ABSTRACT
The average rate of depreciation of England’s currency between Eadgar’s reform of 973 and Charles II’s recoinage of 1696 was remarkably low, about 0.4 per cent per annum. This average conceals one of the most extraordinary interludes in English monetary history-the Great Debasement of Henry VIII and Edward VI. The Tudor period as a whole (1485-1603) actually shows the same averages: 0.37 per cent for the silver and 0.35 per cent for the gold. However, to quote Oman’s summary:
…from 1526 onwards we are in the midst of financial crises which do not end till 1562…Henry VIII tried all manner of expedients… Chaos supervened: he had taken over from his father the finest, the best executed, and the most handsome coinage in Europe. He left to his son the most disreputable money that had ever been seen since the days of Stephen-the gold heavily alloyed, the so called silver ill-struck and turning black or brown as the base metal came to the surface. The problem which was left to the ministers of his son Edward VI was the rehabilitation of the currency. Protector Somerset made nothing of the problem, and continued in his old master’s evil ways. Protector Northumberland, a very bad man but a good financier, made a serious and partly successful attempt to put things right.
