tion) is the main principle and essence of money" [HMS,295. 296].
97. executed: After the death of King Charles in 1718, Goertz was charged with a dozen monetary crimes, including pecula- tion and ruining the public credit. Del Mar quotes from another source: "'the case went on without regard to formality or per- haps to equity. The court and the citizens seemed equally determined to hound him to death. _. . He was condemned to lose his head, and at a place appointed for the execu- tion of felons'" [Modern Univers. Hist. , XXX, 288]. Del Mar concludes: "This cruel
was ordered. " After that the king quit, and "a new bank was created which was . . . in- dependent of the government. " Then the bankers began their crooked deals over again [HMS, 303? 304].
99. 15. 08 . . . 1873: "The Scandinavian States practically demonetized silver. . . . 'The basis of conversion adopted was the proportion of silver to gold of 15. 08 for 1'. . . . These provisions were adopted in the Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian laws of May 23,1873" [HMS, 306].
100. Mr Benton: [88:80,95:22].
101. Friesland . . . : In a chapter on the Netherlands, Del Mar traces the coinage of early centuries and relates it to the coinage of other states at the time. "1 regard the silver pieces of Friesland. . . as typically quarter-dirhems _. . or half-deniers. It is of no practical consequence [which] _. .