MONEY, MONEY, MONEY AND THE PIECE OF EIGHT

The Spanish Real de a ocho, known in the English-speaking world as a piece of eight  was, and is, also known as the peso, which according to moneymuseum.com was “…one of the most important trade coins of all times – if not the most important ever.”

For over three centuries the peso was the dominating international trade currency in the New World and also in Europe and Asia: a true global currency. The peso was produced in Spain to be used mostly in America, where it was heavily minted in Mexico and Peru. World trade flourished based on this silver coin: 8 reales equaled one silver peso. By the 18^th century it had become a world currency, accepted and used by most countries. The United States dollar was initially based on the piece of eight, the peso, although its name was taken from the German Thaler.

This silver coin, the peso, had several names in the English-speaking world: piece of eight, Spanish dollar, Mexican dollar and eight-real coin. After the currency reform of 1497, it was set up for use as legal tender in the Spanish Empire and gave rise to its being used by many countries and some –the United States, later- countersigned the peso and employed it as local currency. The piece of eight, the peso, was the currency that made the world go round… the world go round… for several centuries.      

Millions of Spanish dollars, piezas de a ocho, were minted and circulated extensively in the Americas and Asia. And yet the great and powerful Spanish Empire was bankrupt by 1598 or about a hundred years after the discovery of America and its riches. The colonies thrived and the metropolis became poor, especially Castile.   

But what happened after the independence of the American colonies from Spain? Did the peso disappear? We know it did not and to this day the peso as a currency unit is very much alive and even kicking, in seven American and one Asian countries: Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Philippines and Uruguay.

Heroes who name new Latin American currencies:

Other Latin American nations changed the name of the currency in order to honor national heroes; to wit:

Bolivia changed the peso in 1864 for the Boliviano. Costa Rica in 1896 honored Christopher Columbus and renamed the monetary unit to colón. Ecuador paid tribute to Antonio José de Sucre y Alcalá in 1884 and replaced the peso for el sucre as legal tender. In 1892 El Salvador also honored the discoverer of the continent with a new currency, the colón. Guatemala paid homage to the national bird of the country, changing the peso guatemalteco for the quetzal in 1925. Honduras paid homage to Lempira, a chieftain who offered resistance to the Spaniards by changing the peso to el lempira, in 1931. Francisco Hernández de Córdoba, founder of Nicaragua, named the country’s currency el córdoba in 1912. El guaraní is the way the peso is called in Paraguay since 1943, for obvious reasons. Perú decided on el sol in 1863, renaming it nuevo sol later. Venezuela opted for el bolívar after Simón Bolívar, El Libertador.         

Long before the dollar was minted, the Hispanic Peso, the piece of eight, reigned supreme in world economy. But, alas, that was a while ago and things are different now.