Kipper Und Wipper Crisis the Kipper Und Wipper Crisis (1618-23) Occurred in the City States of the Holy Roman Empire and Began with the Thirty Years War
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Kipper und Wipper Crisis The Kipper und Wipper crisis (1618-23) occurred in the city states of the Holy Roman Empire and began with the Thirty Years War. It remains one of the strangest episodes in economic history.i The origin of this crisis dates back several decades before the crisis unfolded. In the mid-16th century, the empire had established a legal framework regarding the weight and content of precious metals in money. However, the monetary standard for low and middle value coins was set too high, meaning that production costs for minting small coins was excessive. This meant that the mints were making a loss when producing these smaller coins. The mints responded by reducing the silver content in these coins, meaning that the precious metals content of these coins was already significantly below the prescribed standards even before the Thirty Years’ War broke out.ii With excessive money, inflation inevitably began to rise. Between 1582 and 1609, the imperial currency lost about 20 percent of its value. But things were about to get a lot worse.iii Initially, the economy picked up as the increased circulation of cash boosted output. However, prices also rose, with the moderate inflation affecting those on fixed incomes. With war looming, thousands of Germany’s rival rulers began to hoard cash to pay for the war. They also engaged in economic warfare by adding copper to the silver in coins and allowing the debased currency to leak back into the neighboring states. Initially, debasement was limited to one’s own territory, which the leaders used to build up their war chests. However, the rulers found that they could do better by transporting bad coins across the border and exchange them with ignorant common people, bringing back the good coins and debasing them again. As this trend caught on, more and more mints were established, resulting in an ever-increasing number of mints and hyper- inflation. At the height of the crisis, business-minded princes, nobles and merchants could rent mints by the week to turn out their kippergeld. At one stage, a convent was even requisitioned and converted into a mint, employing 400 people.iv The crisis got its name from the coin scales (Wipper) used by money changers to sort higher quality coins from debased coins. The coin scales tipped quickly if a coin was of the proper weight. The money changers went to great lengths to carry out the scam. Bad (debased) coins were smuggled past customs posts and city gates hidden in bags of produce and brought out on market day; they were coated with good metal to disguise them. Their victims included pastors, millers and peasants. Mints sent out a second group of criminals to buy what remained of the good coins to keep their coiners supplied with precious metals. These transactions were, of course, settled with debased coins.v The hyperinflation generated by the currency debasement had profound economic and social affects. By early 1622, the imperial economy had been devastated. Trade and commerce had almost ceased as people were no longer willing to sell their services or products for worthless money. Farmers withheld their produce from market while tax revenues ran dry. Between 1620 and 1623, the price of basic foodstuffs rose roughly eightfold in most of Germany. The premises of money changers suspected of dealing in kippergeld were stormed by angry mobs in Brandenburg. In other areas, people circulated pamphlets condemning 1 of 2 the practice while others rioted in the streets, demanding that the practice cease. In February 1622, a riot in Magdeburg left 16 dead and 200 wounded.vi The military also refused to serve unless they were paid in un-debased money. By 1623, the backlash against these practices had become so profound and the financial damage so great, that the authorities were forced to act. The debased coins were withdrawn and replaced with good coins, and the emperor ordered a return to the old money standard. At its peak, the crisis infected large swathes of German-speaking Europe, from the Swiss Alps to the Baltic Coast. However, some regions were hit harder than others, with the impact depending on the financial prudence of one’s rulers. Saxony and Frankfurt suffered worse, while the Hanseatic towns of northern Germany suffered the least. As in any period of inflation, there were winners and losers. Not surprisingly, the wealthy were the most heavily involved in perpetuating the debasement. Fortunes were made as the ultra-rich profited hugely by running the mints and using the profits to snap up land from the dispossessed. In contrast, the losers included the commoners who saw their savings and livelihoods wiped out. Those on fixed incomes such as clergy and teachers were also badly affected. Many clergy saw this as the hand of god punishing sinners.vii The following quote from Macaulay’s History of England, when writing about a similar English wave of coin-clipping that occurred in 1696, possibly best sums up this crisis: “It may well be doubted whether all the misery which has been inflicted on the English nation in a quarter of a century by bad Kings, bad Ministers, bad Parliaments and bad Judges, was equal to the misery caused in a single year by bad crowns and bad shillings.”viii i https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kipper_und_Wipper ii https://www.bundesbank.de/Redaktion/EN/Downloads/Bundesbank/Money_Museum/the_german_econo mic_crisis_of_1618_to_1623.pdf?__blob=publicationFile iii http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/kipper-und-wipper-rogue-traders-rogue-princes-rogue- bishops-and-the-german-financial-meltdown-of-1621-23-167320079/ iv http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/kipper-und-wipper-rogue-traders-rogue-princes-rogue- bishops-and-the-german-financial-meltdown-of-1621-23-167320079/ v http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/kipper-und-wipper-rogue-traders-rogue-princes-rogue- bishops-and-the-german-financial-meltdown-of-1621-23-167320079/ vi http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/kipper-und-wipper-rogue-traders-rogue-princes-rogue- bishops-and-the-german-financial-meltdown-of-1621-23-167320079/ vii http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/kipper-und-wipper-rogue-traders-rogue-princes-rogue- bishops-and-the-german-financial-meltdown-of-1621-23-167320079/ viii https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/kipper-und-wipper-rogue-traders-rogue-princes-rogue- bishops-and-the-german-financial-meltdown-of-1621-23-167320079/ 2 of 2 .