In the period prior to the arrival of the Spanish on the continent, now called America, it is known that the native tribes of these lands had a barter system in commercial relations, or the exchange of products. With the arrival and colonization, the Spanish Empire brought its customs, uses, indoctrination, laws, traditions and imposed, among other elements, currency as a means of exchange.
THE MONETARY SYSTEM APPEARS
The imposed monetary system has been called “octave”, although this word does not officially exist, therefore, I will use the term pre-decimal to it. In this system the monetary value was based on the weight of the metal used in the coins. From there it is derived, that there were two monetary units: Real (silver coins) and the Escudo (gold coins).
The Real had submultiples called half a real and a quarter of a real or cuartillo and multiples of 2 reales (peseta), 4 reales (half a weight) and 8 reales (peso). The Escudo only had multiples: 2 escudos (doubloon), 4 escudos (half an ounce or doubloon of 4) and 8 escudos (ounce or doubloon of 8). The values were based on the weight of the metal used. The real weighed around 3.4346 grams of 0.900 purity silver and the escudo 3.3841 grams of 24-carat gold.
The relationship between these two monetary units was 2 pesos of silver = 1 escudo of gold.
ECUADOR ADOPTS THE SUCRE
This monetary system lasted in the republic from 1930 to 1884 with the definitive adoption of the decimal monetary system and the adoption of the “Sucre” as the monetary unit. In this period, there are two failed attempts to reach the current system in the years 1856 and 1872. The first is the case of this article and the second with the minting of two copper coins of one and two cents. The Senate and the Chamber of Representatives of Ecuador on December 5, 1856 issue a decree whose text I reproduce in its first two articles:
“Art. 1st. Throughout the Republic there will be a single monetary system and weights and measures.
Art 2º. This system will be the French decimal: the fundamental unit for the currency is the franc, equal in lei to 0.900 (nine hundred thousandths); The fundamental unit for weights and measures is the meter, equal in length to the ten millionth part of the arc of the meridian that comes from the North Pole to the Equator.
THE FIRST CURRENCY
On this basis, Emilia Rivadeneira, a well-known carver from the city of Quito, was commissioned to design the 5-franc coin that circulated in 1858. The possible conversion had several drawbacks due to the lack of details in the 1856 decree, since the trade with currencies of the two systems was left to the will of the people. Thus the Art. 7th. mentions “Holders of weak currency, both national and foreign, may demand their conversion into decimal currency, if they deem it appropriate; and the Government will indemnify them four francs for every eight reales of said currency”. To facilitate understanding, it must be clarified that the feble coin is the one that does not comply with the weight or law, since it is minted with 0.664 silver that was minted in the neighboring countries Colombia and Peru, especially at the same time that foreign currencies of the system circulated. French decimal. This situation brought numerous problems among the merchants since the decree does not establish the relationships, nor its weight, nor does it indicate that it must be silver, which is why this coin has a fleeting circulation.
It cannot be ignored that this coin is one of the most beautiful in the country’s numerary. I must mention that this article is based on the texts of the researchers Dr. Carlos Ortuño exposed in the book “Numismatic History of Ecuador” published by the Central Bank in 1977 and by Ramiro Reyes “Ecuadorian Numismatics – Evolution and collecting of our currency” of 2013, sponsored by the Metropolitan Institute of Heritage of the Municipality of Quito.