Abstract:
The author focuses on specific political factors that influenced the creation of II
Imperial Coinage Order of 1551. Every effort was made to reform and unify of coinage
situation in the frame of the Holy Roman Empire (the Reich). Emperor Charles V started it
in the times of his predominance between his victory in so called Schmalcaldic war in
1547, and a new military resistance of imperial opposition in 1552. Analysing the process
of making of the new imperial currency in 1549-1551, the author comes to the conclusion
that the final form of II Imperial Coinage Order was strongly influenced by the interests of
the emperor himself. In the previous decades, Charles V supported coinage integration of
the Reich in the form used by his younger brother Ferdinand I in his hereditary Austrian
lands. However, during the 1540s the emperor gained his own and very important silver
mines in the oversea colonies. That´s why his own interests in the Reich turned the scale of
the long-termed development and why II Imperial Coinage Order was inconvenient for the
Austrian lands. The author judges the final form of II Imperial Coinage Order as a result of
the Charles´ policy to integrate the Spanish and imperial coinage systems. It would be
much easier for the emperor to apply the oversea silver (they transported so called ship
coins, then it was again monetarized for European trade in the Spanish Netherlands or in
Naples). Charles V was, however, shortly defeated by the imperial opposition, after 1555
he lived in seclusion and his project failed. Finally, it was replaced by III Imperial Coinage
Order in 1559, based on the Austrian coinage system.
