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
The Foundations of Modern Political Thought The Foundations of Modern Political Thought The Foundations of Modern Political Thought is a two-volume work of intellectual history by Quentin Skinner, published in 1978. The work traces the conceptual origins of modern politics by investigating the history of political thought in the West at the turn of the medieval and early modern periods, from the 13th to the 16th centuries. It represents the culmination of the contextualist approach to the history of ideas which Skinner and his colleagues in the Cambridge School had pioneered in the 1960s. The "Times Literary Supplement" named the "Foundations" one of the 100 most