ecrease further. The obvious result of this was an incentive to take silver to Asia where it retained a higher value. In contrast, the higher value of silver in Asia existed prior to (and during much of) the influx of American silver. There was particularly high demand for silver relative to the demand in Europe. For example, in the 16th century in Europe there was a gold-silver ratio of 1:12. In contrast, in China this ratio was 1:4. The unusually high demand for silver in Asia was primarily driven by demand from China. Chinese desire for silver was mainly the result of the 15th century Ming government's decision to switch from paper money to precious metals after "the collapse of China's paper-money system." In China there was also a lack of productive silver mines, and with the adoption of the new currency system this resulted in a huge demand for silver.
             Before American silver began to arrive, "Japan was the only significant contemporary source of the metal in Asia." Even after the arrival of American
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