In seven Latin American countries (Colombia, Argentina, Chile, Cuba, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay) they use the name ‘weight‘ for your legal currency. How did this term come about?
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According to the ‘BBC’, the origin of the peso as a monetary unit dates back to the time of the conquest by the Spanish and Portuguese.
Before the arrival of the Europeans in the American territory, the people of the region had used, especially for the payment of tributes, “cocoa beans, certain types of shells and other products,” explained Julio Torres, curator of the Casa de la Currency of Spain and author of the essay ‘The introduction of currency in America’.
However, coins by this time they already existed in the Iberian Peninsula and were minted in gold, silver, fleece or copper, so that, after the conquest, part of them began to be exported to the ‘new continent’.
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The natives, at first, refused to use the currency. It was not until 1535 that Carlos I of Spain ordered the creation of mints in Mexico and Santo Domingo for its manufacture.
Later, the mints of Lima (1565) and La Plata (1573) were born, which in 1574 was replaced by that of Potosí, in Bolivia. And, after a while, the Casa de Moneda de Santa Fe de Bogotá was founded (1626).
In 1535 Carlos I of Spain ordered the establishment of Mint Houses in Mexico and Santo Domingo.
In the second phase, mints of Lima (1565) and La Plata (1573) were born, which in 1574 were replaced by that of Potosí, today Bolivia.
In the third, the Mint of Santa Fe de Bogotá is founded (1626) pic.twitter.com/9jSbsuQgmR— Bovary (@bovary43) March 15, 2021
The coins of that time
According to Torres, until the 16th century, commercial operations were carried out with bars; yew trees or gold barrettes; gold powder, and in pieces and bars of silver. While in the Spanish kingdom the ‘castellano’ or ‘peso’ was a measure equivalent to about 4.6 grams of gold.
It was not until the middle of the 16th century, when silver began to displace gold, that the name ‘peso’ began to be applied to another type of currency: ‘the real of eight’, which was a disc of 27 grams of Tepuzque gold, which was basically copper.
This coin was manufactured for the first time in Mexico, during the reign of Philip II, between 1556 and 1598, and spread to other mints on the continent.
Likewise, silver coins with these characteristics also began to be minted: “The eight-real silver coin, also called ‘peso’ or ‘duro’, was the Hispanic continuator of a pattern of large and thick coins that began in central areas of Europe at the end of the 15th century,” said Torres.
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REAL OF EIGHT SPANISH.
It was the first global currency, due to the extension of the Castilian crown beyond the seas.
Sse could be considered as the father of the dollar. pic.twitter.com/EiYOHmiVXC– Becoming Castilian (@NuestraCastilla) November 27, 2021
“This denomination, along with the type of currency it designated, traveled to other languages of Germanic origin, including English, which gave rise to the dollar,” he added.
Which means that the different measures of weights of metals that were used in the past served as the source to denominate a certain currency silver, which became so strong and respected that it was adopted by eight countries (seven from Latin America and the Philippines).
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