Écu d'or
Late 16th to early 17th century ・ gold ・ 16th century ・ Henry III and Henry IV
With the royal finances worn down by the Wars of Religion, in 1577 Henry III, by the ordinance of Poitiers, switched the basis of account to the gold écu and fixed the écu d'or at 3 livres tournois. It was an attempt to count in gold that does not move rather than in a livre that does. Under Henry IV, who ended the civil war, his ally Sully rebuilt the finances, declaring that tillage and pasture were the two breasts of France and pushing forward measures for the land. It is the gold of an age in which a golden measure held up, for a time, an empty treasury.