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Re-presenting Silver in Early Modern Europe

In: Mining, Money and Markets in the Early Modern Atlantic

Author

Listed:
  • Renate Pieper

    (University of Graz)

Abstract

Silver had a dual function in early modern Europe: as money and as a luxury. So far, the two functions have been studied separately. The purpose of this study is to examine both aspects of silver side-by-side. Analysing still lives and vanitas paintings from the Spanish Empire and the Dutch Republic during the Golden Age of the seventeenth century reveals that silver in its distinct forms was understood in radically different lights. This contradictory representation is further evident in handwritten newsletters and printed newspapers describing the Spanish silver fleets and the further distribution of silver within Europe. Presented as bullion, as a commodity for trade and elaborate silver artefacts, silver meant wealth and richness. Presented as coin, though, silver meant vice, gambling and war. Thus, although money needed to be backed to a certain extent by (American) silver and the commercial value of bullion, silver-as-money was seen as evil in its most tangible form.

Suggested Citation

  • Renate Pieper, 2019. "Re-presenting Silver in Early Modern Europe," Palgrave Studies in Economic History, in: Renate Pieper & Claudia de Lozanne Jefferies & Markus Denzel (ed.), Mining, Money and Markets in the Early Modern Atlantic, chapter 0, pages 63-84, Palgrave Macmillan.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palscp:978-3-030-23894-0_4
    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-23894-0_4
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