Editing Philip IV of France (section)

===Devaluation===
[[File:Donation faite par le roi de France Philippe IV Le Bel aux chapelains et marguilliers de la Sainte-Chapelle du palais à Paris - Archives Nationales - AE-II-293.jpg|thumb|Donation made by the King of France, Philip IV the Fair, to the chaplains and wardens of the [[Sainte-Chapelle]] in Paris. February 1286]]
In 1294, France and England went to war and in 1297, the county of Flanders declared its independence from France. This conflict accelerated the financial problems incurred by the French monarch.{{sfn|Torre|2010|p=63}} As warfare continued and fiscal deficits persisted, Philip had no remedy but to use [[debasement]] of coinage as an alternative tool to meet his military expenditures.{{sfn|Torre|2010|p=62}} This measure made people wary of taking their coins to royal mints, preferring to take their silver abroad to exchange it for strong currencies, which by 1301 led to a dramatic disappearance of silver in France.{{sfn|Torre|2010|p=61}} Currency depreciation provided the crown with 1.419 million LP from November 1296 to Christmas 1299, more than enough to cover war costs of 1.066 million LP in the same period.{{sfn|Torre|2010|p=63}}

The resulting inflation damaged the real incomes of the creditors such as the aristocracy and the Church, who received a weaker currency in return for the loans they had issued in a stronger currency.{{sfn|Torre|2010|p=61}} The indebted lower classes did not benefit from the devaluation, as the high inflation ate into the purchasing power of their money.{{sfn|Torre|2010|p=61}} The result was social unrest.{{sfn|Torre|2010|p=63}} By 22 August 1303 this practice led to a two-thirds loss in the value of the ''livres, sous'' and ''deniers'' in circulation.{{sfn|Torre|2010|p=64}}

The defeat at the battle of Golden Spurs in 1302 was a crushing blow to French finance: the 15 months which followed this battle saw a depreciation of the currency by 37%, and new decrees were issued forbidding the export of gold and silver abroad.{{sfn|Torre|2010|p=64}} The royal government had to order officials and subjects to provide all or half, respectively, of their silver vessels for minting into coins.{{sfn|Torre|2010|p=64}} New taxes were levied to pay for the deficit.{{sfn|Torre|2010|p=64}}<ref>{{cite web
 | url =https://mises.org/library/great-depression-14th-century
 | title =The Great Depression of the 14th Century
 | last =Rothbard
 | first =Murray
 | date =23 November 2009
 | website =Mises Daily Articles
 | publisher =Mises Institute
 | access-date =8 January 2020 }}</ref> As people attempted to move their wealth out of the country in non-monetary form, Philip banned merchandise exports without royal approval.{{sfn|Torre|2010|p=64}} The king obtained another crusade tithe from the pope and returned the royal treasure to the Temple to gain the Templars as his creditors again.{{sfn|Torre|2010|p=64}}

Despite their consequences, these decisions were not considered immoral at that time, as they were the prince's accepted right, and this right could be taken far if a special situation, such as war, justified it. Furthermore, the issue of coins with a lower content of silver was needed to maintain circulation, in a context where the inflation of silver produced a severe scarcity of currency due to the ongoing commercial revolution.{{sfn|Torre|2010|p=61}}