S5E214 - The Royal Fifth: Gold, Silver, and the Crown's Cut

In 1521, Hernán Cortés and his allies toppled the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, but the spoils of conquest didn't just line the pockets of adventurers. The Spanish Crown demanded its share: one-fifth of all treasure, the quinto real. This episode explores the mechanics of that levy, from the smelting of gold ingots in the Aztec palace to the shipping of silver across the Atlantic. We follow the quicksilver trade that made silver refining possible, the corruption and smuggling that plagued the system, and the rise of the Casa de Contratación in Seville, which controlled all trade to the...