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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
APP. K.
VALUE OF MONEY, WEIGHTS, &c.
591
VENETIAN MONEY.
The Mark of Silver all over Europe may be taken fairly at 2l. 4s. of our money in modern value ; the Venetian mark being a fraction more, and the marks or England, Germany and France fractions less.*
The Venice Gold Ducat or Zecchin, first coined in accordance
with a Law of 3i st October 1283, was, in our gold value, worth . . 11 .82 francs. t
or English . 9s. 4.284d.
The Zecchin when first coined was fixed as equivalent to 18 grossi, and on this calculation the Grosso should be a little less than 5d. sterling.$ But from what follows it looks as if there must have been another grosso, perhaps only of account, which was only 2 of the former, therefore equivalent to 3'd. only. This would be a clue to difficulties which I do not find dealt with by anybody in a precise or thorough
manner ; but I can find no evidence for it. •
Accounts were kept at Venice not in ducats and grossi, but in Lire, of which there were several denominations, viz. :
I. Lira dei Grossi, called in Latin Documents Libra denariorum Venetorunz grosorum. § Like every Lira or Pound, this consisted of 20 soldi, and each soldo of 12 denari or deniers. I! In this case the Lira was equivalent to io golden ducats ; and its Denier, as the name implies, was the Grosso. The Grosso therefore here was 4-iy of Io ducats or h of a ducat, instead of
Lira ai Grossi (L. den. Ven. ad b rossos). This by decree of 2nd June, 1285, went two to the ducat. In fact it is the soldo of the preceding Lira, and as such the Grosso was, as we have just seen, its denier ; which is perhaps the reason of the name.
Lira dei Piccoli (L. den. Ven. parvulorum). The ducat is alleged to have been at first equal to three of these Lire (Romania, I. 321) ; but the calculations of Marino Sanudo (1300-1320) in the Secreta Fideliunz Crucis show that he reckons the Ducat equivalent to 3.2 lire of piccoli. ¶
In estimating these Lire in modern English money, on the basis of their relation to the ducat, we must reduce the apparent value by 5. We then have :
I. Lira dei Grossi equivalent to nearly 3l. 15s. od. (therefore exceeding
* The Mark was of a pound. The English Pound Sterling of the period was in silver value=3l. 5s. 2d. Hence the Mark=2l. 3s. 5'44d. The Cologne Mark, according to Pegolotti, was the same, and the Venice Mark of silver was=i English Tower Mark + 3.} sterlings (i.e. pence of the period),-=therefore to 2l. 4s. 4'84d The French Mark of Silver, according to Dupré de St. Maur, was about 3 Livres, presumably Tournois, and therefore 2/. 2S. i i ld.
t Cibrario, Pol. Ec. del Med. Evo. III. 228. The Gold Florin of Florence was worth a
fraction more=--9s. 4.85d.
Sign. Desimoni, of Genoa, obligingly points out that the changed relation ofGold ducat and silver; rosso
was due to a general rise in price of gold between 1284 and 1302, shown by notices of other Italian mints which raise the equation of the gold florin in the same ratio, viz. from 9 sols tournois to 12.
$ For 718- of the florin will be 6'23d., and deducting b, as pointed out above, we have 4-99d. as the
value of the grosso.
I have a note that the grosso contained 42148T Venice grains of pure silver. If the Venice grain be
the same as the old Milan grain ('o51 grammes) this will give exactly the same value of 5d.
§ Also called, according to Romanin, Lira d'imfirestidi. See Introd. Essay in vol. i. p. 66.
II It is not too universally known to be worth noting that our Z. s. d represents Livres, sois,
deniers.
¶ He also states the grosso to have been worth 32 jiccoli, which is consistent with this and the
two preceding statements. For at 3'2 lire to the ducat the latter would = 768 piccoli, and -214 of
this=32 piccoli. Pegolotti also assigns 24 grossi to the ducat (p. 150.
The tendency of these Lire, as of pounds generally, was to degenerate in value. In Uzzano (144o)
. e find the Ducat equivalent to too soldi, i.e. to 5 lire.
Everybody seems to be tickled at the notion that the Scotch Pound or Livre was only 20 Pence.
Nobody finds it funny that the French or Italian Pound is only 20 halfpence, or less'
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