As the mention of the peso de oro will often
recur in these pages, it will be well to make the reader acquainted
with its probable value. Nothing more difficult than to ascertain
the actual value of the currency of a distant age; so many
circumstances occur to embarrass the calculation, besides the
general depreciation of the precious metals, such as the
adulteration of specific coins and the like. Senior Clemencin, the
secretary of the Royal Academy of History, in the sixth volume of
its Memorias, has computed with great accuracy the value of the
different denominations of the Spanish currency at the close of the
fifteenth century, the period just preceding that of the conquest of
Mexico. He makes no mention of the peso de oro in his tables. But he
ascertains the precise value of the gold ducat, which will answer
our purpose as well. (Memorias de la Real Academia de Historia
[Madrid, 1821], tom. vi. *Ilust. 20.) Oviedo, a contemporary of the
Conquerors, informs us that the peso de oro and the castellano were of
the same value, and that was precisely one third greater than the
value of the ducat. (Hist. del Ind., lib. 6, cap. 8, ap. Ramusio,
Navigationi et Viaggi [Venetia, 1565], tom. iii.) Now the ducat, as
appears from Clemencin, reduced to our own currency, would be equal to
eight dollars and seventy-five cents. The peso de oro, therefore,
was equal to eleven dollars and sixty-seven cents, or two pounds,
twelve shillings, and sixpence sterling.
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