Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/526

500 600 SPANISH COLONIAL POLICY. FART The admiral's own statement, that the miners ob- — '■ — tained from six gold castellanos to one hundred or even two hundred and fifty in a day, allows a lati- tude too great to lead to any definite conclusion. ^^ More tangible evidence of the riches of the island is afforded by the fact, that two hundred thousand castellanos of gold went down in the ships with Bobadilla. But this, it must be remembered, was the fruit of gigantic efforts, continued, under a sys- tem of unexampled oppression, for more than two years. To this testimony might be added that of the well-informed historian of Seville, who infers from several royal ordinances, that the influx of the precious metals had been such, before the close of the fifteenth century, as to affect the value of the currency, and the regular prices of commodities.^^ These large estimates, however, are scarcely recon- cilable with the popular discontent at the meagre- ness of the returns obtained from the New World, or with the assertion of Bernaldez, of the same date with Zuniga's reference, that " so little gold had been brought home as to raise a general belief, that there was scarcely any in the island."** This is Historia Natural de las Indias, relative value as compared with cap. 84,apud Barcia, Historiadores silver, for several different years; Primitives, torn. i. and the year he assigns for the 23 Tercer Viage de Colon, apud commencement of its depreciation, Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, is precisely the same with that in- tom. i. p. 274. dicated by Zuiiiga. (Mem. de la 24 Zuniga, Annales de Sevilla, Acad, de Hist., torn. vi. Ilust. 20.) p. 415. The value of silver was not mate- The alteration was in the gold rially affected till the discovery of currency ; which continued to rise the great mines of Potosi and ^ca- in value till 1497, when it gradu- tecas. ally sunk, in consequence of the 25 Bernaldez, Reyes Cat61ico8, importation from the mines of His- MS., cap. 131. paniola. Clemencin has given its