The purpose of this research is to examine the currency reforms of Charlemagne. The plan of the research will be to set forth the apparent purpose of Charlemagne's monetary program, and then to discuss the implications of specific monetary goals for the use of coinage throughout the Holy Roman Empire.
To understand Charlemagne's currency reforms within the Frankish kingdom, it is necessary to understand that Charlemagne (born 742 A.D.) appears to have instituted such reforms in significant part in response to economic conditions that he encountered rather than as a feature of policy initiatives. Additionally, Charlemagne's monetary policy appears to have been intended to give his kingdom entry into the international community and to lend weight to the legitimacy of his reign. Thus Charlemagne's currency reforms must be understood in connection with the conditions under which they arose.
The political and economic conditions of Charlemagne's kingdom arose out of the conflict between Christians and Moors in Europe and especially out of the defeat of the Moors by Charles Martel at the Loire River. His Christian son Pepin overtook Merovingian (barbarian/pagan) control of present-day France. When in 751 Pepin defeated the Lombards to protect the pope, the pope crowned him king of the Franks, formally replacing the Merovingians and affiliating papal sanction with political legitimacy. Charlemagne was Pepin's son, and he further consolidated his power, chiefly it appears by conquest. Once he had inherited France, he expanded in all directions, with Christianity as his rationale, south to the northern border of Spain and to Rome, north to the coast of Germany, west to the Danube, and east to the channel (Wells, 1971, pp. 544-6). When the Pope crowned him Holy Roman Emperor, signifying church-state unity as well as his own legitimacy, power, prestige, and stature, this was the creation of empire in name. For actually Charlemagne...