(2) In many countries, especially those on the Continent, the privileges of the great feudal lords included the right to keep a mint and to issue coins. The central government restricted this right, as it grew stronger, but in general the currency of medieval Europe was made up of a vast variety of coins of standards even less reliable than that of the king’s coinage. There was danger that a coin, even if it was of good weight, could not be passed at its full value outside the locality where it was minted. (3) Even in countries like England, where feudal coinage was put down and where debasement by the government was exceptional, counterfeits were not rare, and the clipping of coin was very common. These characteristics of medieval currency made the money-changer a necessary figure in the commercial world; he was to be found everywhere, even in the small towns, buying and selling the various coins in circulation. =135. Difficulty in making payments in distant places.=—While the money-changer facilitated payments in any given place, he was not of much assistance to a merchant desirous of making a payment in a distant town or country. The merchant, it is true, could buy from him foreign money with which to make the payment; but the transportation of the actual coin was not only dangerous and expensive, but also subject to legal restriction, and was to be avoided if possible. The merchant would probably prefer to send instead of money some ware, which he could sell to advantage at the destination, and then with the proceeds make his payment. For example, when Michael Behaim of the Nuremberg Company wanted to send 1,000 gulden from Breslau to Nuremberg, he found it expedient to buy an amount of wax which he could sell in Nuremberg for the required sum, and he shipped that instead of money. =136. Introduction of the bill of exchange.=—It might not, however, always be convenient for a man to meet his obligations in this way; he might not have the commercial knowledge, or perhaps he might have no good opportunity to ship a ware. Behaim, in the case cited, had in fact resorted to the wax shipment only from necessity, after he found it impossible to make his payment by the means of remittance now become general, the _bill of exchange_. Suppose that B. in Breslau owed the 1,000 gulden, to A. in Nuremberg, for spice; and suppose that D. in Breslau was the creditor of another Nuremberg merchant C, to the extent of 1,000 gulden, perhaps for furs. It would be absurd for B to ship the money or to go out of his way to ship wax to A, and for C to ship the same value to D, when the payments could be made to cancel each other. Why should not B pay to D in Breslau the 1,000 guldens due him, and tell C to pay the same amount to A in Nuremberg? This could be accomplished by means of bills of exchange; D could write out an order to C directing him to pay the money, and sell it to B, who would thus have the means of paying his debt in Nuremberg to A.