From the mid-fifteenth century on, most of Europe had enjoyed steady economic growth, and the discovery of the New World seemed the basis of greater prosperity to come. By the middle of the sixteenth century, however, the situation changed. Nothing like the upward price trend that affected Western Europe in the second half of the sixteenth century had ever happened before. Since Europes population began to grow vastly and the food supply remained constant, food prices were driven sharply higher by the increased demand. At the same time, wages stagnated or even declined. On the other hand, the enormous influx of silver from Spanish America into Europe, where much of it was minted into coins, caused a dramatic increase in the volume of money in circulation. This, of course, fuelled the spiral of rising prices.