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The long history of silver goes back to at least 4,000 BC. One of the oldest treasures found that was composed of silver and gold was discovered in Varnia, Bulgaria. The earliest known production of silver is Anatolia, which is known today as East Turkey.
During the Bronze Age, people were already mining silver for the purposing of making jewelry. Since the silver deposits were still abundant during those days therefore silver was easy to find in Europe and in West Asia. However, the problem with silver ore was it contained some particles of lead which was poisonous and resulted to the death of numerous silver miners. The solution for this problem was to force slaves to mine silver.
One famous silver mine was found in Laurion in Greece. In 500 B.C, the Greeks found a mine filled with huge deposits of silver. Since the mine was on their land the silver was extracted and used to finance Athens’ first naval armada and eventually lead to the development of Greece’s powerful city-state.
After the dominance of Greece, the Carthaginians took possession of the silver mines. The money generated from the silver mines was used pay to the demands of the emerging Roman Empire.
But unknown to the Carthaginians, the Romans were also mining for silver in parts of Europe, in places such as Britain, France, Italy, Sardinia. The Roman Empire also had control of mines in Asia Minor and the Middle East.
In other parts of the World, the Muslims have also taken their interest in silver after their occupation of the Iberian Peninsula. This has greatly affected their influence and dominance towards other nations during this time. The discovery of America by Christopher Columbus spawned the rapid exploitation of silver mines in places such as Bolivia, Peru and Mexico.
During the 19th century George Hearst, the father of the famed newspaperman William Randolph Hearst, discovered the Comstock Lode in Nevada. This discovery helped start of the mining industry in the United States. The excavations in this mine produced an approximate amount of $400 million in silver and gold deposits. The mine has also played a significant role for the growth of the state and the advancement of silver mining techniques.
By 1873, the demonetization of silver by the United States Congress led to the use of gold in the monetary system. This eventually caused the available supply of silver to increase as it was not being used any more for coinage. The oversupply eventually caused a sharp down turn for the price of silver. Gold was monetary standard in the United Sates until 1933 when FDR issued the confiscation order. In 1971 President Nixon closed the gold window and did not allow international holders of dollars to redeem them for gold and promised.
The depletion of silver deposits in recent years has greatly affected its current value. . Though silver deposits are slowly diminishing this will just increase the demand for the precious metal and will eventually lead to higher prices.
All throughout history, silver has been used for generating wealth for individuals and for nations. With the current silver mining technology and more methods to extract owning this precious metal will greatly increase and improve your ability the capability to create wealth.
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