ABSTRACT
What Adam Smith characterized over two centuries ago as a fundamental feature of global trade history, we (Flynn and Giráldez 1995a) have re-emphasized in recent years: American silver, ultimately destined for China, was a prime impetus behind the birth of global trade. Having traversed the Atlantic Ocean, approximately three-quarters of the New World silver production continued on through a variety of European trade routes-via the Baltic and Russia and Persia, via caravans and waterways of the Middle East, around the Cape of Good Hope-and eventually on to China during three centuries. K.N.Chaudhuri (1978:156) and others make clear why American (as well as Japanese) silver was
attracted so relentlessly to China: the market value of silver was simply twice as high in China as it was elsewhere.
