PCGS - Paper money requires a sacrifice, as they are not of any intrinsic value. It has a value that is assigned to the piece and based off a fiat or faith-based system that requires the users to accept it for a particular value. Promissory notes from businesses or individuals have been known to exist since ancient times, but China is credited for the creation of the first paper currency issued by the government, and this had been known in Europe since the writings of Marco Polo. The first official state-issued paper currency wouldn't come in Europe until 1574 with emergency circumstances and with a people who made a great sacrifice. Accepted as money of necessity, the first banknote of Europe is the story of sacrifice and success. The next paper money wouldn't come for another 87 years after under different circumstances.
During the Eighty Years' War, rebellion occurred in the Spanish-ruled Netherlands. The Dutch took up arms against the Habsburg Spanish King and by 1572 these rebellious Dutch had occupied and controlled several cities and provinces. One such city, Leiden, which today is in the Netherlands in the province of South Holland, became one of the targets of the Spanish to reoccupy and siege warfare began in October 1573.
Siege warfare has been used against cities since ancient times. To protect their people, property, and rulers, city officials constructed walls and defenses to prevent armies from entering and conquering them. Armies, unable to break these defenses, would be at an impasse. But one option would be to blockade the cities from receiving support and goods, including food, in the hopes to starve the cities into submission. The longer the siege, the less food and water supplies that the city had stockpiled lasted. Starvation and disease afflicted the population inside the city, providing the sieging army a much easier capture of the city with fewer defenders; sometimes the city would just surrender.
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Posted 09/22/2020 5:26 pm
