New World Gold : Cultural Anxiety and Monetary Disorder in Early Modern Spain

Resumen del libro

Vilches (North Carolina State Univ.), a specialist in Spanish and early modern studies, has written a fascinating study on the importance of gold reaching Spain from the time of Spanish conquests in the Americas and its relationship to credit. The author analyzes contemporary scholarly publications by theologians and political economists as well as literary works that addressed the issue of why the influx of New World bullion had brought the country ruin rather than wealth. Vilches focuses particular attention on the conflict between writers who believed in the intrinsic value of gold and those who understood gold as a center of value in an economy employing unprecedented use of credit. As gold lost its purchasing power to inflation in 16th-century Spain, many contemporaries blamed credit extended by the Genoese to the crown as responsible for Spain's deteriorating economic and financial condition. A rich work that demonstrates the value of combining early modern literary, historical, and theoretical works for understanding a topic central to early modern Spanish history, this book is most appropriate for scholars and graduate students of Spain and its colonial history. All university libraries should purchase it. Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates and above. -- M. A. Burkholder, University of Missouri--St. Louis (Reprinted with permission of Choice, copyright 2010, American Library Association)