Currency in Dumas' Musketeer novels

Main articles: d'Artagnan romances and Alexandre Dumas

Louis XIII louis d'or of 1641

This article provides a brief guide to the monetary terms used in Alexandre Dumas' popular romances of the adventures of the Chevalier d'Artagnan, which include a number of obsolete units and denominations. These can be confusing not only to foreign readers, but to many modern Frenchmen as well, accustomed as they are to the decimal franc in use from the Revolution until the adoption of the Euro.

The livre

The official unit of account under the ancien regime (except from 1577–1602) was the livre tournois, or "pound of Tours". As instituted by Charlemagne, the livre (from Latin librum) had originally meant one Roman pound of silver, subdenominated into 20 sols (solidi) of 12 deniers (denarii) each. This Frankish system was also adopted in England, with the pound sterling of 20 shillings of 12 pence (abbreviated d.) However, by the time in which the Musketeers novels are set, the French livre had been devalued far more than the English pound, so that its exchange value was approximately one shilling and sixpence.

The livre was a money of account, only: there was no actual livre coin in d'Artagnan's day. From the Middle Ages through the period in question, French coins had no marked denomination or fixed value.^[1] The worth of a coin in the official units of livres, sols and deniers was set periodically by royal decree.

The franc

There had been medieval francs^[2] struck in gold with an original value of one livre, but by the 17th century such few of these coins as might have remained in circulation had a value far greater. From 1575 to 1586 silver "white francs" had been issued at 20 sols or one livre, but these had been discontinued when rising silver prices caused their bullion value to exceed their exchange value. Nonetheless, among bankers "franc" began at this time to be used as a synonym for "livre"; some English translations substitute franc for livre throughout.

The pistole

Dumas tends to express large sums in gold pistoles. Although the Valois kings had occasionally minted gold francs and écus, in the earlier 17th century Spanish coins comprised most of the gold circulating in France. By pistole, just possibly a contraction of 'piastre espagnole,' the French meant the Spanish 6.7-gram 22-karat double escudo, the "doubloon" of pirate lore. Its value fluctuated throughout the period relative to the official silver standard; Dumas simply but not inaccurately postulates it to be 10 livres, on the model of the louis d'or.

To confuse matters, Dumas has Aramis' mistress send him a purse of "Spanish double pistoles", which are valued at 20 livres. But by this is meant not the double escudo, which is itself the pistole, but rather the four-escudo piece. Similarly, d'Artagnan bribes the choirboy with a half-pistole: a one-escudo.

The louis d'or

Dumas occasionally uses louis d'or as an equivalent or alternative to pistole, but at least in The Three Musketeers, set in the 1620s, this is an anachronism: the first gold louis weren't minted until 1641. A very slightly larger coin (6.75g) than the double escudo, of which it was a deliberate copy, its official value was pegged at 10 livres until 1690.

The crown

Louis XIV Écu or louis d'argent, 1649.

The English text makes something of a poser here, as there has never been a French coin called a "crown" except the medieval écu d'or a la couronne, and the Renaissance blanc a la couronne. However, Dumas clearly had in mind a denomination less valuable than the old gold écu^[3] and far more valuable than the old one-sol "white crown:" in the episode of Athos' sapphire he indicates "at least 300 crowns" as being worth approximately 1000 livres or 100 pistoles. It appears that what was meant, again anachronistically, was the 25.4g silver écu or louis d'argent introduced in 1642, valued at that time at 3 livres, which prominently featured a crowned royal shield on its reverse.

The use of "crown" by Dumas (or his English translators) is not so unreasonable in light of the fact that in his own day the five-franc piece was still colloquially known as an écu, and this coin was very similar in size and value to the English crown or five-shilling piece; indeed "crown" was something of a universal term for silver coins of the one-ounce class (along with thaler and dollar).

Notes

1. ^ Except for copper token currency, which was denominated
2. ^ So called from the legend francorum rex or "King of the Franks"
3. ^ Although the gold écu had originally a notional value of 60 sols, or 3 livres, changes in the relative value of gold and silver meant that by Louis XIII's time it was worth considerably more.