Following the total conquest of the island, the Aragonese tried to enhance the silver mining industry: duties were lightened and also taxes and rights owed to the crown for metals. Such policy though could not return Sardinian mines to their past prosperity. Under Aragonese domination first and Spanish after that, the mining industry knew a continuous decay; Sardinia, that for centuries had been one of the most important productive areas for silver, ended up importing the valuable material that was by then coming in large amounts from the Spanish settlements in the New World. Even in this period Sardinian mines did not totally cease to be active, in fact a small domestic market remained.