ABSTRACT
On the 28th of April, 1656, a Dutch East-Indiaman, the Vergulde Draeck, outward-bound from the Texel in Holland to Batavia in Java was wrecked off the West coast of Australia with great loss of life. During the seventeenth century large amounts of the Spanish-American silver were acquired by the Dutch and English East-India Companies to finance their respective trades in Asia, the Dutch securing it direct from Seville and Cadiz after the Treaty of Munster in 1648 had ended their eighty years' war of independence against Spain. The silver which the Portuguese of Macao used in the China trade was derived chiefly from Japan, where the prevailing ratio of gold to silver enabled the Portuguese to make a profit by exchanging Japanese silver for Chinese silks and gold. K. N. Chaudhuri, has pointed out recently, the real price of silver, which was the current monetary standard in most of Asia, was much higher there than in Europe.
