Appendix 6
Notes on the Currency and Money Values
in the Netherlands in the
Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Centuries1.

Prices in the Netherlands in the sixteenth century were often expressed in Flemish ponden (pounds), the pond being divided into 20 schellingen, and the schelling into 12 penningen. Plantin sometimes reckoned in Flemish pounds2. - for example in the period 1563 - 1567 and in transactions with his paper suppliers. However, right from the start of his career his preference was for the Carolus-guilder or florin (abbreviated as fl., divided into 20 stuivers or patars, abbreviated as st.).3. His successors reckoned wages and prices in Carolus-guilders and this is how the various financial transactions of the Plantin-Moretus family have generally been given in the preceding pages.

To obtain a better idea of the economic realities which these figures express it is necessary to determine the value of the Carolus-guilder in present-day monetary units. Finding equivalents of this kind is one of the most difficult aspects of economic history. The question can be approached in various ways, but none of the methods yields conclusive answers and the results they produce only partially coincide.

This research is rendered still more difficult by the pronounced inflationary tendencies in the centuries in question. In about 1725 Western Europe entered a period of monetary stability which lasted until the outbreak of the First World

War in 1914; between c. 1500 and c. 1725, however, Western currencies declined in value, at a variable rate spread over different periods. Thus the guilder of Plantin's youth was not worth the same as that of his old age and this in turn was different in value from the guilder in which his grandsons reckoned their wages and prices.

The intrinsic value of the guilder

The first method which can be used to decide the relative values of particular coins is comparison of their respective gold and silver values.

Intrinsic value of the guilder in grammes op fine gold and silver

The pre-1914 gold franc in Belgium (and France) was valued at 0.290 g fine gold or 4.5 g fine silver. Therefore the value of the guilder expressed in terms of the Belgian and French franc was:1.

For purposes of comparison it should be noted that:

(1) In 1914, £1 sterling (1 gold sovereign) was valued at 7.32 g fine gold or 104.6 g fine silver. The official rate of exchange was £1 sterling = 25.8 gold francs.

(2) In 1914, 1 dollar was valued at 24.042 g silver. The official rate of exchange was $1 = 5.35 gold francs.

The purchasing power of the guilder

Expressing the value of a coin in terms of gold or silver is always somewhat artificial as the price of the noble metals is determined by their production costs. Finding out what the coin could purchase at particular points of time is a better barometer of its value.

The following could be bought for 1 guilder in Antwerp:

Unskilled workers' wages

The question of the purchasing power of a coin presents a number of difficulties which may be sufficient to distort the overall picture. Certain products - such as sugar and tobacco - which are now commonplace and relatively cheap commodities were formerly expensive luxuries. Before the development of the New World granaries in the nineteenth century, Europe was still dependent on what she could produce herself and marked fluctuations of price according to the relative scarcity or abundance of the staple cereals were very common phenomena.

The third possible method of approach is perhaps the best one; it should at least be applied to verify and if necessary rectify the results of the other two. It consists of comparing the wages of unskilled labourers at different times. Through the centuries this group has always been paid wages which purchase no more than the necessities of life. The basis on which these necessities have been calculated and the number of hours which unskilled men have had to work to earn this minimum may have varied through the years; what has remained constant is the fact that such workers have always been paid at subsistence level.

Daily (summer) wages of an unskilled worker (day labourer) in Antwerp are given in the following table:

Conclusion

The intrinsic value of the guilder declined steadily from c. 1560 to c. 1700. However, the purchasing power of the guilder (and the index of wages associated with it) shows a somewhat divergent curve: from 1560 to 1590 it declined more sharply than that of the intrinsic value, while on the other hand after 1590 it showed greater stability than the gold and silver values of the guilder.

Conversion into present-day units is extremely hazardous and the results are always open to challenge. However, after balancing the various advantages and limitations of the three methods one against the other, it may be concluded that one guilder in 1560 was equal to approximately 1,000 BF (Belgian Francs) today. In 1590 it was worth approximately 500 FB and in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries about 400 BF. The 1969 rate of exchange being $ 1.00 = 50 BF and £ 1.0.0 = 120 BF, the following table may be given:

It should be remembered, however, that whereas the cost of living in Belgium and Great Britain is roughly the same, that in the United States is much higher. An amount of 1,000 BF in Belgium or £ 8.6.8 in Great Britain therefore represents a greater purchasing power than $ 20.00 in the United States (probably in terms of dollars about $ 30.00 to $ 35.00).