Global silver trade from the 16th to 19th centuries

In the two centuries that followed the discovery of [[Potosí]] in 1545, the Spanish silver mines in the Americas produced 40,000 tons of silver.{{Cite book|title=Silver, Trade, and War: Spain and America in the Making of Early Modern Europe|url=https://archive.org/details/silvertradewarsp00stei|url-access=limited|last1=Stein|first1=Stanley J.|last2=Stein|first2=Barbara H.|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|year=2000|pages=[https://archive.org/details/silvertradewarsp00stei/page/n32 21]}} Altogether, more than 150,000 tons of silver were shipped from Potosí by the end of the 18th century.{{Cite web|url=http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/potosi-silver-mines|title=Potosí Silver Mines|website=Atlas Obscura|access-date=2016-05-08}}{{failed verification|date=March 2023}}{{better source needed|date=March 2023}} From 1500 to 1800, Bolivia and Mexico produced about 80%{{Cite journal|last=Flynn|first=Dennis O.|date=1995|title=Born with a 'Silver Spoon': The Origin of World Trade in 1571|url=http://www.uhpress.hawaii.edu/journals/jwh/jwh062p201.pdf|journal=Journal of World History|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180423072506/http://www.uhpress.hawaii.edu/journals/jwh/jwh062p201.pdf|archive-date=2018-04-23|url-status=dead}} of the world's silver with 30% of it eventually ending up in China. In the late 16th and early 17th century, Japan was also exporting heavily into China and the foreign trade at large.

In the two centuries that followed the discovery of [[Potosí]] in 1545, the Spanish silver mines in the Americas produced 40,000 tons of silver.{{Cite book|title=Silver, Trade, and War: Spain and America in the Making of Early Modern Europe|url=https://archive.org/details/silvertradewarsp00stei|url-access=limited|last1=Stein|first1=Stanley J.|last2=Stein|first2=Barbara H.|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|year=2000|pages=[https://archive.org/details/silvertradewarsp00stei/page/n32 21]}} Altogether, more than 150,000 tons of silver were shipped from Potosí by the end of the 18th century.{{Cite web|url=http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/potosi-silver-mines|title=Potosí Silver Mines|website=Atlas Obscura|access-date=2016-05-08}}{{failed verification|date=March 2023}}{{better source needed|date=March 2023}} From 1500 to 1800, Bolivia and Mexico produced about 80%{{Cite journal|last=Flynn|first=Dennis O.|date=1995|title=Born with a 'Silver Spoon': The Origin of World Trade in 1571|url=http://www.uhpress.hawaii.edu/journals/jwh/jwh062p201.pdf|journal=Journal of World History|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180423072506/http://www.uhpress.hawaii.edu/journals/jwh/jwh062p201.pdf|archive-date=2018-04-23|url-status=dead}} of the world's silver with 30% of it eventually ending up in China. In the late 16th and early 17th century, Japan was also exporting heavily into China and the foreign trade at large.

As has been demonstrated, [[China]] dominated silver imports. China's huge demand of the silver was caused by the failure of making paper money "[[Hongwu Tongbao|Hong Wu Tong Bao]]" and "Da Ming Tong [[Bao Chao]]" and the difficulties when making copper coins. After various status changes in China history, silver played a more important role in the market and became a dominant currency in China in the 1540s.{{Cite book |last=Wei |first=Yuan |title=Qing Jing Shi Wen Bian清經世文編 |year=1900 |edition=3rd |pages=657 |language=zh-tw}} The silver flow into China passed through two cycles: the Potosí /Japan Cycle, which lasted from the 1540s to the 1640s, and the Mexican Cycle, which began in the first half of the 1700s.{{Cite journal |last1=Flynn |first1=Dennis O. |last2=Giráldez |first2=Arturo |date=2002 |title=Cycles of Silver: Global Economic Unity through the Mid-Eighteenth Century |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20078977 |journal=Journal of World History |volume=13 |issue=2 |pages=391–427 |jstor=20078977 |issn=1045-6007}} The market value of silver in the [[Ming dynasty|Ming]] territory was double its value elsewhere, which provided great [[arbitrage]] profit for the [[Ethnic groups in Europe|Europeans]] and Japanese. The room for arbitrage profit was further enlarged because of the silver content difference between silver ingots from Ming and [[Qing dynasty|Qing China]] and New World silver.{{Cite journal |last1=Sun |first1=L. |last2=Yang |first2=G. |last3=Liu |first3=R. |last4=Pollard |first4=A. M. |last5=Zhu |first5=T. |last6=Liu |first6=C. |date=2021 |title=Global circulation of silver between Ming–Qing China and the Americas: Combining historical texts and scientific analyses |journal=Archaeometry |language=en |volume=63 |issue=3 |pages=627–640 |doi=10.1111/arcm.12617 |bibcode=2021Archa..63..627S |issn=0003-813X|doi-access=free }} At the same time, China also made significant arbitrage earnings in the markets for silks, ceramics, and other non-silver, which formed a multiple arbitrage system. In addition, the abundance of silver in China made it easy for the country to mint it into coinage and many methods and tools for identifying and measuring silver appeared to solve the problem caused by the difficulty in identifying and measure silver from 16th to 19th century. That process was so widespread that local Chinese government officials would demand [[single whip law|taxes to be paid in silver]] to the point that silver eventually backed all of China's economy.

As has been demonstrated, [[China]] dominated silver imports. China's huge demand of the silver was caused by the failure of making paper money "[[Hongwu Tongbao|Hong Wu Tong Bao]]" and "Da Ming Tong Bao Chao" and the difficulties when making copper coins. After various status changes in China history, silver played a more important role in the market and became a dominant currency in China in the 1540s.{{Cite book |last=Wei |first=Yuan |title=Qing Jing Shi Wen Bian清經世文編 |year=1900 |edition=3rd |pages=657 |language=zh-tw}} The silver flow into China passed through two cycles: the Potosí /Japan Cycle, which lasted from the 1540s to the 1640s, and the Mexican Cycle, which began in the first half of the 1700s.{{Cite journal |last1=Flynn |first1=Dennis O. |last2=Giráldez |first2=Arturo |date=2002 |title=Cycles of Silver: Global Economic Unity through the Mid-Eighteenth Century |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20078977 |journal=Journal of World History |volume=13 |issue=2 |pages=391–427 |jstor=20078977 |issn=1045-6007}} The market value of silver in the [[Ming dynasty|Ming]] territory was double its value elsewhere, which provided great [[arbitrage]] profit for the [[Ethnic groups in Europe|Europeans]] and Japanese. The room for arbitrage profit was further enlarged because of the silver content difference between silver ingots from Ming and [[Qing dynasty|Qing China]] and New World silver.{{Cite journal |last1=Sun |first1=L. |last2=Yang |first2=G. |last3=Liu |first3=R. |last4=Pollard |first4=A. M. |last5=Zhu |first5=T. |last6=Liu |first6=C. |date=2021 |title=Global circulation of silver between Ming–Qing China and the Americas: Combining historical texts and scientific analyses |journal=Archaeometry |language=en |volume=63 |issue=3 |pages=627–640 |doi=10.1111/arcm.12617 |bibcode=2021Archa..63..627S |issn=0003-813X|doi-access=free }} At the same time, China also made significant arbitrage earnings in the markets for silks, ceramics, and other non-silver, which formed a multiple arbitrage system. In addition, the abundance of silver in China made it easy for the country to mint it into coinage and many methods and tools for identifying and measuring silver appeared to solve the problem caused by the difficulty in identifying and measure silver from 16th to 19th century. That process was so widespread that local Chinese government officials would demand [[single whip law|taxes to be paid in silver]] to the point that silver eventually backed all of China's economy.

== Silver in the Americas ==

== Silver in the Americas ==