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There's a pretty steep boundary in the price of silver right about when the Spanish conquistadors overthrew the Incas and started mining out Potosi. That influ
by megaman22 9y ago
There's a pretty steep boundary in the price of silver right about when the Spanish conquistadors overthrew the Incas and started mining out Potosi. That influx of specie kicked off a world-wide wave of inflation and severely distorted economies around the world; I'm most familiar with the ways that flow of hard currency impacted the Ming and Qing dynasties in China, but it's really a world-wide phenomena. Possibly one of the most transformative events in world history.
- mcguire 9y agoWhere can I learn more?
- benbreen 9y agoVermeer's Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World by Timothy Brook has a chapter on silver that’s a good start. The whole book is well worth reading for anyone interested in early modern globalization.
- mcguire 9y agoThanks!
- megaman22 9y ago1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created covers it in some detail, along with a number of other interesting consequences of the Columbian Exchange. https://www.amazon.com/1493-Uncovering-World-Columbus-Created-ebook/dp/B004G606EY https://www.amazon.com/1493-Uncovering-World-Columbus-Create...
- mcguire 9y agoCool! Thanks!
- nfriedly 9y agoI'll give a second vote for the book 1493 - it's full of fascinating history. The preceding book, 1491, is also well worth reading.
- voltagex_ 9y agoOfftopic: I wonder why the audiobook (CD) of this is $50-80?
- nfriedly 9y agoIt's $35 on Audible, if that helps.
- buzzdenver 9y agoIt say "or $14.95 with your Audible membership" for me
- voltagex_ 9y agoGot it with a free trial. It's interesting, if a little dry and rambling in parts.
- mcv 9y agoThey skipped 1492? Nothing interesting happened that year, I suppose.
- nfriedly 9y agoHaha, yeah, the idea was the first book covered the Americas and it's native people before Columbus (and white folks in general) arrived, so 1491. He admits early on that folks had arrived before 1492, but decided it was a more recognizable year. And then the second book covered how global trade and traffic started changing the world after the arrival of other folks in the Americas, but it wasn't about the arrival itself, so 1493.