In this table each of the points or dates taken marks a period of return to good money after a period of debasement, and in the mind of the legislator such return to good money (monnaie forte) can only be construed as based on an estimated general or normal rate of monetary values, for each particular succeeding point of time. At Page 34 every return to good money a proclamation was issued, expressing the determination of the administration to adhere to good money, as in the halcyon days of St. Louis, etc. etc., and fixing the rate at which the monies should be coined and current. By taking these points or dates of return to good money, therefore, we eliminate the arbitrary action of the Government in periods of debasement, and arrive at a net result showing the natural movement of the metals.
The general trend of the table—or of the metals whose movements it portrays—is perceptible at a glance, and will, moreover, be found exactly similar to that of the cases of England and Germany below. On account of the arbitrary debasements by the Kings and of the numerous feudal coinages struck independently by the bishops and subsidiary lords, the question of the friction with which this process of metallic appreciation worked itself out cannot be so well illustrated in the case of France as in that of England. But so much as this may be briefly indicated. In 1294 the scarcity of silver coinage was so great that a proclamation was put forth ordering silver to be brought to the Mint, and forbidding the export of the metals. In consequence of the futility of this ordinance, a further proclamation was issued in 1309, forbidding the circulation in France of English silver sterlings and gold florins of Florence, and crying down the exchange denomination of all other foreign coins. Similar proclama Page 35 tions were issued again and again—notably in 1328.