Mining, Money and Markets in the Early Modern Atlantic

This volume documents recent efforts to track the transformation and trajectory of silver during the early modern period, from its origins in ores located on either side of the Atlantic to its use as currency in the financial centres of continental Europe. As a point of comparison, copper mining and its monetary use in the early modern Atlantic World will also be considered. Contributors rely mainly on economic and economic history methodologies, complemented by geographical and cultural history approaches. The use of novel software applications as tools to explain economic-historical episodes is also detailed.

Depicts specific aspects of mining activity, particularly in early modern Mexico (New Spain) between the 16th and 19th centuries Focuses on the transformation of precious metals from bullion to currency Traces the effect of changing silver quantities on prices, exchange and interest rates, in various settings on either side of the early modern Atlantic Discusses the policy of the Spanish Crown to overcome the volatility of American silver mining and its repercussions on Spanish mining affairs

Autorentext

Renate Pieper is Professor at the University of Graz, Austria. Her main fields of research are early modern economic and cultural history, the Spanish Empire and its European connections, especially cultural exchange, communication media and networks, mining, prices and state finances

Claudia de Lozanne Jefferies is Senior Lecturer in Economics at City University of London, UK. Her main fields of research are monetary and financial history.

Markus Denzel is Professor and Chair of Social and Economic History at the University of Leipzig, Germany. His main fields of research are international payments, the role of money and bills, and currency history.

Inhalt

Chapter 1: From Mining to Money in the Early Modern Atlantic: Digital Approaches and New Perspectives; Renate Pieper, Claudia Jefferies de Lozanne and Markus A. Denzel.- Chapter 2: Money in History Based on Precious Metals; Peter Bernholz.- Chapter 3: Debating Sound Money in Early Modern Europe: From Dualist to Metallic Monetary Systems; Jérôme Blanc and Ludovic Desmedt.- Chapter 4: Re-presenting Silver in Early Modern Europe; Renate Pieper.- Chapter 5: A Matter of Scales: Understanding Spatial Patterns of Colonial Spanish America's Silver Mining in the Digital Age; Werner Stangl.- Chapter 6: Manufacturing Landscapes in Spanish America: The Case Study of Copper Exploitation in Mexico (16th18th Centuries); Amélia Polónia and Johan Garcia Zaldúa.- Chapter 7: American Silver and its Repercussions on the Old World: The Curious Case of the Loss-making Spanish Precious Metal Sector. 1590s1640s; Domenic Hofmann.- Chapter 8: Information and Decision Making: The Logic of Spanish Mining Administration, 1675 1700; Elizabeth Sanabria Montáñez and Peter Marckhgott-Sanabria.- Chapter 9: Some Determinants of Local Exchange Rates and in Early Modern Mexican Mining Sites: Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries; Claudia de Lozanne Jefferies.- Chapter 10: Copper Money in Mexico: The Transition from the Eighteenth to the Nineteenth Century; José Enrique Covarrubias.- Chapter 11: Minting the Picture: Machines and Coinage in Transition from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century; Harald Kleinberger.- Chapter 12: Reloading the Price Revolution in Seville: Four Stages of High Inflation with Different Causes; Manuel González-Mariscal.- Chapter 13: Interest Rates and Silver Production: Credit in Mexico City, between Market and Spirituality (1770-1779 and 1819-1828); Andrés Calderón Fernández, Rafael Dobado-González and Alfredo Garcia-Hiernaux.- Chapter 14: Exchange Rates and Silver Prices at European Fairs, 16th18th Centuries; Markus A. Denzel.