Interesting (to me, anyway) information on Venetian money

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From Venetian Ships and Shipbuilders of the Renaissance by Frederic Chapin Lane 

 

Moneys

 

Prices and wages have invariably been given in the text in the same moneys of account in which they were given in the sources. No attempts have been made to transform the sums into modern equivalents because there would be more delusion than meaning in such conversions. The figures are significant for comparison among themselves.

On the pay roll of the Arsenal, for example, 8 soldi di piccoli a day was the was the lowest wage paid to men, 20 soldi to24 soldi the pay of skilled labor, 48 soldi that of the expert shipwrights.

 

            The gold Ducat coin or “Zecchino”, containing 3.5 grams of gold, equal to about $2.25 U.S.A. dollars of the gold content of 1932, was one Venetian coin that escaped the debasement that afflicted almost all mediaeval coinage. Debasement was so common that accounts were kept in ideal monetary units called moneys of account, even if these these units had no counterparts in the coins in circulation. Three such moneys of account were used in fourteenth century Venice. In each of them the largest unit was the lira, which was divided into 20 soldi and 240 denari, so that in the language of the moneys of account there were three kinds of lire, three kinds of soldi, and three kinds of denari. About 1400 each of these three systems of ideal money had its representative in coinage in common use. The value, in metallic content, of all the denominations of any one money of account was determined by the gold or silver content of the coin upon which that particular system of account was based.

The three systems of money of account were”

 

1)      The lira di grossi a oro = 20 soldi di grossi a oro of 12 denari di grossi a oro of

32 piccoli di grossi a oro. Its metallic representative was the gold DUCAT coin.

 

1 gold DUCAT coin = 2 soldi di grossi a oro.

The ducat was also used as a money of account giving this alternate and more common way of figuring with the lira di grossi: 1 lira di grossi = 10 ducati of 24 denarai di grossi a oro commonly called grossi a oro.

 

2)      The lira a grossi = 20 soldi a grossi of 12 denari a grossi. Its metallic representative was the silver GROSSI coin .

 

1 silver GROSSI coin = 26 denari a grossi.

 

3)      The lira di piccoli = 20 soldi di piccoli of 12 denari d piccoli. Its metallic representative was the silver SOLDINO coin.

 

1 silver SOLDINO coin = 1 soldo di piccoli.

 

The relation of the moneys of one system of account to the moneys of another system of account ordinarily changed as the relative value of the coins upon which they were based varied from time to time in the fineness and weight of the precious metal they contained. About 1423 the Venetian Grossi coin contained 1.6 grams of silver, the SOLDINO coin .4 grams of silver so that 1 GROSSI was reckoned as 4 soldi of the lira di piccoli at a time when 1 gold DUCAT coin equaled 104 soldi di piccoli. The GROSSI thereafter depreciated and were withdrawn from circulation in 1472. They were called in at 2 ½ soldi di piccoli at great expense to the state.T

 

That left two systems of moneys of account: the lira di grossi on a gold basis for represented by the gold DUCAT coin, and the lira di piccoli on a silver basis for represented by the silver SOLDINO coin or by newly coined silver LIRE or TRONI coins equal to 1 lira di piccoli. Before 1472 the lira di piccoli had depreciated in terms of the lira di grossi either because of the falling ratio of silver to gold or because of the progressive diminution of the silver content of the SOLDINO coin. In 1282 the DUCAT was valued at 2 lire 14 soldi of the lire di piccoli, in 1376 at 3 lire 14 soldi of the lire di piccoli. In 1472 the lira di piccoli had been so much further debased that 1 DUCAT was valued at 124 soldi of the lira di piccoli.

 

This last relationship, 1 ducat = 124 soldi di piccoli, was made the basis for creating a ducat of account which became distinct from the DUCAT as a gold coin. From 1472 to 1509 the ducat as a money of account was equal to the DUCAT as a gold coin whether figured as equal to 2 soldi di grossi a oro or as equal to 124 soldi di piccoli; but, surprisingly enough, the two parted company, and the ducat was used after 1509 as a money of account dependent for its metallic value upon the silver coins which represented the lira and soldo di piccoli, even though this ducat of account was called the ducato a oro, ducato di valuta, ducato corrente. The ducat as a money of account equal to 24 grossi a oro was also not the equivalent of gold DUCAT coin, but of 124 soldi di piccoli.  To specify the DUCAT coin it was necessary to say ducato d’oro in oro novo di zeccha, or at least ducato d’oro in oro. Before 1555 the accounts of the Arsenal were figured in lire di piccoli, thereafter in ducats and lire di piccoli on the basis: 1 ducat = 124 soldi. To give metallic representation to this common usage silver DUCAT coins were issued in 1562. Silver Ducats, Half-Ducats, and Quarter-Ducats were minted bearing the figures 124, 62, and 31 to indicate their value in soldi di piccoli. The legal price of the gold DUCAT coins rose as the silver coinage was debased: in 1545, 1 gold DUCAT coin equaled 8 lire 12 soldi of the lire di piccoli: in 1570, 1 gold DUCAT coin equaled 8 lire 12 soldi of the lire di piccoli.

 

Whenever lire and soldi have been used in the text above, lire di piccoli are meant. References to ducats before 1500 are to the gold DUCAT coin or its equivalent as a money of account equal to 24 grossi a oro. References to ducats thereafter are to ducats of account equal to 124 soldi of the lira di piccoli.