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gold—silver—

1545

Potosí

Cerro Rico starts feeding silver into Atlantic and Pacific trade.

1758 panorama of the Imperial Villa of Potosí with Cerro Rico rising behind the colonial city.
Villa Imperial de Potosí (1758 panorama) — Cerro Rico and the colonial silver city.CC0 — Gaspar Miguel de Berrío panorama reproduction via Wikimedia Commons.

In 1545 Spanish miners opened Cerro Rico at Potosí. The mountain’s silver did not stay in the Andes. It moved into coin, into European prices, and across the Pacific on the Manila trade.

This is a mine and a money flow, not a forecast of the metal’s price. The longer page is the silver mountain itself.

Potosí — the silver mountain →