The Potosi piece of eight was the worlds first global currency crossing frontiers and financing trade and wars. [3], Spaniards at the time of the Age of Discovery discovered vast amounts of silver, much of which was from the Potos silver mines, to fuel their trade economy. The ratio of mercury to silver produced was about two to one. By 1600 half the mine workers were indigenous self-hired workers receiving wages. [17] Silver from the Americas flowed mostly across the Atlantic and made its way to the Far East. View Silver and Global Commerce.docx from HIST MISC at Augusta University. The sea connection between Panama and the Peruvian coast was especially difficult. [26] Under the Ming and Qing empires, China hoarded silver to boost its economy and increase its trading power. for encomienda, repartamiento or mita syst. [11] The richest camp in Mexico was in the city of Zacatecas, then a part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain. [19] The city of Manila served as a primary outpost of the exchange of goods between the Americas, Japan, India, Indonesia and China. [5] Potos had the most ore, however it was lower quality than that of Mexico. Sp. [11] In Bolivia's mines, the mit'a system was a dominant form of native labor subjection, although waged laborers worked on the mines as well. in southern China in early 16th c. which served as key trade port for European merchants to exchange silver for Asian luxury goods, capital of Spanish Philippines that provided crucial connection point between American silver shipped from Acapulco and the Asian markets, 1570s: Ming changed tax system from payment in goods or labor to payment in silver; with world's pop. African Slaves were also sent by this route to Potos until 1622 when the Spanish crown insisted that all African slaves for the Spanish American pacific coast territories be sent via Panama (though the clandestine trade via Buenos Aires continued). to work in silver mines, began 1573, lasted 250 yrs. [17] There are not many records of the amount of silver which crossed the Pacific due to it being discouraged by the Spanish monarchy, so estimates highly vary. We Do Not Share In Your Profits, And Thus Will Not Take Responsibility For Your Losses As Well. Eventually, this . For example, the situado, a regular remittance of silver from the mines of Potos to Buenos Aires by way of mule trains, did not merely result in the transport of silver. This is Native Peruvians from hundreds of miles away were forced to travel to Potos to labour in the mines, then given the back-breaking task of carrying the daily quota of 25 bags of silver ore, each. % In the early modern period, silver became the currency of the world. [35] Founder of the Ming China dynasty, Hongwu, actually sought to eliminate silver from the market due to his fear of inflation which he previously experienced in the Yuan dynasty. In fact, getting to Manila from New Spain was a far easier and shorter voyage than getting to Peru from New Spain (Mexico). However, it transpired the Chinese had a voracious appetite for silver. [24] In the 1640s, the bimetallic ratios in China converged with the rest of the world, before experiencing another population boom. In the viceroyalty of Peru, Huancavelica and Potosi, were over 1000 miles apart. communities to send 1/7 of adult pop. Although initially the global silver trade was motivated by the discovery of new sources of silver, ultimately it was Chinese demand that sustained it during 1550-1800. Between 1545 and 1810 Potosis silver contributed nearly 20% of all known silver produced in the world across 265 years. These European vessels became known as China Ships. Work at the Huancavelica mercury mine for much of the sixteenth century was above ground using open cast techniques. Japan was another important source of silver flowing into China, through smuggling and the trade route between Macao and Nagasaki.3 In the first half of the seventeenth century, armed Japanese merchants sailed red-seal ships travelling between Japan, Macao, and the Southeast Asian states. 4 0 obj Silver in vast quantities was discovered in 1545 by the Spanish, at an altitude of fifteen thousand feet, at Potos in unsettled territory conquered from the Inca Empire. This meant that royal officials were not solely interested in accumulating silver for Spain's economy, but rather, they also had a vested interest in developing the economies of their specific localities. Over 40,000 tons of silver from Potosi fuelled the first truly global economy The opening of the trade to the East, and particularly to China, by these two seaborne routes had dramatic consequences. View 2020 Global Silver Trade.docx from HISTORY 337 at Washington Adventist University. products such as cochineal, silk, tobacco, indigo, and hides became increasing important components of Spanish American trade with Europe. Mercury was essential to the processing of silver ore and was imported from the Almaden mines in La Mancha in Spain. In 1545, the Potosi mines were discovered in the highlands of present-day Bolivia that contained silver in an abundance never imagined before. The buildings were constructed near streams whenever possible because water was essential to operate the machinery of the mill. [13] However, the labor system known as the repartimiento still existed in some places. But in 1825, after 15 years of struggle, Simon Bolivar, marked the end of the Mita, and of the Vila imperial of Potosi, and the Liberator symbolically proclaimed South American freedom from the summit of the Cerro Rico. [2] In addition to the global economic changes the silver trade engendered, it also put into motion a wide array of political transformations in the early modern era. Huancavelica became the greatest jewel in the Crown and mercury became the basis on which the tax on precious metals, the quinto, was levied. [8] As has been demonstrated, China dominated silver imports. By 1620 the population of Potosi reached between 100,000 and 120,000 people, making it larger than Seville or Lisbon, and half the size of the greatest cities in Europe. Dams at Potosi, de Orsua y Vela Bartolome, Histria de la Villa Imperial de Potosi, 3 Vols, Edited by Lewis Hanke and Gunnar Mendoza, Providence, R.I. Brown University Press, 1965, Coca Traders at Potosi. In fact, during the latter part of the 16th century, during the Ming Dynasty, Beijing ruled taxes should be paid in silver, and without domestic recourse to the precious metal, the demand for imported silver soared. When the Inca treasure arrived in Seville in 1534 it was enough precious metal to upset the money markets in Europe and the Mediterranean. No less vital were the bulky raw materials required by the silver mining and processing establishments- iron, salt, lead and litharge, copper sulfate and mercury. The Europeans produced nothing in the way of manufactured goods than the Asians did not produce better weapons excluded. The 1597 fleet for New Spain for example carried 2 2,050 casks of wine, 14,120 arrobas of olive oil,14,101 quintiles of bulk iron. "Rise and demise of the global silver standard." But above all the sliver of Potos was desired in Asia, India and above all to China. It is well worth it for some great weekend reading. Since rain was unpredictable at Potosi, the Spanish viceroy of Peru, Francisco de Toledo decided to construct in the nearby Kari mountain full scale reservoirs linked by canals and aqueducts to Potos, a huge public works projects completed by thousands of Andean indigenous draftees. military spending from silver $, Spanish for "royal fifth," this was the 20% tax est. The products of Asia were of far higher quality than anything in Europe at the time. "[37] From 1804 to 1820, a period when the Qing dynasty needed to finance the suppression of the White Lotus Rebellion, Chinese merchants were soon exporting silver to pay for opium rather than Europeans paying for Chinese goods with the precious metal. The Potosi P had become a synonym for poison. In the 1630s debased Potosi silver bars with the Potosi mark were rejected by bankers on the money markets of Genoa and Antwerp. x=nH|#}%9$3'g0{dKL,%G8Uv-8@LvwUozCV\\d?\fo~Xv**+"We&v,av_2/8ZW7*~U "gm\Ku9rv;W5/-C_|@k59_%\]WW y=b/y"(!iH^uDQA )GQF,E^ $6%ET&2 e|oPFtcc$X9'+Y//'P%q4') They had believed that storing all this silver would make them Pizzaro ordered Atahualpa executed by garrote in July 1533. Relatively simple mining and processing techniques of the Incas and other indigenous people dominated American silver mining for the early part of the 16th century. Using stamp mills, powered by mules or water wheels, the silver ore was crushed to gravel then smelted in blast furnaces with lead and lead oxide. America Spanish peso became global currency in Early Modern Era; adopted as local currency in many places. [36], Despite some restrictions, silver continued to drive trade through its popularity in Europe. In 1563 this situation was transformed when a rich mercury mine was discovered at Huancavelica in central Peru. porcelain, cotton textiles) tailored to suit tastes of Euro consumers showing trade + mass consumption, giant ships that made 2-3 annual voyages from Mexico carrying thousands of tons of silver across Pacific to Sp. 1607, Hispanic Society of America, New York. Mercury amalgamation dramatically increased the volume of silver production in the Americas, giving way to silver's central role in American economies and the burgeoning global economy. ), rise of BEIC & VOC c. 1600 led to increased volume of European-Asian trade, including silver, which was shipped from Europe Asia by way of S. Africa route, galleons were prime target for pirates; European rivals attacked ships for profit, most famous: Br. Hispanic Society of America, Ottoman illustration of the Cerro Rica of Potosi from Tarih-l Hind-l. Carbi, manuscript, ca 1582, The Newberry Library, Chicago, Dams at Potosi. i. These officials were Spanish born and were required to sign an oath to behave honestly and they were bonded by leading Potosi households. The great advantage of the amalgamation over smelting was that it made the exploitation of lower grade silver ores profitable and greatly extended the range that could be worked, and salt mixed with mercury was used to extract fine grains from silver from what had before been worthless host rock. Global monetary history provides a useful vantage from which to show linkages among regions of an interconnected world economy. monarchy The Americas. Many scholars consider the silver trade to mark the beginning of a genuinely global economy, with one historian noting that silver "went round the world and made the world go round." From 1500 to 1800, Bolivia and Mexico produced about 80% [8] of the world's silver with 30% of it eventually ending up in China. So in a lot of ways the silver trade is very much propping up this empire that's financially in very bad shape to begin with and when that silver . Between 1545 and 1810 Potosi's silver contributed nearly 20% of all known silver produced in the world across 265 years. decline in native villages b/c of the high death toll from the silver mining process, grants of native Americans given to Spanish colonial overlords (encomenderos) for agricultural labor but also for "protection" and instruction in Christian faith, refining silver involved mixing crushed rock containing silver w/ poisonous substance like mercury or lead, which led to illness for laborers and eventual death. Mexicos silver sustained the Manila galleons until the beginning of the nineteenth century, and the Bourbon monarchs of Spain attempted to revive Potosi in the 1780s. [22] The Ming paper currency eventually failed due to self-imposed inflation along with an inability to stop the production of counterfeit bills.