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Juan de la Morada, had fought with Pizarro. The son of a Conquistador was as good as any son of a womanish old conde who had stayed behind in Spain.
    The Alcalde de la Morada allowed himself a sad smirk. That Basque Tovar had willingly sent his daughter, Beatriz, to the convent. Put her in that prison on purpose. It was an oddly comforting thought: that his chief rival’s only child was with his and that Tovar also was without the bright eyes and animated conversation of his daughter at his dinner table.
    If the proclamation Morada was about to read delivered the hardships it threatened, his great consolation would be that it would harm his enemies as much as it harmed him. More, since his own wealth was in pure silver ingots and very well hidden. Seven million pesos. A huge fortune. He had sent a train of Indian porters into the country every night for the past month. Everyone suspected they carried silver, but no one knew where they went. Only his most trusted supporters—men he owned body and soul—knew where his fortune lay.
    Felipe Ramirez, the Assayer of the Mint, touched Morada’s arm. “It is time,” he said. Ramirez was short and stout, but no one would be better at one’s side in a fierce fight.
    Morada straightened his cloak and carefully folded back theright side to reveal the golden silk of its lining and the gold-and-silver embroidery of his doublet. The work had been done in Genoa and the garment tailored to his measurements in Lima by the Viceroy’s own tailor.
    “I am ready,” he said. He followed Ramirez to the door. He paused until the crowd in the plaza focused completely on him. Then he took up the proclamation that had arrived from Lima yesterday and stepped out on the breezy balcony.
    He held the parchment aloft and then read: “By the hand of Don García Sarmiento y Sotomayor, Count of Salvatierra, sixteenth Viceroy of Perú. His most Gracious and Roman Catholic Majesty Felipe the Fourth sends greetings to his subjects in the city we are pleased to call our Villa Imperial of Potosí. Know ye that for some time we have had the wish and determination to settle many matters of disturbance to our city, by reason of its great importance to the service of God and the increase of our Holy Catholic faith and to the welfare of all our subjects, especially those resident there in the Villa Imperial. False coins, coins of alloy, yet stamped with the royal seal and minted in Potosí, are abroad in the world. This is an affront to the Royal Person of the King as well as a threat to the holy work of His Majesty in defending our Holy Faith. His Royal Majesty has therefore appointed Doctor Francisco de Nestares, President of the Charcas, as Visitador General, to exhaust all means which may appear conducive to find and prosecute the bandits with no respect for God or royal justice, to ensure the peace and tranquillity of the Villa Imperial, and to prevent interference with the King’s revenues.
    “Visitador Nestares will immediately begin to inform himself in minute detail what aspects of the silver industry are not being carried out in conformity with royal orders, and in all that he finds make correction, giving rules and instructions by which the mining and refining and minting of silver are in the future to be governed, to that end, without injury to the silver industry,the correction of all abuses which may have grown up in its management. The King has deemed it convenient to his royal service that Visitador Nestares shall arrive in Potosí no later than the Monday following Easter in the year of Our Lord 1650. I, the King.”
    The crowd stood in stunned silence for a few heartbeats and then erupted in a hundred exclamations. “Can it be true, then, that our money is false?” “It is what the Portuguese from Brazil have been saying.” “Oh, dear Lord, we will be ruined.” “So soon?” “Monday?” “That’s only four days from now.” “Why did we not have more warning?” “How can he