European Currency Debasement in the 1470s

Timeline

1. 1471–1475Paris · Kingdom of FranceTo raise funds for unifying France and annexing the Burgundian inheritance, Louis XI repeatedly adjusted mint standards, reducing the precious-metal content of gold and silver coins and expanding small-change issuance. The Paris mint reform provoked merchant protests and black-market premiums; the crown enforced circulation through compulsory exchange and penalties. Debasement filled the treasury in the short term but raised urban living costs and harmed those on fixed incomes.
2. 1473–1478Buda · Kingdom of HungaryHungary under Matthias Corvinus also adjusted the silver florin standard to sustain its war against the Ottomans and the expenses of a Renaissance court. Within the Holy Roman Empire, princes, bishoprics, and free cities each minted their own coins; uneven fineness led to cross-territorial arbitrage and the phenomenon of 'bad money driving out good.' Merchants and bankers increasingly relied on bills of exchange and account money to avoid the risks of physical coin.
3. 1475–1480Venice · Republic of VeniceThe Venetian gold ducat, stable in fineness, became the hard currency of international trade, in sharp contrast to the debased silver coins of the north. Bankers in Florence and Milan profited from exchange-rate differences and arbitrage, also promoting double-entry bookkeeping and credit instruments. By the late 1470s the European monetary system showed a divide between 'good-money zones' and 'bad-money zones,' foreshadowing the financial turbulence before the sixteenth-century price revolution and the influx of American silver.