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. As the Spanish need for silver increased, new innovations for more efficient extraction of silver were developed, such as the amalgamation method of using mercury to extract silver from ore. The Spanish acquired the silver, minting it into the peso de ocho to then use it as a means of purchase that currency was so widespread that even the United States accepted it as valid until the Coinage Act of 1857. Potosí's deposits were rich and Spanish American silver mines were the world's cheapest sources of it. Spaniards at the time of the Age of Discovery discovered vast amounts of silver, much of which was from the Potosí silver mines, to fuel their trade economy. "New World mines", concluded several prominent historians, "supported the Spanish empire", acting as a linchpin of the Spanish economy. In addition to the global economic changes the silver trade engendered, it also put into motion a wide array of political transformations in the early modern era. Many scholars consider the silver trade to mark the beginning of a genuinely global economy, with one historian noting that silver "went round the world and made the world go round." Although global, much of that silver ended up in the hands of the Chinese, as they accepted it as a form of currency. The global silver between the Americas, Europe and China from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries was a spillover of the Columbian Exchange which had a profound effect on the world economy. (Blue represents Portuguese routes which primarily focused on spices.) International trade route carrying silver White represents the route of the Manila Galleons in the Pacific and the flota in the Atlantic, which mainly carried silver.
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