The introduction of amalgamation to silver refining in the Americas not only ended the mid-sixteenth century crisis in silver production, it also inaugurated a rapid expansion of silver production in New Spain and Peru as miners could now profitably mine lower-grade ores. In addition, places that were rich in ore but too isolated from indigenous populations or forests for the labor- and fuel-intensive smelting method to be profitable, as was the case with Potosí in modern-day Bolivia, were now viable. As a result of this expansion, the Americas became the primary producer of the worlds silver, with Spanish America producing three-fifths of the worlds silver supply prior to 1900.
Increased silver production due to the introduction of mercury amalgamation resulted in an increased demand for labor. In New Spain, mining labor was initially supplied by the encomienda system or by enslaved Indians before transitioning to a repartimiento rotating labor system, but by the early 1600s, the majority of workers were Indian free wage or debt peonage workers. These naboríos were free, unattached Indians who contracted themselves out for sustenance and payment. Spaniards tended to distrust naboríos and accused them of profiteering by stealing ore, taking advances and fleeing, or contracting themselves out to multiple employers at a time. Regardless, the mines in New Spain increasingly relied on naboríos, who constituted over two thirds of mine workers in the region. Repartimiento Indian workers made up roughly seventeen percent of laborers, with another fourteen percent composed of Black slaves. Throughout the Spanish colonies, white men typically took positions as supervisors or mine owners.
The introduction of silver amalgamation allowed for an expansion of silver production in Peru that had profound consequences for Perus native population. From 1571, the year the amalgamation process was introduced to the Andes, to 1575, Perus silver production quintupled. In 1572, in order to provide sufficient labor to accommodate the expansion of silver mining to lower-grade ores, Viceroy Francisco Toledo organized an Indian draft labor system, the mita. This system of forced labor was based on the mita, a rotating, reciprocal labor obligation instituted in pre-Hispanic Andean society. Under this system, thousands of natives were forced to work in silver and mercury mines for less than subsistence-level wages. Thirteen thousand draft laborers per year worked at the largest mine in the Americas, located at Potosí in modern Bolivia. Native attempts to avoid the mita led to the abandonment of many Indian villages throughout Peru as thousands of Indians either moved permanently to Potosí or fled their traditional ayllus' in order to escape the labor draft. Spanish monopolization of refining through amalgamation cut natives out of what had earlier been a native-dominated enterprise. Refining represented the most profitable segment of silver production. In conjunction with the mita, the exclusion of natives from owning refineries contributed to the transformation of Peruvian natives into a poorly paid labor force.
The rapid expansion of silver production and coinage—made possible due to the invention of amalgamation—has often been identified as the primary driver of the price revolution, a period of high inflation lasting from the sixteenth to early seventeenth-century in Europe. Proponents of this theory argue that Spain's reliance on silver coins from the Americas to finance its large balance of payments deficits resulted in a general expansion of the European money supply and corresponding inflation. Critics of the theory, however, argue that inflation was really a result of European government policies and population growth.
While the role of the expansion in silver production in the price revolution may be disputed, this expansion is often acknowledged as a key ingredient in the formation of early-modern world trade. In the 1530s, China decreed that all internal taxation must be paid in silver, driving demand for Spanish American silver and facilitating the development of extensive trade networks linking Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas as Europeans sought to gain access to Chinese wares.