Silver and Gold.

The earliest Europeans in the Americas were the Spanish conquistadores (conquerors). The conquistadores were adventurous minor nobles and military officers fresh from the Reconquista of Spain from the Moors. After word of the discovery of silver in Mexico reached Spain, hundreds of these men rushed to America solely for the purpose of procuring the mineral wealth of the continent. Their demand for gold and silver was insatiable. As Hernando Cortes began his attack on Mexico, he admitted, "I and my companions suffer from a disease of the heart which can be cured only with gold." The government of Spain profited greatly from this gold lust. Between 1500 and 1650, historians estimate that Spain carried more than 180 tons of gold and 16,000 tons of silver back to Europe. The extraction of gold during this period was perhaps as much as ten times...