Thank you for downloading this episode of a history of the world in 100 objects from BBC Radio 4.
Money, advertisers assure us, will let us buy our dreams.
But some money, and especially coins, are already the stuff of dreams
with names that ring to the magic of history and legend:
ducats and florins, groats, guineas, sovereigns.
But none of them can compare with the most famous coins of all time.
Familiar in books and films from Treasure Island to the Pirates of the Caribbean,
they carry with them a freight of associations.
"Pirates! Captain Flint! Pirates! Pieces of eight! Pieces of eight!"
But it's not just thanks to Long John Silver's parrot
that pieces of eight are the supreme celebrities among world currencies.
For the peso de ocho reales, the Spanish piece of eight, was the first truly global money.
It was produced in huge quantities, and within 25 years of its first minting in the 1570s,
it had spread across Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas,
establishing a global dominance that it was to maintain well into the 19th century.
Before the discovery of the vast deposits of silver in the New World,
there really was very little silver and gold to use as a medium of exchange.
This silver was not allowed to the Indians.
A big part of this silver was sent to Spain, and from Spain went to many parts of Europe.
A history of the world in 100 objects.