Global silver trade from the 16th to 18th centuries American mining for the early part of the 16th Century. Mining in the Americas became formally industrialized when the process of mercury amalgamation became popularized. Mercury amalgamation was invented by a Spaniard in central Mexico in the 1550s. Historians dispute what individual was the first to invent the process, however most agree that it was a Spaniard. Mercury was the one of the highest costs of production for the Americas, since much of it had to be shipped. The ratio of Mercury to silver produced was about two to one. Furthermore, German miners introduced the stamp mill and lead smelting
Neutral Nation is now Hamilton, the lower Grand Valley and Niagara, called them the Neutrals. However, the confederacy did have feuds with the Algonkian people who were believed to live in what is now Michigan. In 1616, the Neutral Nation was estimated to have 40 villages and 4,000 warriors. In 1641, after a serious epidemic, the Jesuits counted 40 Neutral villages with about 12,000 people. During the late 16th and early 17th centuries, the territory of the "Attawandaron", as they were called by the Huron Nation, was mostly within the limits of present-day southern Ontario. The Museum of Ontario Archaeology summarizes that