Roger Crowley

The Dutch had no interest in converting people to Christianity.

They just wanted the stuff.

And for a long period, the Dutch had monopoly over the Spice trade.

And when you look at Amsterdam,

Or you look at Rembrandt's or Vermeer's or something.

These are all paid for by spices that the Dutch managed to monopolize as we move into the 17th century.

It's a very, really interesting period.

Absolutely.

You could go for arbitrage because the Chinese change their tax system to silver.

And you could do very well by turning your silver into gold if you knew what you were doing.

So there are all kinds of games and opportunities going on here.

And

One of the things that I discovered and that totally blew me away was the discovery of the largest silver mine in the world in the Bolivian Andes at a place called Potosi.

Just at the moment, the Chinese were changing their tax system to silver.

And Potosi became the biggest mining boom in history.

It ended up with a population of about 180,000 people.

It was as large as London because everybody flocked there to make their fortunes.

And silver becomes...

the global currency, because the Chinese, sort of then as now, they wanted the money and they exported the goods.

Ming pottery particularly was incredibly coveted.