The Silver Time

Submitted By Meteb1
Words: 1286
Pages: 6

THE SILVER TIME

the spanish arrived to mexico in 1519 and to peru in 1532 benefiting from the chaos that was caused by disease.the Spanish conquered the inca and the aztec .
The spanish established their empire and divided it with two administrative division the viceroyalty of New spain and the viceroyalty of peru.The conquest was relatively easy because the Aztec and the Inca empires were similar in some aspect such as administration structure. After that the spanish discover a mountain was made of silver which was a fortune that cause the empire to fall on the longer term.The spanish produced an enormous amount of silver along the empire life.It is around 70-80% of the world supply.Shortly after the discovery spanish empiire become so rich and the the silver pesos become the dominant mean. However spanish royal family did not take inflation into consideration. Therefore silver was great temperor asset to the spanish empire which cause the empire to have better economy and becoming a dominant empire in the short run.but cause the empire to fall later on the long run. Or to be precise silver was one of the major reason that caused the empire declining.Nevertheless, during the “silver time” the two viceroyalty were producing silver .New spain and peru. However the mines in peru were run and ruled differently from the ones in mexico.

In 1545, after silver was discovered in the Andes Mountains in what is today Bolivia, it was immediately clear that this enormously rich strike had the potential to lift the Spanish Empire out of debt.After the Aztec inca empire was taken by the spanish ,spain took over a very rich lands lands rich with silver and golds that made spain the the world leading suppliers.in the 16th century to the end of the empire time. the empire produced from 3 to 3.6 billones ounces. this huge silver production and this significant revolution affect eh colonial economy in a drastic way. Not only the spanish american economy even it affected the spanish and the europe side as well due to the huge exports.

silver production in both viceroyalty has fluctuated along the two centuries in the first hundred years the amount of production was half of what the empire produced in the last half of thee empire. Silver mining was different in Mexico and peru. They were run differently. although ,Peru at Potosi had the richest silver mining camp. mexico boasted two good factors on the long run. Mexico create higher grade and quality with less cost (operational cost. Peru lacked for this factors even though it had the richest mine. Due to these advantages that mexico has over peru ,merchant had more interest to put their money in mexican mines.consequently peru suffer from a very strong depression in the 17th century .However With the pero did not lose its place in mining industry. There was some new mines and some recovery for older mines. after in the 18th century and impressive recovery took a place in peru and peru maintain as the lasrgest silver producers in America. Peru has low return on the its silver for investors.
Financially wise .silver mining brought a huge revenue for spain. Their revenue reached between 3-3.1 billion pesos. the growth rate was higher in the first period due to the easiness to get ores and to the invention of the mercury process.However the overall decline production of the colonial was affected by decline in Potosi.Also the deeper digging and the longer tunnel slow down the production.Peru and mexican growth along the centuries were much different. The mexican silver mining industries grow at a faster rate in the middle of the 16th century due to the factors i have mentioned before. However the peru grow was almost flat even though it suffers from the downturn but at the beginning og the 18th century it grow dramatically due to the smart recovery. Moreover, the major key of the difference in the growth was stated clearly by Peter Bakewell. He stated that in peru