Those which will now be furnished relate chiefly to the sudden and
frequent
alterations of mon- ey which began after the fall of Constan?
A-Companion-to-the-Cantos-of-Ezra-Pound-II
Pads, sub anna 1250, vol.
II.
, pp.
342, 278, 280)" [ibid.
, 77J.
"Aug. " is an abbreviation of "augustals. "
44. Avignon . . . : In the same table, another item reads: "1316. AVIGNON. -Sequino of Pope John XXII. " A footnote to this item reads: "This pope is responsible for a treatise on the transmutation of metals, the prolific exemplar of many similar works" [ibid. J.
45. Darius, and Targitaus: "For example, Targitaus, the first king of Scythia, a thou? sand years before Darius, the sacred king of Persia (this would make it about H. C. 1500), was the divine son of Jupiter. . . . In the kingdom of Targitaus gold was found in abundance, but being deemed sacred, it was reserved for the use of the sacred king"
hundred and may be fifteen hundred years older than Charlemagne, being clearly de? fined in the Theodosian Code (lib. xiii. , tit. ii. , II)" [HMS, 96J. Del Mar uses these facts in an argument to show that other writers are in error to suppose the English pound came from a pound of silver or of anything else.
49. Caracalla: Del Mar repeats the contribu? tion of this emperor [cC 41 aboveJ to rein? force his argument that the pound originated in ratios of value rather than weight: "In the reign of Caracalla 24 denarii went to the aureus, the ratio of value between the metals remaining unchanged. Such is briefly the genesis of ? s. d. " [HMS, 97J.
50. first fish . . . maravedis: "The
of Norse monetary systems . . . usually pro- ceeded in the following manner:-First, fish and vadmal (cloth) money; second, baug, or ring-money; third, imitations of pagan Ro- man coined money; fourth, Norse pagan coinage system (partly dervied from the Ro? man system) of stycas, scats, and oras; fifth, intrusion of the Moslem coinage system of dinars, maravedis and dirhems, sixth, re- placement of the last by Christian Roman coinage system of ? s. d. "
51. kelt coin . . . scat: "[Among NorsemenJ Sild, hring, or herring, is still used to mean money, and the scad or scat (corrupted to scot), a fish of the same genus, has the same meaning in North Britain" [ibid. , 115? 116J. "Eight stycas went to the scat, and eight scats to the ora" [HMS, 121 J.
52. Del Mar: "Money is perhaps the mighti? est engine to which man can lend intelligent guidance" [HMS, 5J.
53. King Offa . . . : "Offa, king of Mercia, and perhaps other early English princes [put the ratioJ at 61/2 silver for 1 gold" [HMS, 157J.
. . .
12-1 ration given in the table is the "valua- tions of Athelstan, son of Edward, elder"
[HMS, 158J.
55. Canute: "Canute, the Christian but anti? papal king of Denmark and England, has left us a greater variety of coin-types than any other English prince before the Plantage? net dynasty" [HMS, 183? 184J.
56. 20 scads . . . accountancy: A table gives these values: "I mancus, or dinar [=J 20 scats; I mark of account [=J 100 scats"
[HMS,162J.
57. Edgar's leather . . . : "The reign of Edgar, king of Wessex, is marked by the issuance of leather moneys" [HMS, 181J. Del Mar gives Edgar's dates as 959? 975 [po 182J and Athelstan's as 925? 941 [po 158J.
58. "thon yilden . . . ": "then he set up gilds" [91 :52J. The reference is to "peace? gilds set up by the bishops and reeves of London for mutual protection against cattle? thieves (Laws, VI Athelstan), echoing Pound's idea of good government" [CB. R,
ZBC, 198n. J.
59. the president: F. D. R.
60. old Lampman: Rex Herbert L. , a Wash? ington newspaperman who had a nervous breakdown because of the confusion of Cissie Patterson's will, in which she be- queathed the Washington Times Herald to 7 of her employees. He was confined in a violent unit at St. Elizabeths at first but later could visit Pound during his time on the grounds and told him inside stories about Washington between the wars [EM, Diffi? cult, 303? 306J.
61. Mencken: [81:31; 87:112J.
62. the London judge: In a letter of Sept. 3, 1954, Pound wrote: "Yes, the high point in American dignity was when Hoover voted in W. 8 election AND simultaneously the Brit? ish judge said: Mr. Hoover I am sorry that this has been brought as a civil, not a crimi- nal action. " Herbert Hoover was employed as a mining engineer by the defendants (a firm named Bewick, Moreing and Co. ) in a suit "brought to trial before Justice Joyce in the Chancery Division of the High Court in London. " The plaintiffs were a Chinese com- pany who sued "because the value of their
shares [in Bewick, MoreingJ had been reo duced by the issue of shares to the pro? moters of the company and their friends. " Justice Joyce said: "I cannot set the matter right in this action, which was not framed and is not properly constituted for the pur- pose. " Pound's source appears to be John Hamill's The Strange Case of Mr. Hoover Under Two Flags (New York, 1931). Hamill wrote: "The Judge was shocked. But his was not a Criminal Court but a Court of Equity and all he had to pass on was the claim before him" [po 190J. Hoover was also asso? ciated with the "Youanme" mine in China [79:76J. Say Kimpel and Eaves, who 10? cated these facts and others at Beinecke (in-
cluding an unpublished poem, "0, 0, 0 the Yewenmee / Is a vurry fine gole mine com- panee"): "The point of the poem is that the only limit to the nllmber of shares the com- pany sells is the time it takes to print more"
[BK and TCDE, Pai, 9? 3, 505. 507J .
63. Missenden, Dunmore . . . : Source: "In 1362 the abbot of Missenden was convicted of coining and clipping groats and sterlings;
in 1369 the canon of Dunmore was accused of counterfeiting gold and silver coins; and in 1371 the canon of St. Gilbert of Semping? ham was charged with secretly conveying coins abroad contrary to law" [HMS, 192? 193n. J. The canon's name appears to have been Lear.
64. Offa's gold . . . the Third: "The coinage of gold ceased when Christianity was intro- duced, and the last gold coins known to have been struck in England previous to the reign of Henry III, were the dinars of Offa" [HMS, 190J. Del Mar devotes a couple of pages to an outline of the continuous de- basement of the coinage, including counter- feiting, until "a re-coinage was ordered in 1108, and the severest sentences were threat- ened to false coiners. In 1123, to lend effect to these threats, the power of Rome was invoked in aid of the crown, and the penal- ties of the Canon law were added to those of the civil . . . much of the base coining was done by a class of people who knew too much a-bout the crimen majestatis to stand in fear of impeachment" [HMS, 192; the
[HMS, 81J.
. . .
: "In B. C. 59,
46. Cicero
'The Senate, on several different occasions, but more strictly during my consulship, pro- hibited the exportation of gold'" [ibid. , 85J.
. . .
48. Theodosian Code: "The lib'ra of money (not the whole triad of ? s. d. ) is at least five
47.
ing my consulship. " The Latin for a part of the quote given in 46 above.
"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 . . .
"Aug. " is an abbreviation of "augustals. "
44. Avignon . . . : In the same table, another item reads: "1316. AVIGNON. -Sequino of Pope John XXII. " A footnote to this item reads: "This pope is responsible for a treatise on the transmutation of metals, the prolific exemplar of many similar works" [ibid. J.
45. Darius, and Targitaus: "For example, Targitaus, the first king of Scythia, a thou? sand years before Darius, the sacred king of Persia (this would make it about H. C. 1500), was the divine son of Jupiter. . . . In the kingdom of Targitaus gold was found in abundance, but being deemed sacred, it was reserved for the use of the sacred king"
hundred and may be fifteen hundred years older than Charlemagne, being clearly de? fined in the Theodosian Code (lib. xiii. , tit. ii. , II)" [HMS, 96J. Del Mar uses these facts in an argument to show that other writers are in error to suppose the English pound came from a pound of silver or of anything else.
49. Caracalla: Del Mar repeats the contribu? tion of this emperor [cC 41 aboveJ to rein? force his argument that the pound originated in ratios of value rather than weight: "In the reign of Caracalla 24 denarii went to the aureus, the ratio of value between the metals remaining unchanged. Such is briefly the genesis of ? s. d. " [HMS, 97J.
50. first fish . . . maravedis: "The
of Norse monetary systems . . . usually pro- ceeded in the following manner:-First, fish and vadmal (cloth) money; second, baug, or ring-money; third, imitations of pagan Ro- man coined money; fourth, Norse pagan coinage system (partly dervied from the Ro? man system) of stycas, scats, and oras; fifth, intrusion of the Moslem coinage system of dinars, maravedis and dirhems, sixth, re- placement of the last by Christian Roman coinage system of ? s. d. "
51. kelt coin . . . scat: "[Among NorsemenJ Sild, hring, or herring, is still used to mean money, and the scad or scat (corrupted to scot), a fish of the same genus, has the same meaning in North Britain" [ibid. , 115? 116J. "Eight stycas went to the scat, and eight scats to the ora" [HMS, 121 J.
52. Del Mar: "Money is perhaps the mighti? est engine to which man can lend intelligent guidance" [HMS, 5J.
53. King Offa . . . : "Offa, king of Mercia, and perhaps other early English princes [put the ratioJ at 61/2 silver for 1 gold" [HMS, 157J.
. . .
12-1 ration given in the table is the "valua- tions of Athelstan, son of Edward, elder"
[HMS, 158J.
55. Canute: "Canute, the Christian but anti? papal king of Denmark and England, has left us a greater variety of coin-types than any other English prince before the Plantage? net dynasty" [HMS, 183? 184J.
56. 20 scads . . . accountancy: A table gives these values: "I mancus, or dinar [=J 20 scats; I mark of account [=J 100 scats"
[HMS,162J.
57. Edgar's leather . . . : "The reign of Edgar, king of Wessex, is marked by the issuance of leather moneys" [HMS, 181J. Del Mar gives Edgar's dates as 959? 975 [po 182J and Athelstan's as 925? 941 [po 158J.
58. "thon yilden . . . ": "then he set up gilds" [91 :52J. The reference is to "peace? gilds set up by the bishops and reeves of London for mutual protection against cattle? thieves (Laws, VI Athelstan), echoing Pound's idea of good government" [CB. R,
ZBC, 198n. J.
59. the president: F. D. R.
60. old Lampman: Rex Herbert L. , a Wash? ington newspaperman who had a nervous breakdown because of the confusion of Cissie Patterson's will, in which she be- queathed the Washington Times Herald to 7 of her employees. He was confined in a violent unit at St. Elizabeths at first but later could visit Pound during his time on the grounds and told him inside stories about Washington between the wars [EM, Diffi? cult, 303? 306J.
61. Mencken: [81:31; 87:112J.
62. the London judge: In a letter of Sept. 3, 1954, Pound wrote: "Yes, the high point in American dignity was when Hoover voted in W. 8 election AND simultaneously the Brit? ish judge said: Mr. Hoover I am sorry that this has been brought as a civil, not a crimi- nal action. " Herbert Hoover was employed as a mining engineer by the defendants (a firm named Bewick, Moreing and Co. ) in a suit "brought to trial before Justice Joyce in the Chancery Division of the High Court in London. " The plaintiffs were a Chinese com- pany who sued "because the value of their
shares [in Bewick, MoreingJ had been reo duced by the issue of shares to the pro? moters of the company and their friends. " Justice Joyce said: "I cannot set the matter right in this action, which was not framed and is not properly constituted for the pur- pose. " Pound's source appears to be John Hamill's The Strange Case of Mr. Hoover Under Two Flags (New York, 1931). Hamill wrote: "The Judge was shocked. But his was not a Criminal Court but a Court of Equity and all he had to pass on was the claim before him" [po 190J. Hoover was also asso? ciated with the "Youanme" mine in China [79:76J. Say Kimpel and Eaves, who 10? cated these facts and others at Beinecke (in-
cluding an unpublished poem, "0, 0, 0 the Yewenmee / Is a vurry fine gole mine com- panee"): "The point of the poem is that the only limit to the nllmber of shares the com- pany sells is the time it takes to print more"
[BK and TCDE, Pai, 9? 3, 505. 507J .
63. Missenden, Dunmore . . . : Source: "In 1362 the abbot of Missenden was convicted of coining and clipping groats and sterlings;
in 1369 the canon of Dunmore was accused of counterfeiting gold and silver coins; and in 1371 the canon of St. Gilbert of Semping? ham was charged with secretly conveying coins abroad contrary to law" [HMS, 192? 193n. J. The canon's name appears to have been Lear.
64. Offa's gold . . . the Third: "The coinage of gold ceased when Christianity was intro- duced, and the last gold coins known to have been struck in England previous to the reign of Henry III, were the dinars of Offa" [HMS, 190J. Del Mar devotes a couple of pages to an outline of the continuous de- basement of the coinage, including counter- feiting, until "a re-coinage was ordered in 1108, and the severest sentences were threat- ened to false coiners. In 1123, to lend effect to these threats, the power of Rome was invoked in aid of the crown, and the penal- ties of the Canon law were added to those of the civil . . . much of the base coining was done by a class of people who knew too much a-bout the crimen majestatis to stand in fear of impeachment" [HMS, 192; the
[HMS, 81J.
. . .
: "In B. C. 59,
46. Cicero
'The Senate, on several different occasions, but more strictly during my consulship, pro- hibited the exportation of gold'" [ibid. , 85J.
. . .
48. Theodosian Code: "The lib'ra of money (not the whole triad of ? s. d. ) is at least five
47.
ing my consulship. " The Latin for a part of the quote given in 46 above.
"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 . . .
