The discovery of America revealed to Europeans a new source of the precious metals. The Spaniards soon secured large quantities of gold by plundering the Indians of Mexico and Peru of their stored-up wealth. After the discovery in 1545 A.D. of the wonderfully rich silver mines of Potosi in Bolivia, the output of silver much exceeded that of gold. It is estimated that by the end of the sixteenth century the American mines had produced at least three times as much gold and silver as had been current in Europe at the beginning of the century.
CONSEQUENCES OF THE ENLARGED MONEY SUPPLY
The Spaniards could not keep this new treasure. Having few industries themselves, they were obliged to send it out, as fast as they received it, in payment for their imports of European goods. Spain acted as a huge sieve through which the gold and silver of America entered all the countries of Europe. Money, now more plentiful, purchased far less than in former times; in other words, the prices of all commodities rose, wages advanced, and manufacturers and traders had additional capital to use in their undertakings. The Middle Ages had suffered from the lack of sufficient money with which to do business; [32] from the beginning of modern times the world has been better supplied with the indispensable medium of exchange.
NEW COMMODITIES IMPORTED
But America was much more than a treasury of the precious metals. Many commodities, hitherto unknown, soon found their way from the New World to the Old. Among these were maize, the potato, which, when cultivated in Europe, became the "bread of the poor," chocolate and cocoa made from the seeds of the cacao tree, Peruvian bark, or quinine, so useful in malarial fevers, cochineal, the dye-woods of Brazil, and the mahogany of the West Indies. America also sent large supplies of cane-sugar, molasses, fish, whale-oil, and furs. The use of tobacco, which Columbus first observed among the Indians, spread rapidly over Europe and thence extended to the rest of the world. All these new American products became common articles of consumption and so raised the standard of living in European countries.
POLITICAL EFFECTS OF THE DISCOVERIES
To the economic effects of the discoveries must be added their effects on politics. The Atlantic Ocean now formed, not only the commercial, but also the political center of the world. The Atlantic-facing countries, first Portugal and Spain, then Holland, France, and England, became the great powers of Europe. Their trade rivalries and contests for colonial possessions have been potent causes of European wars for the last four hundred years.
EFFECTS OF THE DISCOVERIES ON THOUGHT
The sudden disclosure of oceans, islands, and continents, covering one- third of the globe, worked a revolution in geographical ideas. The earth was found to be far larger than men had supposed it to be, and the imagination was stirred by the thought of other amazing discoveries which might be made. From the sixteenth century to the twentieth the work of exploration has continued, till now few regions of the world yet remain unmapped. At the same time came acquaintance with many strange plants, animals, and peoples, and so scientific knowledge replaced the quaint fancies of the Middle Ages.