II.   Sovereign

In the early 8th Century all Imperial Drachme within Carolingian territory were ordered to be melted down and re-issued as “soldus” in honor of the ancient gold coin “solidus” issued in the last decades of the Western Roman Empire. However, a harsh economic recession brought on by the embargo of trade by Antioch (Constantinople) including a critical shortage of gold forced the abandonment of the physical “soldus” to become the first “virtual money” unit in European history as the “solde” and “sol” with the introduction of the silver scillinn (shilling) and the copper peni (penny) in 738 CE.

In response to the economic crisis of 735 to 738 CE, Charles Martel introduced for the first time in history a monetary system based on the monthly and annual output of peasants as the core units of currency being the copper peni (penny), silver scillinn (shilling), paper certificate (sol) and pund (pound) measure:

(i) The copper “peni” (penny) or “pence” from “penitus” was traditionally founded on the measure of reward for a month’s work for a peasant; and

(ii) The silver “scillinn” (shilling) from the ancient Gaelic scil (skill) meaning “distinction, applied knowledge or ability” and linn meaning “time period or age of effort” was founded on the measure of one year’s good work for a peasant, or twelve (12) copper peni (penny); and

(iii) The paper sol (solidus or solde) replaced the absence of gold and represented a paper certificate for five (5) silver scillin (shillings) issued by and redeemable from the regis camera (royal treasury vault); and

(iv) The measure of one pund (pound) equal to twenty (20) silver scillin (shillings) or five thousand four hundred (5400) “wheat” grains or around three hundred fifty (350) grams of silver.

The claim that a “King Offa or Mercia” is the inventor of a silver penny in the 8th Century CE and that Charlemagne adopted the terms solidi and denarii is completely false and designed to hide (a) the original meaning, purpose and function of money under the Carolingians and the Catholicus Ecclesia (Catholic Church) and (b) confuse the origin of the silver Venetian denarii introduced at the end of the 12th Century.

The monetary system invented by the Carolingians in the 8th Century is unique in European history as:

(i) The monetary units and system demanded that nobles engage their peasants in the economy of the region by paying them minimum “wages” in addition to whatever, they had traditionally kept and harvested for their food and lifestyle; and

(ii) Because the monetary units were based on “sweat equity” of the lowest members of society, it enabled for the first time a complete model of economic value and output whereby everything could be priced including the output of peasants, the value of land (measured in output), crops, livestock and goods; and

(iii) The Carolingian system inadvertently ended the tradition of pure “socialism” of communal property of peasants, their ability to grow food and tend crops for “free” as all such elements could now be calculated as having value in the economy; and

(iv) The Carolingian monetary system also exposed peasants to the dynamics of economic “booms” and “busts” through inflation and deflation of currency, cost of goods with a direct impact on their survival, without the means themselves to adjust their own prices of labor.

The introduction of the first “paper money” backed by gold as gold certificates or sol (solde, or soldus) as well as silver and copper coins at first enabled the Carolingians to expand the economies of European regions and thus expand industry, commerce, learning and science. However, several consequences of the monetary policy appeared by the end of the reign of Charlemagne that ultimately contributed to the break up of the Empire:

(i) The use of copper as a base currency without adequate supplies, given its domestic use at first produced a shortage of copper and then an over supply of copper, affecting price stability and fueling crime; and

(ii) Silver also suffered critical shortages and over supply, affecting price stability; and

(iii) Metal substitution counterfeiting, particularly in the use of copper within silver coins continued to increase resulting in inflation; and

(iv) Sol certificates for gold became so popular with merchants and attractive to counterfeiters that the issue of money certificates from the cancellocum (chancery) increasingly became more sophisticated; and

(v) Sol certificates for gold enabled merchants to introduce fractional accounting on paper rather than “clipping” coins, contributing to hyper inflation at the end of the Empire; and

(vi) Sol certificates for gold promoted the withholding of the reintroduction of gold coins as those with gold could stand to make many times their fortune in sol certificates.

To try and maintain order on gold certificates, the Carolingians continued to order the minting of solde (solidi) gold coins for each reign and on special occasions for circulation, but did not fully eliminate the practice of sol gold certificates until the collapse of the empire by the 10th Century.

The claimed capitulum (capitulary) of Pippin (750 CE), Frankfort (794 CE), Aix-la-Chapelle (797 CE), Diedenhoden (805 CE) and Aix-la-Chapelle (817 CE) are all deliberate and clumsy Pisan and Venetian forgeries designed to hide the function and purpose of the original money system of the Carolingians and the founders of the true Catholicus Ecclesia (Catholic Church).

The failure to effectively reform the monetary system of the empire, contributed substantially to the eventual collapse of the Empire due to hyper inflation. The contribution of sol gold certificates to the economic collapse of Europe at the end of the 9th Century and beginning of the 10th Century is a significant factor why direct paper based money back by either gold or silver was “banned” from being reintroduced for another six hundred (600) years.

The disaster of the Carolingian money system in causing the collapse of peasant and village life due to the economic collapse of the Empire is a significant reason towards the openness of the peasants to abandon “progress” and “technology” and embrace the feudal model offered by nobles loyal to the Roman Death Cult and Venetians by the 12th Century.

The collapse of trade, industry and economies of Europe due to the economic mismanagement caused by the Carolingian financial model from the end of the 9th Century is a significant contributor to the reason so many lower nobles and military leaders chose to align themselves to the Venetian - Roman model, against the French and Saxon Popes and Emperors from the 11th Century onwards.