Massive silver imports from Potosí and Zacatecas flooded European markets, causing sustained inflation that eroded fixed incomes and redistributed wealth from creditors to debtors. This monetary shock disrupted traditional social hierarchies as landed aristocrats saw real incomes decline while merchants and entrepreneurs profited from rising nominal prices. The experience of unpredictable value fluctuations generated widespread anxiety about economic stability and moral order.

Golden Age Spanish poets like Quevedo satirized monetary corruption and social inversion caused by American silver, linking economic decay to moral degeneration in baroque conceits. Shakespeare's Timon of Athens explores the corrosive effects of money on friendship and loyalty against this backdrop of monetary uncertainty. Inflation anxiety permeated metaphysical poetry's preoccupation with unstable values and deceptive appearances.