Wages and Subsistence on Spanish Treasure Ships, 1503-1660

/\ and of officers on the treasure ships plying between j? j^Spain and the Hispanic colonies of the New World, 1503-1660, should throw light upon important aspects of the lives of day laborers and of the upper classes in Spain during her golden age, one of the most interesting and romantic periods in world-history. A study of wages, especially a comparison of wages with prices, should furnish a rough index of the effect of the great influx of American gold and silver upon the economic welfare of the laboring and middle classes. Mercantilist prepossessions concerning the enriching quali? ties of the precious metals and a desire to derive revenue from the wealth of the Indies led to extreme governmental regulation of every phase of transporting gold and silver from the mouth of the American mine to the door of the Castilian mint. In order