Historical Sketch

In the mid-18th century, the Kingdom of Naples came under the rule of the House of Bourbon, briefly after the Kingdom of Sicily which had become Bourbonic after a short Savoy interregnum. The two kingdoms remained separate although joined in personal union. In 1799, Napoleonic France conquered Naples, and the king fled to the island of Sicily. The short-lived revolutionary republic collapsed after a few months, and the king returned. In 1806, France conquered Naples again and created the Kingdom of Two Sicilies first under Napoleon's brother, then under his brother-in-law. Despite the Napoleonic claim, the island again remained under Bourbon. The 1815 Congress of Vienna restored the Bourbonic rule over both kingdoms, but without recreating the separate states. The Kingdom of Two Sicilies remained united and further consolidated during the 18th century. In 1859 began the revolutionary movement to unify Italy. In mid-1860, Naples-Sicily was conquered and joined the future Kingdom of Italy.

Monetary History Overview

The two Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily were separate states, albeit joined in personal union throughout many centuries. The monetary situation had always been distinct, and only under the Bourbonic rule the coinage systems were aligned. The Neapolitan currency was reformed in 1784 and the Sicilian one in 1785. The Napoleonic conquests of 1799 and 1806 did not change the monetary situation. Only in 1811, a currency law was decreed to adopt the French bimetallic standard in the following year. The Sicilian Lira was identical with the French Franc (and other French-inspired currencies in Italy). The island of Sicily was not under Napoleonic authority, so that the reform was not implemented there. But also in Naples the new coinage was not accepted so that after about two and a half years, the exercise was abandoned, and the pre-Napoleonic currency was restored. The Sicilian Ducat corresponded to the Naples silver coinage, now nominally extended into bimetallism although no gold coins were issued since the Napoleonic kingdom collapsed about a year later. The restored Bourbonic kingdom of the Two Sicilies basically continued the currency but returning to the silver standard as the newly introduced gold coins had no fixed relation to silver. The Italian revolutionary government introduced the Sardinian (Italian) currency standard in August 1860. Again, the currency changeover proved difficult, and the pre-unitary coins remained current until the early 1870s.

Currency Units Timeline

Currency Institutes Timeline

Monetary History Sources