| [00:00.30] |
|
| [00:05.90] |
The silver ore was ground up, refined with mercury and then shipped to Europe as bars and coins. |
| [00:15.97] |
Empire, it seemed, had made the Spanish Crown rich beyond the dreams of avarice. |
| [00:33.56] |
And yet, all the silver in the mines of Potosi couldn't halt the inexorable economic and political decline of Spain's Empire. |
| [00:42.00] |
Why was that, when Pizarro seemed to have struck it so incredibly rich? |
| [00:46.32] |
The answer is that the Spaniards had dug up so much silver to finance their wars of conquest |
| [00:51.69] |
that the metal itself suffered an extraordinary decline in value. |
| [00:56.39] |
More silver coins didn't make Spain richer, |
| [00:58.93] |
they simply made prices higher as an increased quantity of money chased the same amount of goods. |
| [01:05.20] |
What the Spaniards didn't get was that money is only worth what other people will give in exchange for it. |
| [01:11.80] |
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