Gold standard
As a gold standard , a has currency or a monetary system referred whose coins exclusively as Kurantmünzen in gold were embossed, the metal value to the nominal value corresponded. The banknotes of a gold currency could be exchanged for gold at any time. It was possible for private individuals to have gold minted in the form of bars at any time . Silver coins were put into circulation under-valued as divisional coins .
European gold currencies in the late Middle Ages
On June 8, 1386, the four Rhenish princes Kuno von Trier , Friedrich von Köln , Adolf von Mainz and Ruprecht von der Pfalz founded the first Rhenish Mint Association , which was followed by others until the first half of the 16th century. The Rhenish Mint Association had the Rhenish guilder minted as a common gold coin and put it into circulation in its area of application. The currency area of the Rheinischer Münzverein extended down the Rhine to Neuss , up the Moselle to Cochem , up the Rhine and down the Main to Worms and Höchst . The prerequisite for the introduction of a gold currency in the currency area of the Rhenish Mint Association was for the Rhenish electors as minters the privilege of having gold coins minted. From 1356, derived from the golden bull of Charles IV, all electors of the Holy Roman Empire had this right.
The Rhenish Gulden was the basis for many regional currencies throughout the Holy Roman Empire and, on a financial level, the “unifying bond” of the empire. Not only gold, but also silver coins were valued according to the Rhenish guilder and their exchange rate was set in relation to the Rhenish guilder. For example, between 1368 and 1369 the currency adjustment of the Meissen groschen - the regional silver currency of the Margraviate of Meissen - to the Rhenish guilder as the currency base.
When the large syllable coins were introduced in Saxony in 1500 (the beginning of the taler era), they were also adapted to the Rhenish guilder. According to the so-called Leipzig coinage system of 1500, a groschen ( guldengroschen ) should be struck and taken for one gulden (Rhenish gold gulden). The introduction of the silver guilder was already prepared with the issue of the Zwickau beard groschen minted in 1492 and 1493 , which were set in a fixed ratio to the gold guilder , as did the Schneeberg interest groschen, which were paid out in 1496 with the same value as the beard groschen .
- 21 beard groschen (27.464 g fine silver ) = 1 Rhenish guilder (2.527 fine gold )
European gold currencies in modern times
The gold standard was introduced in England in 1874 when the Bank of England's banknotes were made legal tender and must be accepted. These could be exchanged for gold at any time. In the second half of the 19th century France and Austria also introduced gold currencies. In the German Empire , the mark was introduced as a gold currency with the "Law on the Minting of Imperial Gold Coins" on December 4, 1871. Almost all gold coins minted after 1857 have been stored in the vaults of the Bremer Bank , which was the only German bank to have a gold standard before 1871 . This was with the "Law, Concerning the Minting of Imperial Gold Coins" binding for the entire German Empire. The introduction of a uniform gold currency based on the gold standard in the German Empire was made possible by the gold captured in the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871), "with which one could have covered almost every banknote in Germany in full." (Hans Schwenke )
The gold standard, which guaranteed the gold backing and convertibility of the European gold currencies of the 19th century into gold, was abolished in almost all states with the beginning of the First World War .
literature
- A. Soetbeer: Gold currency and German coinage. Berlin 1874.
- A. Halasi with the assistance of N. Leites: The gold standard . Fundamentals of currency theory. Berlin 1933.
- O. Veit: Monetary policy as the art of the impossible. Frankfurt a. M. 1968 (in it: What remains of the gold standard)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Heinz Fengler, Gerhard Gierow, Willy Unger: Transpress Lexikon Numismatics. Berlin 1976, p. 155 f.
- ↑ Heinz Fengler, Gerhard Gierow, Willy Unger: Transpress lexicon numismatics. Berlin 1976, p. 408.
- ↑ a b c d e Arthur Suhle: Groschen and gold coin minting in the 14th and 15th centuries. In: German coin and money history from the beginning to the 15th century. Berlin 1974, p. 175 f.
- ↑ Heinz Fengler: Introduction. In: 700 years of coinage in Berlin. Berlin 1976, p. 20. Cf. New High German translation of the Golden Bull of 1713, Chapter X: Von der Müntz. Digital full-text edition in Wikisource , full text and commentary by Karl Zeumer : The Golden Bull of Emperor Charles IV (Part 1). Weimar: Hermann Böhlaus successor, 1908, page 51 f. Digital full-text edition in Wikisource , full-text (version from May 5, 2011)
- ↑ Gerhard Krug: Die Meißnisch Saxon Groschen 1338-1500 , Berlin 1974, p. 114.
- ^ Gerhard Krug: The Meissnisch-Saxon Groschen 1338–1500 , Berlin 1974, p. 104.
- ↑ a b c Der Spiegel - History: Money!, From the Fuggers to the financial crisis: A chronicle of capital. No. 4, 2009.
- ↑ a b c d Hans Schwenke: Deutsche Geldzeichen 1871–1914. Berlin 1980.
- ^ Hans Schwenke: Deutsche Geldzeichen 1871-1914 , Berlin 1980, p. 45.
- ↑ Klaus Dieter Block: The gold shines like it has not been for a long time, On the fall and rise of the nest egg made of precious metal. In: Nordkurier , 7./8. February 2004.