Johann Philipp Graumann

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Johann Philipp Graumann (* around 1706; † April 22, 1762 in Berlin ) was a Brunswick-Wolfenbüttelsch expert on monetary and coinage , mint master and Prussian financial politician. He was considered one of the most important German monetary theorists of his time. From the 1760s the Graumann coin foot (with the introduction of the Prussian Reichstaler ) was widespread in practically all of northern and central Germany and in the 19th century formed the basis for the introduction of a uniform German coin system.

Life

Graumann's place of birth is uncertain, as is his education. Possibly he came from Braunschweig. He completed a commercial apprenticeship, was a businessman and, according to a message from Abraham Gotthelf Kästner, is said to have made the commercial chain rule known in Hamburg. He could have stayed in Hamburg between 1730 and 1733, since his writings were published there at that time. He also stayed for a long time in the Netherlands, where he published the book Het licht des koopmans in Amsterdam in 1737 , which mainly dealt with exchange rate cards . He dedicated his book to the Amsterdam Mayor Daniel Hooft.

In November 1741 he was appointed commissioner in Braunschweig by Karl I (Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel) and charged with the task of improving the ducal income and trade. He had the title of Secret Commerce Councilor. In January 1742 the mint officials were subordinate to him and in 1747 the whole mint was reformed by him. Graumann minted new gold coins, the so-called Karl d'or , worth five Reichstalers . In 1748/9 he was in Spain and wrote an impression of a letter on his treatise relating to Germans and other Völcker coinage relations ... , discussing his new proposals in paragraphs 189-206.

Berlin

With his memorandum from 1749, his knowledge and ideas, Graumann also impressed the Prussian King Friedrich II. He brought him to Berlin as early as 1749 and on January 23, 1750 appointed Graumann to the secret council for finances, the military and royal estates (domains), as well as managing director of all mints. As general mint master , he was commissioned by the Prussian king to reform the Prussian coin system. At 6,000 Reichstalers, his salary was six times his salary in Braunschweig. Graumann converted the seven Prussian mints (Berlin, Breslau, Kleve, Aurich, Königsberg, Magdeburg and Stettin) into state-owned companies and the employees there into Prussian civil servants (without the additional income previously associated with them) and developed a system of coins based on what is known today as the Graumann Coin base based. The outdated and more expensive Leipziger Münzfuß was given up on July 14, 1750 (see Graumann's coin reform in Prussia ). In 1750 Graumann married in Berlin, where he later lived in the Palais am Festungsgraben (the mints themselves were in Unterwasserstrasse and Münzstrasse .)

One of his tasks was first of all to create a feasible coin base, secondly to strive for a high treasure trove by distributing Prussian coins to neighboring countries, and thirdly to shape the exchange rates in favor of Prussia. In his writings, he had already spoken out in favor of a high treasure trove, i.e. a high net profit for the state in the issue and minting of the coins (possibly by reducing the precious metal content).

From 1750 onwards, Prussian coins such as four and, from 1753, eight groschen (a good groschen ) were minted according to the new, cheap rate. Prussian Friedrich d'or , silver Reichstaler and pistols were supposed to displace the Dutch ducats , or Albertustaler , in the Baltic grain and linen trade. Bad money should be removed and silver imported for foreign trade and the Royal Prussian Asian Compagnie in Emden. Graumann held out the prospect of being able to achieve high coin profits for the state and Berlin was to become the largest exchange center in Central and Northern Europe and take the bankers and coin profits from the Dutch. In this way Graumann thought of making Prussia the middleman and mint master of a part of Europe. Friedrich made these thoughts his own, but as the economist, historian and numismatist Friedrich von Schrötter later said, he was more cautious in his assessments. In the political will he wrote after first mentioning that there was no suitable financial expert in Prussia at that time:

“I heard Graumann's talk and asked him to come. Its principles are as follows: Metals are a commodity. The state that pays them the most can get the most of it. Anyone who pushes the price of the silver mark up to 15 thalers will be the only one to mint silver. And by means of the coin he will get as much gold as he wants. The real ratio of gold to silver is obtained by comparing all the exchange rates of Europe and finding a number that fits in all cases. That is the mark for 15 thalers. We work according to this plan. It is planned to set up mints in Königsberg, Stettin, Breslau, two in Berlin, one in Magdeburg, one in Cleve, one in Aurich and one in Neuchâtel. The small Berlin mint only mints small types of money with a profit of nine percent. For this you buy gold and silver at a higher price, whereby you win another 5 percent. As soon as these mints are all set up, it will be possible to mint 20 million annually, about as much as the balance sheets that Portugal and Spain pay to Europe each year. The consequences of this facility are that we will attract the exchange rate since we are the only ones who mint coins. Anyone who has to send silver shipments will have to contact us, and nota bene, this favorable exchange rate is the greatest happiness for a state. "

All of Graumann's efforts in the following years were devoted to keeping the price of Prussian coins high and lowering the exchange rate of foreign types of coins. He increased the minting staff tenfold; however, Graumann lacked coin material.

It was not possible to keep the exchange rate high, which put the Berlin importers at a disadvantage (and made imports of precious metals more expensive), even if it was advantageous for exporters, especially in Silesia, nor could bimetallism or the notion of a profit (Schlagschatz) with expansion of the Prussian coin system should be maintained in the neighboring countries to the east, which tended to stick to their usual coins. The consequences - especially with the increased issue of cutting coins with which the mints reacted - were rather that gold and silver left the country and the treasure trove became smaller and smaller.

The intention, which was also pursued with this coin reform, of being able to buy gold at lower prices, so that the pistol, which was paid for with 5 conventional thalers, could be equated with 5 Prussian thalers, was not achieved given the predominantly international character of gold money.

In Prussia, there was now resistance to Graumann's plan to found a giro bank in Berlin (Graumann's proposal in 1752 to reduce dependence on Hamburg in particular). Friedrich had ordered merchants and government officials to help Graumann with the bank plans, but they couldn't get on with him personally. He did not see himself as a Prussian civil servant, nor did he behave like that, and there were rumors of debauchery and drunkenness, which the king also heard. The opponents of the banking plan argued that the trading volume in Berlin was too low compared to Hamburg or Amsterdam and that such a bank might make sense in Szczecin. When the king, who had obtained additional reports from Samuel von Cocceji , among others , nevertheless ordered the establishment of the bank, Graumann's opponents (which also included the Hamburg merchants) organized a conference in 1754 at which they denied him the authority to establish a bank. This was not without an impression on Frederick the Great, who was also dissatisfied with the profit of the mints (the original plans to reduce the cost of coins were not feasible in the mercantilistic monetary system of the time), so that in 1754 he ousted Graumann in his office without a salary, but he did not dismissed. When he died in 1762, he had the title of Finance Councilor. He left a widow who was born in Hesse.

At the beginning of the Seven Years' War , the king's need for money rose sharply. He agreed to the first reduction in the precious metal content of his coins in order to get the highest possible coin profit. The Graumann coin mechanism was abandoned. A consortium made up of Herz Moses Gompertz, Moses Isaac and Daniel Itzig (to which Veitel Heine Ephraim later joined) became leaseholders of all Prussian mints . They produced millions of Ephraimites and other divisional coins, and with the secret consent of the king they constantly lowered the coin rate (the strike treasure achieved contributed 17 percent to the financing of the costs of the Seven Years' War of around 169 million thalers). As a result, Prussian money came more and more into disrepute at home and abroad. In 1762 Friedrich came to the conclusion that the attempts to introduce new coins had failed. The deterioration of coins , the lack of curant money and an abundance of bills of exchange still had a major impact in August 1763 and a financial crisis on the trading centers in Amsterdam, Hamburg, Berlin and Leipzig. On March 29, 1764, the Graumann foot was restored with a new coin dictated by Martin Kröncke ; Bimetallism and hype were given up. Graumann also worked together with Ephraim later, even after the consortium collapsed (in 1760 only Isaac and Ephraim were left).

Graumann was portrayed as a dreamer by his opponents at the time, but with a slight deviation this standard remained in Germany until 1907. According to Schrötter, Graumann was next to the king the ingenious creator of the modern Prussian coin system and, after Wilhelm Treue, the most important German monetary theorist of his time , as full of ideas as John Phillip Law . According to Arthur Suhle , he was tremendously optimistic and self-confident, his work had a certain great trait , he himself had commercial talent and diligence, but impatient and, like Law, constantly full of new plans, which he presented without completing the old ones.

Works

literature

  • Helmut Caspar: From the thaler to the euro: the Berliners, their money & their coins. Berlin-Story Verlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-929829-30-4 .
  • Thomas Christmann: The introduction of the Prussian Reichstaler by Frederick the Great. In: Contributions to Brandenburg-Prussian numismatics. Volume 20, 2012, pp. 14-30.
  • Hans-Jürgen Gerhard: An eagle doesn't catch mosquitoes! : A currency reform with foresight and long-term effects; Johan Philip Grauman as General Mint Director of Frederick the Great. In: Angelika Westermann (Hrsg.): Wirtschaftslenkende Montanverwaltung, princely entrepreneur, mercantilism: connections between the training of a competent civil service and the state monetary and economic policy in the early modern period. Husum 2009, ISBN 978-3-7868-5301-5 , pp. 333-367.
  • Hans-Jürgen Gerhard: The money and currency history from 1500 to the end of the old empire. In it: The work of Johann Philipp Graumann in Braunschweig. In: Jörg Leuschner , Karl Heinrich Kaufhold , Claudia Märtl (Hrsg.): The economic and social history of the Braunschweigisches Land from the Middle Ages to the present. Volume 2: Early Modern Era. Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim 2008, ISBN 978-3-487-13599-1 . Pp. 112-124.
  • Greitens, Jan (2017): "Monetary Theory and Policy in Prussia in the Middle of the 18th Century", IBF Paper Series, No. 15–17, IBF - Institute for Banking and Financial History, Frankfurt a. M. [2]
  • Karl Theodor von Inama-Sternegg :  Graumann, Johann Philipp . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 9, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1879, p. 605 f.
  • Wolfgang Leschhorn : Brunswick coins and medals. 1000 years of coin art and monetary history in the city and country of Braunschweig. Appelhans Verlag 2010, ISBN 978-3-941737-22-8 .
  • Wolfgang Leschhorn: Graumann (also Gravmann), Johann Philipp. In: Horst-Rüdiger Jarck , Dieter Lent et al. (Ed.): Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon - 8th to 18th century . Appelhans Verlag, Braunschweig 2006, ISBN 3-937664-46-7 , p. 273-274 .
  • Friedrich von Schrötter : The coin administration of Frederick the Great. In: Hohenzollern yearbook. 15, 1911, pp. 91-99.
  • Friedrich von Schrötter: The Prussian coin policy in the 18th century. (= Research on Brandenburg and Prussian History. Volume 22). 1909, pp. 135-142.
  • Selma Stern : The Prussian State and the Jews. Volume 3, Mohr, 1962, Chapter Nine: The Prussian Coin Policy .
  • Rolf Straubel : Biographical manual of the Prussian administrative and judicial officials 1740–1806 / 15 . In: Historical Commission to Berlin (Ed.): Individual publications . 85. KG Saur Verlag, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-598-23229-9 , pp. 345 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  • Arthur Suhle :  Graumann, Johann Philipp. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 7, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1966, ISBN 3-428-00188-5 , p. 8 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Wilhelm Treue : Economic and technical history of Prussia. de Gruyter, 1984, ISBN 3-11-009598-X .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ NDB article. In the older ADB article it was written in Braunschweig around 1690.
  2. ^ Johann Friedrich Seyfart: Life and government history of Friedrich the other king in ... Volume 2, 1786. Then he died at the age of 56 on April 22, 1762 in Berlin.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f Wilhelm Treue: Economic and technical history of Prussia. , de Gruyter, 1984, ISBN 3-11-009598-X .
  4. ↑ Arthur Suhle: Graumann, Johann Philipp. In: New German Biography. Volume 7, 1966, pp. 8f. (on-line)
  5. ↑ a b c R. Straubel: Biographical manual of the Prussian administrative and justice officials. Volume 1, 2009, p. 345. Thereafter no reference to parental home or schooling.
  6. ↑ Braunschweig according to ADB and Straubel, Biographical Handbook of the Prussian Administrative and Judicial Officials 1740–1806 / 15, Part 1, Saur 2009, each of the articles Johann Philipp Graumann. In Treue, Wirtschafts- und Technikgeschichte Prussens, p. 80, it is probably born in 1706 in Braunschweig. According to a report by the Dutch Mint to the deputies of the States General of February 9/16. April 1750 (National Archives The Hague, Kersseboom, accession no. 3.20.33, inventory no. 292) he comes from Hanover and came to Amsterdam around 1720, where he made a career as an accountant in large trading houses thanks to his skills.
  7. ^ AG Kästner: The chain rule before Graumann. In: Archive of pure and applied mathematics. Volume 2, 1798, p. 334.
  8. ^ Hans Schröder: Lexicon of the Hamburg writers to the present. ( Memento of the original from August 29, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Volume 2, Hamburg 1854, No. 1300. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / schroeder.sub.uni-hamburg.de
  9. ^ Friedrich von Schrötter (Freiherr von): The Prussian coinage in the 18th century. , Volume II, pp. 67–68, Coin History Part.
  10. ↑ Berlin Lexikon with his wife, a born Hesse.
  11. ↑ a b c d e f g Fr. Frhr. v. Schrötter: The Prussian coinage in the 18th century. 1908.
  12. ↑ Helmut Caspar: From Taler to Euro: the Berliners, their money & their coins. Berlin 2006.
  13. ^ The works of Frederick the Great: in German translation; 7 The political will of 1752
  14. ^ Karl Theodor von Inama-Sternegg: Graumann, Johann Philipp. In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie. published by the Historical Commission at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, Volume 9, 1879, pp. 605-606. ( Wikisource (Version of August 27, 2017, 05:09 AM UTC) )
  15. ↑ Selma Stern: The Prussian State And The Jews . Third part: The time of Frederick the Great. First section: Presentation , DNB  458232513 , Chapter Nine: Die Prussische Münzpolitik, p. 231 .
  16. ↑ Article on Graumann in the NDB
personal data
SURNAME Graumann, Johann Philipp
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian finance politician
DATE OF BIRTH around 1706
DATE OF DEATH April 22, 1762
Place of death Berlin