Producing Gold and Silver to Globalize the Economy during the Early Modern Era: San Luis Potosi and the Pacific Trade with Asia
In: Asian Review of World HistoriesSearch for other papers by Sergio Tonatiuh Serrano Hernández in
Current site
Google Scholar
Abstract
This article presents evidence from archival sources that allows us to reconstruct the commercial networks that permitted the continuous flow of silver and gold from northern New Spain to Asia during the early modern era. These networks obtained various consumer goods – fabrics, spices, porcelain – that were then introduced into Spanish American markets. The narrative follows the bullion through its journey from the production center in San Luis Potosi to the Pacific and Asia. This vantage point contributes to the construction of a polycentric view within the framework of global history by assessing the role played by the American and Asiatic possessions of the Hispanic Empire in the first globalization. Using a methodological framework provided by social network analysis, the article presents a study of two commercial networks based in New Spain and extending to the Philippines and Peru. The essay underlines the role merchants played in mobilizing precious metals to accelerate exchanges and generate extraordinary profit margins.
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
-
Amin, Nada, Nitin S. Baliga, Trey Ideker, Andrew Markiel, Owen Ozier, Daniel Ramage, Benno Schwikowski, Paul Shannon, Jonathan T. Wang. 2003. “Cytoscape: A Software Environment for Integrated Models of Biomolecular Interaction Networks.” Genome Research, 13(11): 2498–2504.
-
Bakewell, Peter J. 1971. Silver, Mining and Society in Colonial Mexico: Zacatecas, 1546–1700. New York: Cambridge University Press.
-
Batagelj, Vladimir, Andrej Mrvar, Wouter De Nooy. 2005. Exploratory Network Analysis with Pajek. New York: Cambridge University Press.
-
Bonialian, Mariano Ardash. 2012. El Pacífico hispanoamericano: Política y comercio asiático en el Imperio Español (1680–1784): La centralidad de lo marginal. Mexico City: Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios Históricos, Colegio Internacional de Graduados Entre Espacios.
-
Braudel, Fernand. 1979. Afterthoughts on Material Civilization and Capitalism. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
-
Brook, Timothy. Vermeer’s Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World. New York: Profile Books, 2009.
-
Cetintas, Ahmet, Ali Civril, Ugur Dogrusoz, Demir Emek, Erhan Giral. 2009. “A Layout Algorithm for Undirected Compound Graphs.” Information Sciences: An International Journal, 179(7): 980–994.
-
De la Peña, Jose Francisco. 1983. Oligarquía y propiedad en Nueva España, 1550–1624. Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica.
-
De Lozanne Jefferies, Claudia. 2019. “Some Determinants of Local Exchanges Rates and in Early Modern Mexican Mining Sites, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries.” In Mining, Money and Markets in the Early Modern Atlantic: Digital Approaches and New Perspectives, edited by Claudia De Lozanne Jefferies, Markus A. Denzel, and Renate Pieper: 211–230. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.
-
Del Valle Pavón, Guillermina. 2011. “Bases del poder de los mercaderes de plata de la ciudad de México. Redes, control del Consulado y de la Casa de Moneda a fines del siglo XVII.” Anuario de Estudios Americanos, 68(2): 565–598.
-
Del Valle Pavón, Guillermina, and Antonio Ibarra Romero, coordinators. 2017. Redes, corporaciones comerciales y mercados hispanoamericanos en la economía global, siglos XVII–XIX. Mexico City: Instituto de Investigaciones Dr. José María Luis Mora.
-
Eifrem, Emil, Ian Robinson, Jim Webber. 2013. Graph Databases: New Opportunities for Connected Data. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly.
-
Flynn, Dennis O., and Arturo Giráldez. 1995. “Born with a ‘Silver Spoon’: The Origin of World Trade in 1571.” Journal of World History, 6(2): 201–221.
-
García de León Griego, Antonio Armando. 2011. Tierra adentro, mar en fuera: El puerto de Veracruz y su litoral a Sotavento, 1519–1821. Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica.
-
Garner, Richard L. 1988. “Long-Term Silver Mining Trends in Spanish America: A Comparative Analysis of Peru and Mexico.” American Historical Review, 93(4): 889–914.
-
Gerhard, Peter. Geografía histórica de la Nueva España. Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1986.
-
Gerhard, Peter. La frontera sureste de la Nueva España. Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1991.
-
Gerhard, Peter. La frontera norte de la Nueva España. Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1996.
-
Guerrero, Saul. 2017. Silver by Fire, Silver by Mercury: A Chemical History of Silver Refining in New Spain and Mexico, 16th to 19th centuries. Leiden: Brill.
-
Hausberger, Bernd. 2018. Historia mínima de la globalización temprana. Mexico City: El Colegio de México.
-
Hoberman, Louisa Schell. 1991. Mexico’s Merchant Elite, 1590–1660: Silver, State, and Society. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
-
Hodler, Amy E., and Mark Needham. 2019. Graph Algorithms: Practical Examples in Apache Spark & Neo4j. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly.
-
Iaccarino, Ubaldo. 2013. “El papel del Galeón de Manila en el Japón de Tokugawa Ieyasu.” In Un océano de seda y plata: El universo del Galeón de Manila, edited by Salvador Bernabeu Albert and Carlos Martínez Shaw: 133–154. Sevilla: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas.
-
Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografía e Informática. 2021. “Mapa continuo Nacional de las 5 Capas Actualizadas de Información Topográfica a Escala 1:50,000.” Accessed September 20, 2021. https://www.inegi.org.mx/app/biblioteca/ficha.html?upc=889463835585.
-
Israel, Jonathan I. 2002. Diasporas within a Diaspora: Jews, Crypto-Jews and the World Maritime Empires (1540–1740). Leiden: Brill.
-
Lohmann Villena, Guillermo. 1963. “El Perú en el ‘Poema del Asalto y Conquista de Antequera’ de Carvajal y Robles (Lima, 1627).” Boletín de la Biblioteca Nacional del Perú, (27): 3–27.
-
Lohmann Villena, Guillermo. 1993. Los americanos en las órdenes nobiliarias. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas.
-
Martínez López-Cano, María del Pilar. 2001. La génesis del crédito colonial: Ciudad de México siglo XVI. Mexico City: Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas.
-
Monroy, María Isabel, comp. 1991. Documentos y grabados para la historia de San Luis Potosí. San Luis Potosi, SLP, Mexico: Archivo Histórico del Estado de San Luis Potosí.
-
Muñoz Serrulla, María Teresa. 2015. La moneda castellana en los reinos de Indias durante la Edad Moderna. Madrid: Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia.
-
Powell, Philip Wayne. 1996. La guerra chichimeca: 1550–1600. Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica.
-
Rodríguez Treviño, Julio César. 2013. “Cómo utilizar el Análisis de Redes Sociales para temas de historia.” Signos Históricos, 29: 102–141.
-
Ruiz Guadalajara, Juan Carlos. 2004. Dolores antes de la independencia: Microhistoria del altar de la patria. Zamora: El Colegio de Michoacán, El Colegio de San Luis, Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social.
-
Salazar Martínez, Guadalupe. 2000. Las haciendas en el siglo XVII en la región minera de San Luis Potosí: Su espacio, forma, función, material y estructura regional. San Luis Potosí, SLP, Mexico: Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, Facultad del Hábitat.
-
Sanz Ayán, Carmen. 2013. Los banqueros y la crisis de la Monarquía Hispánica de 1640. Madrid: Marcial Pons Historia.
-
Serrano Hernández, Sergio Tonatiuh. 2016. “Mercado y red: La estructura del sistema de intercambio de oro y plata en San Luis Potosí a comienzos del siglo XVII.” Illes i Imperis, 19: 72–103.
-
Serrano Hernández, Sergio Tonatiuh. 2017. “Mercado de minerales y redes comerciales en San Luis Potosí a comienzos del siglo XVII.” In Redes, corporaciones comerciales y mercados hispanoamericanos en la economía global, siglos XVII–XIX, edited by Guillermina Del Valle Pavón and Antonio Ibarra Romero: 27–68. Mexico City: Instituto de Investigaciones Dr. José María Luis Mora.
-
Serrano Hernández, Sergio Tonatiuh. 2018a. “Comercio local, red global: El oro de San Luis Potosí en la primera mundialización de la economía.” In Actores sociales, redes de negocios y corporaciones en Hispanoamérica, siglos XVII–XIX, edited by Álvaro Alcántara López, Antonio Ibarra Romero, Fernando Júmar: 61–86. Mexico City: UNAM, Bonilla Artigas Editores.
-
Serrano Hernández, Sergio Tonatiuh. 2018b. La Golosina del Oro: La producción de metales preciosos en San Luis Potosí y su circulación global en mercados orientales y occidentales durante el siglo XVII. San Luis Potosí, SLP, Mexico: El Colegio de San Luis, Instituto de Investigaciones Dr. José María Luis Mora, El Colegio de Michoacán, 2018.
-
Studnicki-Gizbert, Daviken. 2007. A Nation upon the Ocean Sea: Portugal’s Atlantic Diaspora and the Crisis of the Spanish Empire, 1492–1640. New York: Oxford University Press.
-
Suárez Espinosa, Margarita. 2001. Desafíos transatlánticos: Mercaderes, banqueros y estado en el Perú virreinal, 1600–1700. Lima: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Instituto Riva–Agüero.
-
Tanaka, Michiko. 2011. Historia mínima de Japón. Mexico City: El Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios de Asia y África.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 2534 | 113 | 2 |
| Full Text Views | 14 | 5 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 34 | 12 | 1 |
Producing Gold and Silver to Globalize the Economy during the Early Modern Era: San Luis Potosi and the Pacific Trade with Asia
In: Asian Review of World HistoriesSearch for other papers by Sergio Tonatiuh Serrano Hernández in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Abstract
This article presents evidence from archival sources that allows us to reconstruct the commercial networks that permitted the continuous flow of silver and gold from northern New Spain to Asia during the early modern era. These networks obtained various consumer goods – fabrics, spices, porcelain – that were then introduced into Spanish American markets. The narrative follows the bullion through its journey from the production center in San Luis Potosi to the Pacific and Asia. This vantage point contributes to the construction of a polycentric view within the framework of global history by assessing the role played by the American and Asiatic possessions of the Hispanic Empire in the first globalization. Using a methodological framework provided by social network analysis, the article presents a study of two commercial networks based in New Spain and extending to the Philippines and Peru. The essay underlines the role merchants played in mobilizing precious metals to accelerate exchanges and generate extraordinary profit margins.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 2534 | 113 | 2 |
| Full Text Views | 14 | 5 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 34 | 12 | 1 |