Abstract

"Hard Liquid, Watered Down: A Case of Criminal Currency Debasement in the Seventeenth Century"

Kris Lane, Tulane University (klane1@tulane.edu)

This paper uses the case of the great Potosí (Bolivia) mint fraud of the 1640s to speak to the broader phenomenon of debasement in the early modern era, particularly in the 'crisis-ridden' seventeenth century. It also touches on preferred or entangled metaphors.