ABSTRACT
Sources: Gaceta de Madrid (1820-1837); Banco de España, Biblioteca, and Hemeroteca Municipal, both Madrid, Cotización de la Bolsa de Madrid / Cotización oficial del Colegio de agentes de cambios, Bolsa de Madrid (1837-1885); ibid., Bolitín de Cotización oficial (1886-1914). Concordance: WdW I/II, pp. 383-421
Currency: In the first half of the 19th century the legal basis of the Spanish currency system was the law of May 29th 1772 which fixed the peso duro at 24.43 grammes of fine silver. 64 pesos duros came to 85 pesos de plata antigua or pesos de cambio of 8 reales de plata antigua or 272 maravédis, whereas 4 pesos de plata antigua came to 1 doblón de plata antigua or doblón de cambio. Until the middle of the 19th century peso and doblón de plata antigua were used as the basis for the fixing of the exchange rates on and from Spanish exchange places. Beyond that the ducado de cambio of 375 maravédis was a further Spanish imaginary unit of account in cashless payment up to the mid-19th century. The monetary history of Spain in the 19th century was essentially determined by the French monetary policy, because after the French occupation of Spain in the Napoleonic era a compulsory rate was imposed on the French and silver money circulating in Spain (especially the 5 francs piece, in Spain called ‘napoleon’), whereas Spanish silver coins went out of the country. Due to the lack of Spanish coins Portuguese and British coins were declared obligatory on November 11th 1835, especially since no more silver coins were brought into Spain from the former overseas possessions in Latin America after their independence. Up to 1841 even the small silver coins disappeared from circulation. So, a currency reform became unalterably necessary. In the wake of the currency reform in 1847/48 (Royal Decree of February 18th 1847) the peso duro of 20 reales de vellon became the national unit of account, in which all quotations had to be done. At first, this peso duro corresponded to 23.66 grammes of fine silver (Currency Law of April 15th 1848), from 1850 to 23.49 grammes of fine silver (Currency Law of 1850) and from 1854 it corresponded to 23.36 grammes of fine silver (Currency Law of February 3rd 1854). But this peso duro was only a unit of exchange, whereas all payments had to be done in napoleons (5 francs pieces) due to the lack of silver pesos. On April 15th 1848 the real (of 1.17 grammes of fine silver) was established as the new unit of silver money, whereby 1 doblón was equal to 10 escudos or 100 reales and the new real was declared equal to the former real de vellon, although they had different fine weights. But the most important coin in the Spanish circulation remained the napoleon, and there was no remarkable change in the exchange rate quotations. As a result, Spain had a bimetallistic standard with the doblón as the only minted gold coin, which was suspended between 1851 and 1854 because of the decreasing gold price after the gold rushes in California and Australia. After 1854 a creeping transition to the gold standard began, since no more silver coins were minted, but instead of them small gold coins (since 1861). A new currency reform was initiated by the coin act of June 26th 1864 with the escudo (of 11.68 grammes of fine silver) of 100 centimos as the new unit of account, whereby the doblón was equal to 10 escudos and the peso to 2 escudos. But only the state reckoned in escudos, the merchants in reales. After the September revolution in 1868 the Spanish currency was reorganized in accordance with the official requirements of the Latin Monetary Union of December 23rd 1865 without formally entering into that union. By decree of October 19th 1868 the peseta was treated as an equivalent to 4 reales de vellon or 1 franc and was offi-
the value of the French 5 francs piece. By decree of March 23 1869 the previous peso duro came to 5.19 pesetas, whereas the new one was fixed at 5 pesetas with a corresponding devaluation of 3.84%. On August 20th 1876 a government decree ordered the transition to the gold standard and the minting of a new gold coin, the alfonso d’or, of 25 pesetas. In the following years partially gold coins, partially silver coins dominated the Spanish circulation. Since 1883 silver coins and notes of the Banco de España became definitely the most important means of payment in the Spanish circulation and remained so up to World War I. Like the escudo, currency of the time from 1864 to 1870, did not play any part in the exchange rate quotations, the peseta (0.2903 grammes of fine gold) of 100 centimos was of no importance for the cashless payment system. The peseta did not become the basis of the exchange rate quotations until the end of the year 1887 even though not all foreign financial markets which quoted Spanish places followed that reform but carried on quoting for pesos duros.
