Jim Devine:
There is a lot of debate about the "transition from feudalism to capitalism" but I'd say that most of the literature nowadays rejects the idea that the shortage of gold before 1492 was driving feudalism into the ground. It's true it did motivate people -- like Columbus -- to seek out new supplies of gold, but it also encourage kings to water down the currency using lead and the like. And the price revolution that followed 1492 wasn't very important to real social relations in Europe.
I don't know about a "price revolution" but you can't have generalized capitalist property relations without money. The enormous inflow of silver and gold into Europe in the 16th and 17th century was a foundation for future capitalist development. You can't develop industry without banking and banking relied relied on silver and gold. I will get into this in more depth later on.
