Tractatus de Origine, Natura

Jure, et Mutacionibus Monetarmi

compositus per

Magistrum Nicolaum Oresme

Sacre Theologie Professorem

*

A Treatise on the Origin, Nature

Law and Alterations of Money

by

Master Nicholas Oresme

S.T.P.

QUIBUSDAM uidetur quod aliquis rex aut princeps aucto-ritate propria possit de iure uel priuilegio libere mutare monetas in suo regno currentes et de eis ad libitum ordinare, ac super hoc capere lucrum seu emolumentum quantumlibet; aliis autem uidetur oppositum.

Incipiunt Capitula sequentis tractatus de origine et natura, iure et mutacionibus monetarum

CAPITULUM

I.     Propter quid moneta sit inuenta

II.     De qua materia debet esse moneta

III.     De diuersitate materie monetarum et mixtione

IV.     De forma uel figura monete

CAPITULUM I

Propter quid moneta sit inuenta

Quando diuidebat Altissimus gentes, quando separabat filios Adam, constituit terminos populorum.1 Inde multiplicati sunt homines super terram, et possessiones prout expedie-bat diuise sunt.

CHAPTER

I.        Why Money was invented

II.        The Material of Money

III.        Of the Variety of Materials and of Alloy

IV.        Of the Form or Shape of Money

V.        Who has the Duty of Coining?

CHAPTER I

Why Money was invented

‘When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the people.’ Next, men were multiplied on the earth, and possessions were divided to the best advantage. The result of this was that one man had more than he needed of one commodity, while another had little or none of it, and of another commodity the converse was true: the shepherd had abundance of sheep and wanted bread, the farmer the contrary. One country abounded in one thing and lacked another.

PART TWO

English Mint Documents

CAMBIUM

Temp. Henry III          (Red Book, fo. 231 v°.)

Genera argenti, uidelicet: de Monte Pessulano, quod est adeo bonum quod decidit libra examinata nisi in uno denario, uel in duobus ad plus. Argentum de Eregh[a] eodem modo. Argentum de Fuacg[io], unde libra decidit in iiijd. ad plus. Argentum de Seyngu[esa] et de Maclyne semper est purum et non decidens. Argentum de Alemannia, fere totum purum. Argentum de Brucela et de Flandria, de quo libra decidit iiijd. Argentum de Verona; libra communiter decidit xijd.

EXCHANGE

Temp. Henry III

Silver has the following varieties: from Montpelier, which is so good that a pound, when assayed, is only a penny or twopence at most short of purity. That from the Ariége is the same. Silver from Foix, a pound of which is at most fourpence short. Silver of Sangüesa and of Malines is always pure and does not fall short. Silver from the Empire is almost all pure. Silver of Brussels and Flanders, of which the pound is fourpence short. Silver of Verona, the pound is usually twelve pence short.