In 1749, however, the Mint officials felicitated themselves on the non-adoption of this proposal, and prayed that the ducat should be merely declared trade money (26th March 1749); and it was on this advice that the plakkaat of 31st March 1749 passed. It proved insufficient to prevent the export of silver, and on the 1st August following, the States-General issued an order creating the gold rijder provisionally the standard. The right of coining it was reserved to the State, so that there was no standard in the modern sense. The influence of this measure proved to be very slight, and 172 merchants of Amsterdam petitioned the States-General to declare the tenderableness of the ducat again. The result of a further communication from the Mint officials was the proclamation and ordinance of 1st May 1750, according to which only the gold rijder and half-rijder were declared standard, and all other gold species only trade money. Gradually, however, what the Government had been unable to effect by legislation was accomplished by the mere force of a rise in gold or fall in silver. The gold rijders began to disappear, the complaints as to the disappearance of silver ceased, and the regulations of 1749 and 1750 were superseded. At the time of the French Revolution, therefore, the silver standard was actually in force. Nominally the gold rijder was still legal tender at 14 florins, but actually few specimens of it were in circulation. In 1798 the establishment of the Batavian Republic necessitated the creation of a Batavian Mint, and on the 12th February 1800 the First Chamber was called upon to consider the coins. It was not, however, until the year 1806, after the Republic had been superseded by the imposition of Louis Napoleon as King of Holland, that an effectual system was enunciated. By the resolution of 15th December 1806, a double standard was adopted. GOLD STANDARD COINS. _Gold Penning_ of 20 francs, 18 to the mark. Alloy, 22 carats gold, 16 grs. silver. Weight, 8 engels 28-4/9 azen. Content of fine gold, 260-3/4 azen. STANDARD SILVER COINS. _Fifty-stuiver piece_--9-5953/17543 to the mark. Weight, 17 engels 4-7/32 azens. Standard, 10 pen. 22-3/4 grs. _Gulden_--23-6111/17543 to the mark. Weight, 6 engels 27-23/80 azens. With the annihilation of the Napoleonic structure this scheme perished, and the law of 28th September 1816 erected a system in which elements of both those previously existing were combined. The coinage was prescribed to consist of gold and silver standard pieces, and gold and silver trade pieces. The standard coins were-- 1. _The Silver Gulden_-- Weight = 7 engels (= 10.766 grms.). Content of fine silver = 200 azen (= 9.613 grms.). Standard = .893. This was to be the unit, and divided decimally. 2. The gold piece of 10 _Gulden_ .900 fine. Weight 140 azen (6.729 grms.). TRADE COINS.