Silver, Money and Gold

The Casa De Infante Museum in Porto is an excellent review of the layers of history.

First start with Roman Portugal, then known as Lusitania, and great houses, estates and trade routes from before the time of Augustus Caesar spread along the river bank.  The Portuguese do not seem hostile to the notion of Roman conquest and appear to be proud of their Roman forebearers.

Then to the early then late Middle Ages; the site becomes a mint.  The kings and assorted dukes, councils and ruler types mint coins of silver.  A valuable metal that became equated with the value of a thing: a cow, cloth, wine, bread, swords and hired hands.

After a few hundred years of non-stop war and pillaging, silver becomes scarce. With no new mines in Europe, from which to get silver, currency becomes scarce. Then you have no new money with which to pay your mercenaries, boat makers, saddle makers and shoe makers, all of which are necessary to make war and wealth.

In the 14th century all of European nobility loved nothing better than to make war. For them it was a glorious thing. The downside was that you would go to hell or at best purgatory because of all that, well, killing your fellow man.

The only way to find new sources of silver was to travel out of Europe. Thus began the "Age of Discovery" as it is known here.

In the meantime the mints in Porto figure how to make molds to pour the silver and put "reeds" in the standard coin, the familiar divets we have around most coins today.

Before the divets people would shave and shave the coins smaller and smaller then "re-mint" the scrapings. 

Money was becoming scarce, very scarce and just in time, happily, the ships of Porto find Brazil.  First the only goods shipped back were "cats, nuts, parrots and slaves". Not a valuable haul apparently.

Soon after they then find silver and gold and gold and silver and more gold.

Soon the country has more wealth than they knew what to do with. Gold, silver, Brazil wood, sugar, coffee and slaves: an abundance.

Ironically the Church of Saint Francis Assissi sits in the center of a strange social triangle.

The wealthy as I noted in an earlier blog, know that to kill is wrong and that killing will send you to hell etc...

Earlier Saint Francis grew to renown (and controversy as did his order) by renouncing all property and possessions: living among the poor and despised and caring only for them. His sanctity lit a fire in Europe and he was soon joined by Saint Claire, who also followed the example of poverty, renunciation of property and communal ownership.

The wealthy, terrified by the omnipresent fear of hell and eternal anguish, did their  best "please Jesus" manouver, as logic dictated at that time: give as much gold and silver to the monasteries as you could - they after all are blessed by heaven; give gold and silver to artists; create great art to glorify God (though even if you are only thinking of glorifying God, ensure the artist sneaks in your likeness praying beside the ubiquitous Manger or Calvary scene.)

Make it all out to Saint Francis and poor Claire. Give Francis gold dust stigmata and Claire a wreath of silver, gold and the finest of Brazilian wood carvings.

In the church of Saint Francis the wealthy poured 660 pounds of pure gold taken from Brazil to gild every inch of fantastical rococo wooden carving.

The sculptures honour God the Father, dominant in his high throne now holding a round globe in his arms; Jesus Christ, who suffers terribly and Mary who mourns incessantly.

All the wealthy lived in fervant hope that the money they had cast so devoutly would see them eventually arriving on the sunny side of the street.