Economy and Society:
From the First American Peso to the First Steam Engine
By David Sánchez Sánchez BA in History from the University of Oviedo, official university title Level 3, Master MECES, equivalent to a BA and an MA. Academic Director of the Humanities Department, UPAEP
I
n 1497, Christopher Columbus took a new excursion to the Indies, bringing with him the instruments and techniques to issue excellent command within the monetary economy, but there was insufficient raw material. In the first minting intended for America, it is important to include the first dated coins from Seville, 1504, worth four copper Maravedi. The Catholic monarchy encouraged the proposal of cross-Atlantic commerce and in 1505 the first gold and silver coins were produced by La Española, “that hewed a currency half silver and half Villon.”
PAGE
4
A LOOK AT MÉXICO TROUGH THE WORLD
When we use the currency term “peso” today, we must remember the Royal Writ published by the Catholic monarchy in March 1503 and sent to the governor of La Española in which the term “peso” appears for the first time. In this instructive letter to Friar Nicholas de Ovando in response to his earlier inquiry (AGI, General Indifference, 418, Book 1) the term is mentioned on three occasions: “indicated for each one hundred and fifty gold pesos... ensure payment date with respect to seventy gold pesos... each clergy member will receive a yearly salary of one hundred gold pesos.” Checking the numbers in a general way, we can establish that one gold peso would have been equal to eight silver reales, 271 maravedi, or about 4,352 euros or a little over $100,000 Mexican pesos today. The term “peso” had just been introduced into daily life in society and
