In this third period the first change which France made in her silver monies was in 1674, when she for a time coined 4-sol. pieces of a quality below that of the _écus blancs_ by more than a fifth. A great outcry was made by the Mint officers and mercantile community against this money as implying a debasement. In 1679 there was a noticeable quantity of Spanish _pistoles_ and large _écus d'or_ in circulation, and as a remedy it was ordered that they should be recoined into _louis d'or_ and _louis d'argent,_ the King offering to forego the seignorage as an inducement to bring them to the Mint. In 1686, however, the louis d'or itself was raised from 10 livres to 11 livres 10 sols., and the ratio thus changed to 15-1/2. This being found greatly in excess, in the following year it was lowered to 11 livres 5 sols. (a ratio of 15-1/4). In 1689 both silver and gold were again raised, the _louis d'or_ to 11 livres 12 sols. and the _louis d'argent_ to 3 livres 2 sols., but almost immediately a general recoinage was resolved upon. In this great operation, effected towards the close of 1689, the weight and standard of the previous coinage was exactly retained, but the louis d'or was issued at 12 livres 10 sols. and the louis d'argent at 3 livres 6 sols. Only two years later again the standard had to be altered, and the value of 1693 somewhat raised. It will give some slight idea of the sapping of the coinage that the pieces which in 1691 were minted at 12 livres 10 sols. were, in 1693, called in at a valuation of 11 livres 14 sols. The new species of 1693 were issued at 13 livres and 3 livres 8 sols. respectively. [Sidenote: FRANCE: THE REFORM OF 1726]