Description
Book SynopsisSilver 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 Potosí, 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 Rev
Table of ContentsList of Figures Notes on Contributors Acknowledgements Glossary Introduction: Forging Silver ConnectionsHELEN HILLS: Part I: Silver: Mining, Indigenous Knowledge, and Colonialism 1: ALLISON MARGARET BIGELOW: Gold, Silver, Power, and Abuse: 'The Incorporation and Erasure of Indigenous Knowledges in Spanish Colonial Metalwork' 2: THOMAS B. F. CUMMINS: The Atocha's Silver ca.1622: Ingots, Aquillas, and the Intersection of Values 3: MAGGIE BOLTON: Flowing Silver and Ephemeral Cities: Working the Ruins of Colonial Silver Mines Part II: Silver and the Moon 4: SPIKE BUCKLOW: Silver, the Lunar Metal 5: TIM INGOLD: How the World Shines Silver in the Moonlight Part III: Silver Profits: Trade, Trust, and Trickery 6: SERGIUS KODERA: Between Early Modern Technology and Moral Agenda: Silver Counterfeiting and Assaying in Sixteenth-century Europe 7: KRIS LANE: Mutant Money: The Globe-trotting Career of Seventeenth-century Silver Cash Part IV: Exquisite Effects 8: AVINOAM SHALEM: Fidda (Silver): On the Active Life of Matter 9: ELENA PHIPPS: Weaving Silver: Brilliance and Sheen in Colonial Andean Textiles 10: RICHARD CHECKETTS: Adam van Vianen and Ghosts of Silver in the Late-Renaissance World Index
