 Vast amounts of silver were brought into the possession of the crowns of Europe after the conquest of the Americas from the now Mexican state of Zacatecas (discovered in 1546) and Potosí (Bolivia, also discovered in 1546), which triggered a period of inflation in Europe.Silver mining required large amounts of mercury to extract the metal from ore.In the Andes, the source was the Huancavelica mercury mine; Mexico was dependent on mercury from the Almadén mercury mine in Spain.