BARCELONA, Bank of. In its tnore modern sense, that is to say, an institution of deposit, loan, discount, domestic and foreign exchange, etc., open to the commercial public, the Bank of Barcelona must be regarded as the earliest of banks in the European world. As its operation had a bearing upon the affairs of America they possess especial interest. Primarily this relates to the obrussa, obrvsurn, obrizo, or test or atrial of the pyx.° In Spain, by the ordinance of Valencia, made by King John, who conqttered the ldngdotn of Aragon, it is expressly provided that reals shall only be
coined in Valencia, and that the mintners shall be supervised by two well-known citizens, so that no fraud shall be committed as to material or weight. (Grimaudet, 'Law of Payment,' p. 14). The coin referred to is the well-laiown Spanish real de plata. of eight to the dollar. It was lawful money in the United States down to 1853 and is still known to New York trades men as the ((shilling') and throughout the Southern States and California as the '
From Barcelona King John's test of the coins, called in England '
Upon returning from his momentous voy ze of discovery, Columbus appeared before ng Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, then hold ing court at Barcelona, and there unfolded to his sovereigns and a brilliant throng of nobles and ecclesiastics the particulars of his wonder ful achievement, exhibiting among other proofs a number of American natives, specimens of their field products and handiwork, and an at tractive show of Arnerican gold nuggets.
The second voyage of Columbus, planned upon a royal scale, was especially prepared for the mining of gold, to carry out which object the King had recourse to two financial measures: First, immediate sequestration and sale of the property of heretics; second, a loan from the Bank of Barcelona. This loan fur
nishes an additional point of interest in that institution.
Among its various operations the bank received on deposit and disbursed the revenues, or part of them, of the four great ecclesiastico military orders, and kept the accounts of about a dozen other orders of knighthood, like those of Calatrava, Saint James, Golden Fleece, Saint George, etc., some of which were ecclesiastical and others chivalrous. The royal treasure which during the reign of Henry IV of Castile was deposited in the castle of Segovia was afterward divided and removed by his step-sister, Queen Isabella, who de posited a portion of it in the Bank of Barce lona; because the Contador-General, or Super intendent of Finances, is known to have drawn for public disbursements upon that institutiort some of his warrants.
In 1480 Isabella, holding court at Toledo, had signed a decree which greatly affected the Bank of Barcelona. aTo support the govern ment of Castile, Henry IV had issued certain cedulas or certificates of annuities, assigned on the public rentes;') these by purchase had be come the property of the nobles; who in turn had borrowed money on them from the bank. Isabella's decree denouncing and annulling these certificates— virtually an act of re pudiation— was entrusted for execution to her confessor, Fernando de Talavera, who per formed his office with such fidelity that it ((saved* 30,000,000 maravedis annually to the Crown, or three-fourths of the entire revenue. (Prescott,
After the struggle to survive the depletion of its resources in 1480 the bank was hardly in a condition to weather the civil wars which at tended the effort to wrest the crown from Juana and her son Charles. Durin.g this period of violence, the old banIct despainng of a re turn to peace and secunty, appears to have quietly discharged its obligations, wound up its affairs and honorably dissolved. For the history of other ancient banks see BYZAN TUM, BANK OF ; FUGGERS, BANK OF THE; GEN0A,_ BANK OF ; MEDICI, BANKS OF THE; TYRE, BANK OF ; VENICE, BANK OF.