Silver : transformational matter /
Silver transformed and convulsed the early modern world. Silver, even more than gold, occupied a deeply charged intersection of forces and dynamics, philosophical, religious, material, telluric, economic, colonialist, social, cultural and courtly, that traversed and profoundly altered the world. Sil...
| Uniform Title: | Silver (Hills) |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Oxford :
Published for the British Academy by Oxford University Press,
[2023].
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| Edition: | First edition. |
| Series: | Proceedings of the British Academy ;
259. |
| Subjects: |
| Summary: | Silver transformed and convulsed the early modern world. Silver, even more than gold, occupied a deeply charged intersection of forces and dynamics, philosophical, religious, material, telluric, economic, colonialist, social, cultural and courtly, that traversed and profoundly altered the world. Silver from the so-called 'New World' bankrolled and justified the Spanish monarchy in its landgrab, wars and empire building in both the Americas and in Europe. The great mountain of fabulously rich silver, Cerro Ricco in PotosÃ, relentlessly exploited by the Spanish invaders from 1545, irrevocably changed power relations, empires and entire social and environmental ecologies across the globe. Accelerating global commerce and the growth of capitalism, trade in silver intensified the accumulation of capital and uneven trade balances and enhanced the wealth of northern Europe at the expense of the Global South, particularly of Latin America. This wealth helped jump start the Industrial Revolution a century later. |
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| Physical Description: | xvii, 253 pages : chiefly color illustrations ; 25 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 0197267548 9780197267547 |