W. C a r e w H a z l i t t Coinage of the European Continent

5 1 8 The Coins of Europe
operated in Spain, the question or subject becomes far less
intricate and difficult, inasmuch as there are before us no
more than two classes of currency : I that struck for inter-
,
nal use ; 2, that struck for the Asiatic, African, and other
colonies. For although in common with Spain, or at least
with Castile, a large number of monastic houses and ecclesiastical
foundations survived to the present century with
ample proprietary rights, there is no evidence of more than
a beneficiary interest, such as we have above mentioned,
having ever been vested in them and it seems to be a mere
;
inference that the emoluments settled by Queen Urraca and
Alfonso VII. on the primatial See of Bracara formed part of
a system, and were not an isolated example.
The earliest Portuguese money with which we are
acquainted was modelled on that of the Moors or on the
types of Castile and Leon and of Barcelona, which had been
solidi or maravedi di euro, or,
originally and by turn the common mediums of exchange ;
and the first gold issues, which were almost coexistent with
the monarchy, are described as Alfonsine marabotins and
in other words, were modifications
adapted to altered circumstances of Arabic dinars of
the latest fabric actually current at the time. The geographical
distinction between Spain and Portugal
is not
broadly marked : the latter at the outset was little more
than a fief of Castile, which Philip II. might have deemed
himself entitled to resume ;
and the Portuguese territory is
to be viewed as the last peninsular rallying-point of the
Mohammedan political and financial systems.
No money of Henry of Burgundy, nor any specimen of
the Bracara coinage above referred to, is at present identifiable
;
and from references in contemporary documents to
the modio, the germ of the moeda, the met/tea or metcale
maravedi, and the pesante, we conclude that the introductory
stages of monetary development exhibited a transition from
the Mohammedan types and denominations to those which
subsequently and eventually prevailed. In the interval
certain coins, not only of Spain, but of the Franks, were
admitted into the country as a circulating medium : we hear