5. Analyze the economic system developed by the silver trade and its effects.

Silver outweighed gold in both quantity and value, and was highly abundant in the Americas. Because of this Spain launched a silver-extraction enterprise and employed large numbers of indigenous laborers to mine silver. Around the year 1600, the Spanish silver-mining enterprise had grow large, and had led to a high demand for labor- which led the Spanish to adopt the Inca practice of the mita system- which called villages to send 1/7 of their male population to work the mines for 4 months every year. Additionally, many mita laborers died, and a great number of natives sought to avoid mita obligations by escaping/fleeing their villages or towns.