4 Escudos – Chile

In 1763, the currency situation in the Kingdom of Chile, a part of the Spanish Empire, was characterized by severe scarcity and administrative confusion. The local economy operated primarily on a system of moneda macuquina—crude, irregularly cut silver coins minted in Peru and Bolivia (Upper Peru). These coins, often clipped or debased, circulated alongside a limited supply of official Spanish currency, but their inconsistent weight and purity caused significant problems in trade and taxation. The Spanish Crown’s mercantilist policies, which aimed to extract precious metals and restrict trade to the mother country, stifled commercial exchange and exacerbated the coin shortage, leaving the colony chronically under-monetized.

This scarcity was compounded by Chile’s geographic isolation and its economic role as a supplier of agricultural goods and copper to the Viceroyalty of Peru. Much of the silver that did enter Chile quickly flowed out to pay for imported manufactured goods from Peru and Spain, creating a persistent drain of hard currency. To facilitate local transactions, people often resorted to barter or used goods like wheat and tallow as de facto currency. Furthermore, the Spanish administration’s attempts to regulate currency values and purity were frequently ignored or adapted locally, leading to a disjointed system where the official peso existed more as an accounting unit than a physical reality in daily commerce.

The year 1763 falls within the broader Bourbon Reforms period, a series of administrative and economic changes enacted by the Spanish Crown to reassert control and increase revenue from its colonies. While these reforms would later intensify, in 1763 their direct impact on Chile’s currency was still limited. The situation remained one of endemic shortage and improvisation, laying bare the challenges of integrating a peripheral colony into the imperial economic system. This unstable monetary environment would persist until more decisive reforms and the eventual establishment of a local mint in the following decades.