Some notes from The Ethics of Money Production tells us that the famous gold and silver inflations of the 16th and 17th century increased European’s money supply by some 50-500%. Yet, at 150 years of extraction from the new world, thats only about .3–3.3% per annum. Moreover, around 16th century thee total money stock of Europe was 35,000 tons of gold and 37,000 tons of silver (Spain, the major importer of gold and silver from the New World, imported 181 tons of gold and 1,686 tons of silver)
Now, given this information would you say that it was a wise decision on the part of the kings to haul pounds of gold across vast distances of sea? I’m wondering there were inflation redistribution (being that they received and spent the money first) perks to shipping the gold to and from the New World and would a better strategy to have been to import some other commodity?