Volume of gold and silver shipments from the Americas to Europe 1500-1800

The potential discovery of precious metals was a key driver of inward exploration of the Americas' interior, following the arrival of Columbus in the Caribbean in 1492. While mythical cities of gold were the most famous tales from the New World, it was actually silver that helped the Spanish Empire emerge as the wealthiest power in the world by the early 17th century. Early yearsProsperity was not immediate, and it took several decades before Spanish conquistadors located the largest silver mines, such as those at Potosi (present-day Bolivia) or Zacatecas (Mexico). Mining conditions in this period were harsh, and Europeans relied on the forced labor of indigenous Americans or (to a lesser extent) enslaved Africans to extract these metals; they also relied on the smelting techniques of indigenous peoples, as European mining methods were often inefficient at such high altitudes, where most of these sources were located. While Portuguese merchants had already established trade with various Asian cultures in the early 1500s, they were dependent on Japanese silver for trade; in contrast, the Spanish had their own source of silver that they could then ship from Mexico to their colonies in the Philippines in order to trade in Asia. This combination of silver from the Americas being traded by Europeans and Asians is viewed by some as the beginning of the global economy. Later centuriesAs Spanish colonization of the Americas developed, and as Europeans grew better at mining, processing (the introduction of mercury to the refining process revolutionized silver mining in the Americas), and transporting these resources, the quantity of precious metals being shipped across the Atlantic increased. Additionally, silver output from Mexico overtook that of the Andes region in the 1700s. When volumes from the 16th century are compared to those of the 18th century, the amount of silver being shipped increased by a factor of five. In contrast, the quantity of gold being transported was almost 100 times larger, due to the gold booms in Brazil that started in the 1690s. The attractiveness of such silver or gold booms also incentivized European migration to the New World, however there was still a heavy reliance on forced labor for mining, although the use of paid labor did increase with time.

1492年哥伦布抵达加勒比海后，美洲内陆的探险活动因对珍贵金属的潜在发现而成为关键驱动力。尽管新大陆传说中的黄金城市最为知名，但正是白银助力西班牙帝国在17世纪初崛起为世界上最富有的国家。初期，繁荣并非即刻到来，西班牙征服者历经数十年才发现了如波托西（今玻利维亚）或萨卡特卡斯（墨西哥）等地的大型银矿。这一时期的采矿条件极其恶劣，欧洲人依赖美洲原住民的强制劳动，或在一定程度上依赖被奴役的非洲人提取这些金属；同时，他们也依赖于原住民的冶炼技术，因为欧洲的采矿方法在高海拔地区往往效率低下，而这些资源主要分布于此。尽管早在1500年代初期，葡萄牙商人已与各种亚洲文化建立了贸易关系，但他们依赖日本的白银进行贸易；相比之下，西班牙拥有自己的银资源，可以从墨西哥将其运送到菲律宾殖民地，进而进行亚洲贸易。这种由欧洲人和亚洲人进行的美洲白银交易，被一些人视为全球经济起源的标志。随着西班牙对美洲的殖民扩张以及欧洲人在采矿、加工（将水银引入精炼过程，革新了美洲的银矿开采）和运输这些资源方面的技能不断提高，跨越大西洋运送的珍贵金属数量不断增加。此外，墨西哥的白银产量在18世纪超过了安第斯地区的产量。当将16世纪的产量与18世纪的产量进行比较时，运送的白银数量增加了五倍。相比之下，由于1690年代开始的巴西金矿热潮，运输的黄金量几乎增加了100倍。这样的白银或黄金热潮的吸引力也激励了欧洲人对新世界的移民，然而，采矿仍严重依赖强制劳动，但随着时间的推移，有偿劳动的使用也逐渐增加。