Credit: (Left) Photo courtesy of Daniel Frank Sedwick, LLC; (Right) Howard Pyle "An Attack on a Galleon" frontispiece/Wikimedia Commons
Credit: (Left) Photo courtesy of Daniel Frank Sedwick, LLC; (Right) Howard Pyle "An Attack on a Galleon" frontispiece/Wikimedia Commons
Conquistador - Procol Harum
Conquistador your stallion stands
In need of company
And like some angel’s haloed brow
You reek of purity
I see your armour-plated breast
Has long since lost it’s sheen
And in your death mask face
There are no signs which can be seen
And though I hoped for something to find
I could see no maze to unwind
Conquistador a vulture sits
Upon your silver shield
And in your rusty scabbard now
The sand has taken seed
And though your jewel-encrusted blade
Has not been plundered still
The sea has washed across your face
And taken of it’s fill
And though I hoped for something to find
I could see no maze to unwind
Conquistador there is no time
I must pay my respect
And though I came to jeer at you
I leave now with regret
And as the gloom begins to fall
I see there is no, only all
And though you came with sword held high
You did not conquer, only die
And though I hoped for something to find
I could see no maze to unwind
The deindustrialization that hurt them. A country that does not produce for its own won’t last. Sound familiar?
Doesn’t look like the scientists took into account fiscal theories. American silver may not have been made into coins, but having the bullion in the treasury would surely impact the value of coins in circulation.
Wow! I am embarassed that such abject ignorance could pass muster among the peers of the AAAS that this could be published on Science NOW!.
Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon.
—Milton Friedman, Wincott Memorial Lecture, London, September 16, 1970
This article hinges on quibbling about the difference between money and coinage which is but one component of money. That there was inflation is itself evidence of increased quantity or velocity of money. The only question is to understand what was the source of that.
Indeed, the article states " the heavy bars ... could ... traded with other countries to offset Spain's many costs, which at this time included financing wars in the Netherlands and importing porcelain and silk from China."
Ok so it was not turned into coins because such large quantities were needed for large scale purchases of war supplies, etc. In a world where the value was the precious metal and not the coin, and indeed debasement of coinage was an understood concept, silver bars were sound money if somewhat cumbersome for your standard consumer transaction.
