In the first fifty years of the conquest of America, THE AMOUNT OF SILVER AND GOLD CIRCULATING IN EUROPE TREBLED, AND THE ANNUAL OUTPUT FROM AMERICA WAS TEN TIMES THE COMBINED OUTPUT OF THE REST OF THE WORLD. Royal customs agents in Seville, Spains only official port of entry for goods from the New World, recorded sixteen thousand tons of silver entering during this time... illegal trade and pirating may have brought in another five thousand tons or more... At the time of the discovery of America, EUROPE HAD ONLY ABOUT $200 MILLION WORTH OF GOLD AND SILVER, APPROXIMATELY $2 PER PERSON. BY 1600 THE SUPPLY OF PRECIOUS METALS HAD INCREASED APPROXIMATELY EIGHTFOLD. THE MEXICAN MINT ALONE COINED $2 BILLION WORHT OF SILVER PIECES OF EIGHT.- Professor Jack Weatherford, Indian Givers: How the Indians of the Americas Transformed the World, pg-14 The American silver traveled around Europe very quickly, and it made a quick and heavy impact on the economy of the neighboring parts of the Old World, such as the Ottoman Empire, which controlled Turkey and Greece and most of the Near East, North Africa, and large parts of eastern Europe in the sixteenth century. THE OTTOMAN SILVER AKCE COIN SUDDENLY FELL TO HALF ITS FORMER VALUE BEFORE THE END OF 1584 IN A BOUT OF UNCONTROLLED INFLATION. THE COIN LOST ITS IMPORTANT PLACE IN WORLD TRADE AND NEVER REGAINED IT. After centuries of struggle between Moslems and Christians, AMERICAN SILVER PROBABLY DID MORE TO UNDERMINE ISLAMIC POWER FOR THE NEXT HALF A MILLENIUM THAN DID ANY OTHER SINGLE FACTOR. In The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith discussed at great length the impact of American silver in causing worldwide inflation. He wrote that within a generation of the opening of the mines of Potosi, the silver from them started an inflation that lasted for approximately a century and cause silver to fall to its lowest value in history. THE NEW WEALTH IN THE HANDS OF THE EUROPEANS ERODED THE WEALTH OF ALL THE OTEHR COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD AND ALLOWED EUROPE TO EXPAND INTO AN INTERNATIONAL MARKET SYSTEM. THE SILVER OF AMERICA MADE POSSIBLE A WORLD ECONOMY FOR THE FIRST TIME, AS MUCH OF IT WAS TRADED NOT ONLY TO THE OTTOMANS BUT TO THE CHINESE AND EAST INDIANS (Mughals) AS WELL, BRINGING ALL OF THEM UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF THE NEW SILVER SUPLLIES AND STANDARDIZED SILVER VALUES. Europes prosperity boomed, and its people wanted all the teas, silks, cottons, coffees, and spices which the rest of the world had to offer. Asia received much of this silver, but it too experienced the silver inflation that Europe underwent. In China, silver had one-fourth the value of gold in 1368, before the discover of America, but by 1737 the ratio had plummeted to twenty to one, a decline of silver to one-fifth of its former value. This flood of American silver came to Asia directly from Acapulco across the Pacific via Manila in the Philippines, whence it was traded to China for spices and porcelains. Asia experienced a temporary gain from the discovery of America, but Africa suffered. America had all the silver and gold Europe needed, and this destroyed the African gold markets and the dependent trade networks. CITIES SUCH AS TIMBUKTU AND THE SONGHAI EMPIRE OF WHICH IT WAS A PART CRUMBLED AS MERCHANTS ABANDONED THE ANCIENT TRADE ROUTES. TO REPLACE THE MEDITERRANEAN TRADE OF CLOTH, BEADS, LEATHER, AND METAL UPON WHICH THE AFRICANS HAD BECOME DEPENDENT, THE AFRICANS NOW HAD ONLY ONE COMMODITY THAT THE EUROPEANS WANTED- SLAVES. For centuries the African merchants had sold a small but steady number of slaves to the Middle East, but with the decline of their traditional European trade and with the opening of America, the slave trade became a boom. The Africans thus became victims of the discovery of America as surely as did the American Indians. In the first few years after Potosi, the Spaniards brought in six thousand African slaves to work the mines, but they soon died at that high altitude. THE COLONIAL ADMINISTRATIONS THEN TURNED TO THE INDIANS TO WORK THE MINES WITHOUT PAY AS A FORM OF FORCED LABOR, OR MITA AS IT WAS CALLED IN QUECHUA, THE INCA LANGUAGE. INDIANS HAD TO WALK FROM HUNDREDS OF MILES AWAY IN EVERY PART OF THE HIGHLANDS OF PERU AND BOLIVIA. THEY WORKED FOR APPROXIMATELY ONE IN EACH FOUR YEARS, EVEN THOUGH BY LAW THEY WERE NOT REQUIRED TO WORK MORE THAN ONE YEAR IN EACH SEVEN. EACH MINERS FAMILY SUPPLIED HIM WITH HIS FOOD AND WITH THE CANDLES HE NEEDED FOR LIGHT INSIDE THE MINES. THE INDIANS ENTERED THE MINES ON MONDAY MORNING AND DID NOT EMERGE AGAIN UNTIL SATURDAY. EACH MAN HAD TO CHISEL OUT HIS DAILY QUOTA OF ONE AND A QUARTER TONS OF ORE. HE THEN LOADED IT IN BAGS OF A LITTLE OVER ONE HUNDRED POUNDS AND CARRIED IT UP TO THE MAIN TUNNEL. This required that he push the bag through a labyrinth of small tunnels barely large enough to squeeze through, and then carry it up ladders at odd angles for hundreds of feet. IN THE FIRST DECADES OF THIS SYSTEM, FOUR OUT OF EVERY FIVE MINERS DIED IN THEIR FIRST YEAR OF FORCED EMPLOYMENT IN THE MINES.- Professor Jack Weatherford, Indian Giver: How the Indians of the Americas Transformed the World, pg:16-17
Posted on: Wed, 26 Nov 2014 21:37:26 +0000
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