covers the time from the conquest of Mexico to the commencement of the exploitation of the silver mines of Potosi. Looked at from the point of view of prices in Europe,—as evidenced most circumstantially in the Plakkaats of the Netherlands, to which reference will be immediately made,—these years display stability—i.e. a steady maintaining of the advance gradually and already made between the years 1493 and 1520, and chronicled for us in the prices of 1521—rather than any further great and readily perceptible rise. For example in brief. In the Flemish Plakkaats the French crown is quoted at an equivalent of 1 florin 15 1⁄2 stivers in 1499, and of 1 florin 19 stivers in 1522, when an attempt was made to reduce it to 1 florin 15 1⁄2 stivers again. From 1522 to 1548 no further advance, but retrogression rather is quoted thus:—
| Date. | Florin. | Stivers. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1519 | French Crown quoted at | 1 | 15 1⁄2 | |
| 1522 | " | 1 | 19 | |
| 1526 | " | (Real) | 1 | 19 |
| " | (Attempted) | 1 | 15 1⁄2 | |
| 1539 | " | (Real) | 1 | 17 |
| " | (Attempted) | 1 | 15 | |
| 1548 | " | 1 | 17 | |
| 1552 | " | 1 | 19 | |
This general conclusion will be found quite
invariably illustrated in the tables of Netherland coins (below).
With regard to the annual average production of the metal, there is perceptible a slight movement towards the depreciation of silver or in favour of gold. This might naturally be expected to express itself in a somewhat higher ratio. But the differentiation is so slight as hardly thus to indicate itself, and certainly not consistently, so far as the ratio is capable of ascertainment.
| In France the ratio in | 1519 | was | 11.76 |
| 1540 | " | 11.82 | |
| In the Netherlands the ratio in | 1520 | " | 10.68 |
| 1540 | " | 10.62 | |
| In England | 1527 | " | 11.23 |
| 1552 | " | 11.1 | |
| In Germany | 1524 | " | 11.38 |
| 1551 | " | 11.38 |
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PERIOD, 1493-1548
Broadly speaking, therefore, there is a certain homogeneity about the first two periods, 1493-1520 and 1520-48, of the new era. These fifty-five years mark a time of general advance on prices achieved by 1520 and maintained unequally up to 1548, but an advance which was steadily and almost fairly level on the two lines of gold and silver, so that the perfectly well-established advance of prices generally is accompanied with no great disturbance of the ratio in itself.
In contrast with this all the succeeding periods have, up to 1660, a distinct character and statistical bearing. An enormous and ever-increasing advance
in general prices occurs, but it is no longer, as before, on level lines of the two metals equally. The proportion of the production of the two metals changes, so rich was the yield of the silver mines of Potosi. From being the same with that of gold, the value of silver produced suddenly rises to three times and then to four times that of its rival; and at once the ratio changes, bringing with it all its accompaniment of feverish instability and flux.