According to this latter system the Flemish pound was divided into 6 gulden, the gulden into 20 stivers. As between the two systems, therefore, the Northern gulden was equal to 3-1/3 Southern schellings, and the Northern stiver to 2 Southern groots. The earliest mention of the stivers occurs in 1355, but it was a considerable time before the new system displaced the old one in the Northern Provinces, and the reckoning by schellings and groots as well as, or alongside of, that by gulden and stivers occurs in Holland even as late as the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The weight system employed for the precious metals was as follows:-- 1 pound troy = 2 marks. 1 mark = 8 oz. 1 oz. = 20 engels. 1 engel = 32 azen. So that 160 engels or 5120 azen made up the mark. In reckoning the standard or alloy, the weight system was-- For silver--1 mark = 12 pfennige or deniers. " = 288 grs. (12 x 24). For gold--1 mark = 24 carats. " = 288 grs. (24 x 12). Although forming part of the Holy Roman Empire (being included in the Burgundian Circle), the Mint system of the Empire has apparently never obtained in the Netherlands. The Counts of Holland, from the days of Floris II. and Jan I. (i.e. from 1256 onwards) have minted on their own account, as have also the Counts of Flanders from a much more remote date. The silver _deniers_ of the Counts of Flanders date from at least the days of Count Arnold II. (964-989). The introduction of "la grosse monnaie" (whence gros and groots), in imitation of the French money, dates from the reign of Marguerite, Countess of Flanders (1244-1280), or possibly earlier; and the gold coinage (_royaux_, in imitation of those of Philip the Long of France, and _florins_, in imitation of those of Florence) dates from Count Louis de Crécy (1322-1346). The interest, however, attaching to the monies of the Counts of Flanders and Holland up to the close of the fifteenth century is prevailingly numismatic, as, in the absence of a continuous series of Mint indentures, it is a matter of almost insuperable difficulty to construct tables of the coins. The chief indications are contained in the tariffs already referred to (_supra_, text, pp. 79-83), but their testimony bears more expressly on exchange rates rather than upon Mint rate and standard. The table of the groot, according to this source, is as follows:-- Engel. Azen. 1336. 9-pfennige weight, 1 9 1376. 4.16 " 2 4 1388. 5 " 1 23 1393. 5 " 1 20 1422. 4 " 2 16 1489. 5 " 1 5 The foundations of a national Mint, or monetary system for the Netherlands, were first laid by the ordinance issued by the Emperor Maximilian at Breda on the 14th December 1489.