Price Revolution

The Price Revolution was a prolonged rise in prices across Europe from the late 15th to the mid-17th century, associated with population growth and increased supplies of silver.

Population growth: An increase in the number of people in a population over time. More people increased demand for food and other goods, contributing to rising prices.
Black Death: The 14th-century pandemic that killed a large share of Europe's population. Its demographic shock preceded the population recovery that increased demand.
Wage-price spiral: A feedback process in which rising wages and prices reinforce one another. Workers' attempts to keep pace with prices sometimes added pressure to costs.
Demand-pull inflation: A general rise in prices caused by aggregate demand growing faster than supply. Population growth raised demand, one proposed driver of the broader inflation.
Silver mining: The extraction of silver ore from underground or surface deposits. Expanded mining enlarged the supply of silver available to European economies.
Columbian exchange: The movement of organisms, people, goods, and diseases between the Americas and Afro-Eurasia after 1492. American colonization connected European economies to vast new silver deposits.
Real wages: Wages measured by the quantity of goods and services they can purchase. Prices often rose faster than earnings, reducing workers' purchasing power.
Cost-push inflation: A general rise in prices caused by increased production costs. It contrasts with explanations centered on money and demand, though both can affect prices.
Potosí: A major silver-mining city in the Andes, founded by Spanish colonists in 1545. Its rich deposits became a major source of silver reaching Europe.
Spanish colonization of the Americas: Spain's conquest and settlement of territories in the Americas beginning in the late 15th century. Colonial rule enabled large-scale extraction and shipment of American silver.

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