New mass spectrometry technique clouds early European inflation theories
Friday, May 27, 2011 - 11:30
in Paleontology & Archaeology
(PhysOrg.com) -- Using a new coupled mass spectrometry technique that employs multiple collectors, researchers in France have shown that it was not an influx of silver from the America's that caused high inflation in Europe from the early 1500's to mid 1600, as some historians have long believed. Their results, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) show that the gradual replacement of coins made from Spanish silver to imported Mexican silver, did not occur until nearly fifty years later.