Trade, Silver, and Print Culture in the Colonial Americas

Bibliographic Data

ID2170217
AuthorsElvira Vilches (corresponding author)
Year2015
Volume24
Issue3
Pages315-334
Publication date2015-07-03
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Latin American Cultural Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1356-9325 • E-ISSN: 1469-9575
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13569325.2015.1065796
OpenAlexW1865421747
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited23

The global reach of trade during the early modern period triggered a wave of commercial didactic publications. In the Americas the most popular commercial books, known as reducciones o cuentas del oro y de la plata, taught how to reckon the multiple varieties of unminted silver in circulation. Technical writers helped establish the conventions needed for markets to function by demonstrating skill and accuracy. Manuals typically included conversion tables and ready reckoners in order to expedite business and spread confidence among sellers, buyers, and consumers. Rather than considering money as a mere commodity and medium exchange, these manuals illustrate that money is embedded in a mesh of social rules, mechanisms, and institutions that establish notions of value, price list, credit, and trust

Business · Circulation (fluid dynamics · Colonialism · Commerce · Commodity · Economic history · Economics · Economy · Function (biology · Order (exchange · Political science · Value (mathematics · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Computer Science · Engineering · Historical Economic and Social Studies · History and Politics in Latin America · Law · Finance

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