very of American silver was made in a world that wanted precious metals. In 15th century Europe, the cost of producing silver was declining. According to Dennis O. Flynn, between 1460 and 1530 the cost of silver production in central Europe fell dramatically as the result of technological improvements in the mining and manufacturing of silver. At the same time, demand for silver increased and its market value rose. This may have been a result of demographic factors. At this time in Europe, the population as a whole was increasing only slowly, but there were large increases in the size of the cities. According to Flynn, the "movement of people to a more highly monetized sector of the economy would surely imply an augmented demand for money to hold." In other words, the move towards urbanization in Europe would account for an increase in the price of silver. And in combination with the lower production costs, silver was increasingly becoming a more attractive commodity to produce. Flynn goes on to argue that the increase in value of precious metals contributed to early European colonization efforts in eastern Africa, and was an incentive behind much of Columbus's explorations in the Americas.
             Within Europe the discovery of silver in the Americas led to a decline in silver prices in the 16th century. There was a high demand for silver in Asia and this slowed the decline in the value of silver in general after the discovery of new-world metals. In Europe however, unprecedented price inflation was experienced. As theorized by John Perkins, this was the result (to a degree) of "an increase in money supply and or its velocity of circulation." There has been much debate as to whether or not the influx of American silver led to this inflation, however that is irrelevant to this discussion. The point is that the inflation in Europe or the "price revolution" as it is known, did cause the value of silver to d...