The gold energized Spanish colonial efforts. Soon, they were pursuing their brutal quest for gold, glory and God by massacring the Mayas, the Incas, you name it.
But as important as gold is to the history of Mexico, it doesn’t hold a candle to silver.
Cortez conquered the Aztecs in 1521. Silver was discovered at Taxco, near Acapulco, in 1524.
Soon, more silver mines were discovered in the north and west … thick, rich veins of silver that could sometimes be pried out of the rock like boards from a barn.
- How much silver? The yield from Mexico's mines doubled the world supply of silver in less than two centuries.
- By the 1700s, Mexico’s silver mines were producing 9 million troy ounces of silver each year.
- If you include production from Bolivia and Peru, from 1530 to 1800, approximately $6 billion to $8 billion worth of gold and silver were mined in the Spanish American colonies. During this time, the ratio of silver to gold shipped to Spain was about 10 to 1.
And yet while this wealth made Spain an international power – and the richest country in Europe for a time -- the silver and gold provided no long-term benefit. It was a bad omen when the first shipment of gold to the Spanish king was seized by French raiders. The Caribbean’s rich history of pirates and privateers began.
The English, French and Dutch, seething with envy, captured Spanish islands and set up their own bases, which also served as ports for every pirate and buccaneer that had his eye on Spain’s treasure fleets. And everywhere silver was discovered in Mexico, rebellion sprang up from the ground like devil grass. Peasants and Indians alike wreaked havoc on authorities who were too busy stamping out wild fires to govern effectively.
You probably know that the Apaches and Comanches troubled settlers of our Old West. Well it was much, much worse south of the border -- they terrorized Mexico, constantly adapting tactics, running rings around Spanish forces like the huge armies were hobbled elephants. The nimble Apaches moved like ghosts, destroying commerce, livestock, and taking hundreds of lives.
So why didn’t people just pack up and leave? Because of the silver. It made that ground worth fighting for.
As bad as things were in Mexico, it was trouble in Europe that was Spain’s undoing … its finances were ruined paying for the 30 Years’ War – a good lesson for America and its expensive ($2 billion per week) fiasco in Iraq – and when New World silver production slipped, Spain began suffering perpetual economic depression, its economy ravaged by bouts of inflation and deflation. It could no longer protect its colonies, and Spain went into decline.
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