The general tendency of the first years of this period (1493-1520), if discernible at all, seems rather in favour of silver, and to the depreciation of gold. The average ratio was 10.75, speaking very generally, and with every mental reservation as to its applicability at any particular time and place. An equally rough average for the preceding time (see Chapter I.) would give a ratio of 11.28, showing apparently a movement in favour of silver owing to the increased production of gold. The succeeding quarter of a century, 1521-45, covers the time from the conquest of Mexico to the commencement of the exploitation of the silver mines of Potosi. Looked at from the point of view of prices in Europe,--as evidenced most circumstantially in the _Plakkaats_ of the Netherlands, to which reference will be immediately made,--these years display stability--i.e. a steady maintaining of the advance gradually and already made between the years 1493 and 1520, and chronicled for us in the prices of 1521--rather than any further great and readily perceptible rise. For example in brief. In the Flemish _Plakkaats_ the French crown is quoted at an equivalent of 1 florin 15-1/2 stivers in 1499, and of 1 florin 19 stivers in 1522, when an attempt was made to reduce it to 1 florin 15-1/2 stivers again. From 1522 to 1548 no further advance, but retrogression rather is quoted thus:-- +-------+-----------------------------------+---------+-----------+ | Date. | | Florin. | Stivers. | |-------+-----------------------------------+---------+-----------| | 1519 | French Crown quoted at | 1 | 15-1/2 | | 1522 | " " | 1 | 19 | | 1526 | " " {(Real) | 1 | 19 | | | " " {(Attempted) | 1 | 15-1/2 | | 1539 | " " {(Real) | 1 | 17 | | | " " {(Attempted) | 1 | 15 | | 1548 | " " | 1 | 17 | | 1552 | " " | 1 | 19 | +-------+-----------------------------------+---------+-----------+ This general conclusion will be found quite invariably illustrated in the tables of Netherland coins (below). [Sidenote: CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PERIOD, 1493-1548] With regard to the annual average production of the metal, there is perceptible a slight movement towards the depreciation of silver or in favour of gold. This might naturally be expected to express itself in a somewhat higher ratio. But the differentiation is so slight as hardly thus to indicate itself, and certainly not consistently, so far as the ratio is capable of ascertainment. In France the ratio in { 1519 was 11.76 { 1540 " 11.82