Peices of eight

Pieces of eight was the first global currency making its debut in the 1570s in was mass-produced spending across the globe from America's to Asia. silver coins minted in Bolivia 1573 1598

a piece of 8 had the same value as roughly £50 and this could be spent in any country in the world. These coins were created by the Spanish as when they went to south Americas Puru they found a huge silver jackpot in the mines, because of this find it meant that this was the biggest economic scale in the whole of history.

Without this discovery the whole map of history would have changed as the silver tat was forged from America would help the Spanish become the most wealthy monarchs and also help them in the battle, for example, fighting the French English and Turkish or creating an armada. in silver lies the security and strength of my monarchy - king Phillip the 4t.

however, this put a huge risk to human life as younger native Americans would be forced to labour in the mine with harmful conditions as there were no safety regulations at that time with beatings and death being carried out through the years. This was all happening in the freezing conditions of mountains where the labourers would catch pneumonia and get poisoned by mercury quite frequently this would also be an end in death. once the Indian population there started to decrease there was a huge influx of African slaves being brought over as replacements who were more resilient but in the end, they too couldn't cope with the conditions. Even to this day in the 21st-century miners still work in this mine with conditions only a fraction better than what it was in history. with some reports that children are working in the mine as this is now one of the poorest places contrasting to past times.

History and Theory

History and Theory

'The history of the world in 100 objects'- Podcast research

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