Quicksilver Reading CompanionIsaac Newton and Daniel Waterhouse walk along the River Cam toward the Stourbridge Fair in 1665, discussing mathematics and currency with a local trader.
“Meaning the Aristotelian approach, in which such easy mixing of things with obviously different natures would be abhorrent.” — Aristotelianism was the traditional scholastic philosophy that categorized the world into distinct “essences.” The Scientific Revolution replaced this with universal mathematical laws that applied to all matter regardless of its “nature.”
“You have French coins—the louis d’or?” — Named after Louis XIV, the “Sun King,” the gold louis d’or was a symbol of French economic and political dominance in the 17th century.
“You intend to compensate me, then, with what—Joachimsthalers?” — A Thaler was a large silver coin used throughout Europe for centuries. The name “Joachimsthaler” comes from the silver mines in Joachimsthal; the modern word “dollar” is a linguistic descendant of “thaler.”
“unbelievable shabbiness of English coinage” — English silver coins were often “clipped” (shaved at the edges) or counterfeited, leading to a currency crisis that Newton would eventually help solve decades later during The Great Recoinage of 1696.
“you pulled out your black money” — Black Money refers to copper or highly debased silver coins that turned black as they oxidized, as opposed to “white money” or high-purity silver.
“Interregnum coins demonetized these last three years” — The Interregnum was the period between 1649 and 1660 when England was a republic; after the monarchy was restored, the new government moved to invalidate the currency issued by the Commonwealth.
“gold that the Duke of York’s company is taking out of Africa” — The Royal African Company was a mercantile company set up by the Stuart family to trade along the west coast of Africa, heavily involved in both the gold and slave trades.
“Duke of York” — The brother of Charles II and Lord High Admiral, he would later reign as James II before being deposed in the Glorious Revolution of 1688.
“the King brought with him a French savant, Monsieur Blondeau… built a machine that mills delicate ridges” — Peter Blondeau was a French moneyer who introduced mechanized “milled” coinage to England, which added grained edges to coins to prevent people from clipping silver off the sides.
“shilling from the reign of Edward VI… issued during the Great Debasement” — The Great Debasement (1544–1551) was a period where the English crown significantly reduced the silver content of coins to fund wars, leading to massive inflation.
“before Sir Thomas Gresham could get matters in hand” — Thomas Gresham was an English financier who worked to restore the value of English currency; he is the namesake of “Gresham’s Law,” the principle that “bad money drives out good.”
“wealth confiscated from the Papist monasteries” — The Dissolution of the Monasteries (1536–1541) was the process by which Henry VIII disbanded Catholic monasteries and appropriated their vast lands and treasures for the Crown.
“cheap silver from the mines of New Spain” — The Spanish Silver Trade involved a massive influx of silver from the Americas (specifically Potosí and Mexico) into Europe, which caused a long-term inflationary period known as the Price Revolution.
“my half brother found lying on the ground at the Battle of Naseby” — The Battle of Naseby was the decisive 1645 conflict of the English Civil War where the Parliamentarian New Model Army effectively destroyed the main Royalist forces.
“the Tower of London where new coins are minted” — The Royal Mint, the institution responsible for producing all English currency, was physically housed within the fortress of the Tower of London during this era.
“The victim appeared, now, to be trying to get his breeches off… force of the swelling thighs burst them” — The description of sudden illness and painful swelling (buboes) in the groin is a hallmark of the Bubonic Plague, which devastated London and surrounding areas in 1665.
“The generative spirit lives on—transmuting dead flesh into something else—just as maggots are generated out of meat” — Spontaneous Generation was the pre-modern scientific theory that living organisms could arise from non-living matter, a concept Newton and his contemporaries were still investigating.
Original annotations by: sinder, bornstein