Potosi by Lane Kris E.;

Author:Lane, Kris E.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780520280847
Publisher: University of California Press

THE MINT SCANDAL

John Elliott has stressed the importance of reputation in the Spanish monarchy of the seventeenth century, particularly during the long and troubled reign of Philip IV (1621–65).24 Few symbols of the king’s reputation were more visible than the silver coins of Potosí. The piece of eight with the mint-mark “P” had been an instant hit worldwide, at times a bit richer in silver or slightly heavier than expected. To hold a peso de a ocho or patacón of Potosí silver was to feel the global reach of the king of Spain. To touch his coat of arms and read his name was to know that to him alone belonged the Treasury of the World.

But like bagels in hard times, Potosí coins soon shrank below their standard weight and purity. The problem worsened as Philip IV’s reign reached midpoint. Already by 1630 the Cerro Rico’s mines were failing, and the Imperial Villa’s mill owners were as insolvent as they had been before the great 1626 flood. Yet not everyone knew this, and many who did know chose not to face reality. Potosí silver was globally recognized, and this ought to mean that its coins remained good. The “rial of eight,” as the English called it, might be a crudely fashioned, clipped, or tarnished hunk of change, but it was widely assumed to be richer than a handsome Dutch rijksdaler or even a Venetian ducat.

The Potosí peso, bearing the Habsburg coat of arms and a Greek cross interspersed with lions and castles, was traded worldwide. When accepted as ransom payment in North Africa, scribes wrote the necessary disclaimer: “Minted by the enemy of religion, the Christian; may God destroy him.” It was a backhanded compliment. Writing in 1612, the priest Antonio de Sosa, who spent several years with Miguel de Cervantes as a captive in Algiers, noted of the Barbary corsairs:

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