High Mightinesses, the States-General of the United Provinces, is remarkably parallel to the above. It begins with the ordinance of 2nd September 1594: "In view of the rising price of gold and silver," it says, a "lessening of that price to the limit of 1586 is ordered at three intervals, 15th September 1594, 10th November, 10th January 1595."
Like the contemporary enactment of the Spanish Netherlands, it proved ineffectual, and a further rise Page 78 had to be recognised in the ordinance of 2nd March 1596, and again of 2nd April 1603. The preambles of these ordinances, which are preserved in the huge collections of Can and Scheltus, generally recite their purpose of providing against the disorders in the coinage, caused by the daily rise in price, by the greed and licence of the times, and by the inrush of the silver coins of other states. Such is specially the tenor of that of 21st March 1606, one of the most famous of these ordinances. Two years later an attempt was made to reduce prices to the limit of 1606. It proved ineffectual, and by the proclamations of 1st July 1610, 26th September 1615, and 13th February 1619, further advances were recorded. By the last-named, renewed on 5th June 1621, an attempt was made to re-establish the prices of 1610.
So much for the ordinances themselves. It is only necessary to add, for their general elucidation, that