made was gained by the Florentines above and beyond them, by many
victories. Wherefore the said Pisans were put to shame, and the King,
both by reason of the florin, and for the words of our wise citizen,
made the Florentines free, and appointed for them their own Fondaco,
and church, in Tunis, and gave them privileges like the Pisans. And
this we know for a truth from the same Peter, having been in company
with him at the office of the Priors."

119. I cannot tell you what the value of the piece was at this time:
the sentence with which Sismondi concludes his account of it being only
useful as an example of the total ignorance of the laws of currency in
which many even of the best educated persons at the present day remain.

"Its value," he says always the same, "answers to eleven francs forty
centimes of France."

But all that can be scientifically said of any piece of money is that
it contains a given weight of a given metal. Its value in other coins,
other metals, or other general produce, varies not only from day to
day, but from instant to instant.

120. With this coin of Florence ought in justice to be ranked the
Venetian zecchin; [1] but of it I can only thus give you account in
another place,--for I must at once go on now to tell you the first use
I find recorded, as being made by the Florentines of their new money.

[Footnote 1: In connection with the Pisans' insulting intention by
their term of Arabs, remember that the Venetian 'zecca,' (mint) came
from the Arabic 'sehk,' the steel die used in coinage.]