Value in Mexico, the Chinese bid for the Walkie Talkie and did Dar Es Salaam confuse dollars and shillings?

After a week in the Yucatan contending with Tropical Storm Dom dumping vast amounts of water across the landscape you’re reminded of what a huge journey it must have been half a millennium ago when Cortes and his band of a few hundred Spanish mercenaries landed at close to present day Cancun. Within a generation the Aztec empire had been dismantled, New Spain established and the Spanish had discovered awesome seams of silver that even today account for 20% of global silver production and the Bailleres family who through the course of the 20th century took control of the Penoles deposits, better known in the UK as FRESNILLO, became along with Carlos Slim and others among the wealthiest families in Mexico.