What did the Noblemen of Yore bring to pay for their trips around Europe?

[WormTheRed]

From time to time, when I’m reading about history, there is a mention of (mostly) young noblemen going on a trip “around” Europe before they settle down and rule the country/barony/county/whatever. Sometimes it’s before they go to University and sometimes after. And hell, sometimes they went somewhere far away to study. I’m aprox. talking about the 16-18 century here.

How did they pay for themselves? Did they actually have a big bag of gold in a bag? Did they leave a hoard of IOU.s in their wake with different innkeepers? Or did they just crash at some local noblemans place and expected to be taken in, since their daddy’s name is so-and-so?

And what about when they came to where they were going? If our hypothetical young Yorkshire nobleman for example went to study in Florence. Did bank-transfers work back then?

I’m guessing it’s a mixture of it all, but still find the question interesting.

What say ye?

[Acsenray]

I believe that by this time there was a sophisticated continental banking system that permitted the use of “letters of credit” and other instruments.

[Kimstu]

What acsenray said.

The Grand Tour:

Young English elites of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries often spent two to four years traveling around Europe in an effort to broaden their horizons and learn about language, architecture, geography, and culture in an experience known as the Grand Tour. The Grand Tour began in the sixteenth century and gained popularity during the seventeenth century.

The term Grand Tour was introduced by Richard Lessels in his 1670 book Voyage to Italy. Additional guidebooks, tour guides, and the tourist industry were developed and grew to meet the needs of the 20-something male and female travelers and their tutors across the European continent. The young tourists were wealthy and could afford the multiple years abroad. They carried letters of reference and introduction with them as they departed from southern England. […]

A Tourist would not carry much money due to the risk of highway robbers so letters of credit from their London banks were presented at the major cities of the Grand Tour. Many Tourists spent a great deal of money abroad and due to these expenditures outside of England, some English politicians were very much against the institution of the Grand Tour.

[Giles]

Some at least of their money would be in the form of gold and silver coins. When they needed to use them, the locals would have known, for example, how much an English sovereign or shilling was worth in terms of the local gold and silver coins. So, a hotel keeper in Paris or Venice, would accept your English money (presumably at a discount, as they would nowadays), or you could go to a money changer, and change it into the local currency (again, with a transaction cost included, as you would today). Because the value of coins was based on the intrinsic value of the metal, exchange rates would be much more stable, and your hotel keeper catering to international customers could have a little list of how much various foreign coins were worth in terms of the local currency.

[ivylass]

Amy March travels abroad in Little Women, I think for at least two years. Aunt March and a wealthy friend went along as chaperones and presumably paid for the trip.

[WormTheRed]

So it was called the Grand Tour! Thanks for the good answers!

[Keeve]

@Kimstu

A Tourist would not carry much money due to the risk of highway robbers so letters of credit from their London banks were presented at the major cities of the Grand Tour.

What (if anything) would prevent such muggers from using those letters of credit as their own? I would think that Identity Theft would have been quite simple in an era that didn’t even have a non-photo driver’s license.

[Acsenray]

At least one thing: I don’t think it would be too easy for a highway robber to pose as a wealthy young tourer. Class markers were much more obvious back then.

[Northern_Piper]

Would a mugger even be able to read a letter of credit? especially if it was in English and they were in Italy? And why would a bank trust a letter of credit from an English bank, for the purposes of a Grand Tour by an Englishman, if presented by an Italian?

[alphaboi867]

@Northern_Piper

Would a mugger even be able to read a letter of credit? especially if it was in English and they were in Italy? And why would a bank trust a letter of credit from an English bank, for the purposes of a Grand Tour by an Englishman, if presented by an Italian?

I doubt the letter would even be in English. Wouldn’t French (or even Latin) be more likely?

[Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus]

@Giles

Some at least of their money would be in the form of gold and silver coins. When they needed to use them, the locals would have known, for example, how much an English sovereign or shilling was worth in terms of the local gold and silver coins. So, a hotel keeper in Paris or Venice, would accept your English money (presumably at a discount, as they would nowadays), or you could go to a money changer, and change it into the local currency (again, with a transaction cost included, as you would today). Because the value of coins was based on the intrinsic value of the metal, exchange rates would be much more stable, and your hotel keeper catering to international customers could have a little list of how much various foreign coins were worth in terms of the local currency.

Coinage was generally interchangeable in the days of gold and silver. In the early days of the United States, various non-US coins, including shillings, circulated here and there due to chronic shortages of U.S.-minted coins.