Currencies

The two principal currencies found in GA calculations in Tuscany are Tuscan golden scudi, which are generally used in calculations from the first half of the century, and silver pieces of eight (pezze da otto reali), which is the exclusive currency for GA calculations in the latter half of the century. ‘Pieces of eight’ was often shortened to ‘pieces’ (pezze). This latter coin was equivalent to the Spanish real or dollar and became widely used in international trade. Both the scudo and the pezza were subdivided into soldi (of which there were 20 to a piece) and denari (of which there were 12 to a soldo), thus analogous with the shillings and pence of the pre-decimal pound sterling. Prices are expressed in the sources using a colon to separate each unit of value, for instance, 57:2:9. In this work, however, I have used decimalised forms of each currency to lend clarity to tables and graphs. Each value is rounded to two decimal places.