Precious metals and mining in the New World: 1500–1800
Precious metals and mining in the New World: 1500–1800
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新大陆的贵金属和采矿业：1500–1800
DOI：
10.1017/s1062798700001186
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发表时间：
1994
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
K. N. Chaudhuri
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
K. N. Chaudhuri
克里斯托弗·哥伦布航海后在新大陆发现了大量金银，对后来的世界经济史产生了重大影响。这两种贵金属与铜一起被视为历史上所有社会的价值标准和衡量标准。黄金和白银供应量的突然增加大大增加了西班牙和葡萄牙等个别国家为战争和消费品进口提供资金的能力。新的西班牙硬币，即八雷亚尔，成为结算贸易平衡的国际货币，大量这些硬币出口到中东、印度、东南亚和中国，用来购买丝绸布匹、棉纺织品、靛蓝等工业原料和各种香料等东方商品，随后又购买茶叶、咖啡和瓷器。新世界黄金和白银的贸易依赖于墨西哥和秘鲁新的、适当的采矿技术的发展，以提取矿石和精炼金属。德国南部的采矿工程师为欧洲技术向美洲的移植做出了巨大贡献，西班牙-美洲银矿利用新的汞齐法从原矿石中提取精炼银。尽管按照当代欧洲标准，墨西哥和秘鲁使用的技术并不是特别先进，但美国矿主仍然经营了三百多年，美国白银的供应成为 17 世纪和 18 世纪新兴的印度洋世界经济的基础。
The discovery of large quantities of gold and silver in the New World following the voyage of Christopher Columbus had a major impact on the subsequent history of the world economy. These two precious metals together with copper were regarded as the standard and measure of value in all societies throughout history. The sudden increase in the supply of gold and silver greatly increased the capacity of individual countries such as Spain and Portugal to finance wars and imports of consumer goods. The new Spanish coin, the real of eight, became an international currency for settling trade balances, and large quantities of these coins were exported to the Middle East, India, Southeast Asia, and China to purchase oriental commodities such as silk piece goods, cotton textiles, industrial raw material such as indigo, and various kinds of spices, later followed by tea, coffee, and porcelain. The trade in New World gold and silver depended on the development of new and adequate mining techniques in Mexico and Peru to extract the ore and refine the metal. South German mining engineers greatly contributed to the transplantation of European technology to the Americas, and the Spanish-American silver mines utilised the new mercury amalgamation method to extract refined silver from the raw ores. Although the techniques used in Mexico and Peru were not particularly advanced by contemporary European standards, the American mine owners remained in business for more than three hundred years, and the supply of American silver came to be the foundation of the newly rising Indian Ocean world economy in the 17th and 18th centuries.