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
Aztec (novel) Aztec (novel) Aztec is a 1980 historical fiction novel by Gary Jennings. It is the first of two novels Jennings wrote in the Aztec series. The remaining three novels were written by other authors after Jennings died in 1999. The book is written as a series of letters from the Bishop of the See of New Spain to King Carlos of Spain containing a transcribed biography of Mixtli (Full named Chicóme-Xochitl Tliléctic Mixtli, "Seven Flower Dark Cloud", in Nahuatl), an elderly Aztec man, by Spanish Catholic monks during the 16th century. The novel portrays the entirety of the life of