California mercury partly revitalized Potosí silver production.

Some were surprised to find a high proportion of free workers in the records.

Send us some details so we can start creating your tailor-made trip. Viceroy Toledo bestowed upon Potosí another institution worthy of mention: a royal mint.

The mine can be accessed through an elevator that takes visitors directly to various galleries where lead-silver, zinc-silver and tin are extracted. Offer subject to change without notice. Global industrial growth and abandonment of the silver standard in many countries after 1891 shifted interest from silver to tin, zinc, and other base metals, which Potosí’s Cerro Rico—and many other mining districts in Bolivia—possessed in abundance. Breathing mercury vapor was known to be highly hazardous at the time, and the proverbial saying for “scared to death” was “shaking like a victim of mercury poisoning” (temblando como un azogado). Taking a tour of one of the cooperative mines is still a good way to get a sense of the social price paid for the mineral wealth of the few. Relief came after 1848, when massive mercury deposits were discovered in California near San José just before the famous gold strike at Sutter’s Mill. From the start, taxes on Potosí silver helped bankroll the emperor’s many wars. The Potosí mita was not invented by Viceroy Francisco de Toledo, but he was responsible for formalizing and expanding it in the early 1570s. Seville, Spain: EEHA, 1949.Find this resource: López Beltran, Clara.

A visit to Potosi isn't complete without a visit to one of the cooperative mines. These generally reddish, oxidized ores near the surface, some containing over 40 percent silver, fueled Potosí’s initial bonanza. In 1776 Potosí’s new mint, the imposing, million-peso Casa Real de la Moneda, now one of Bolivia’s most famous museums, opened to great fanfare. It was a huge and revolutionary project, and it soon returned Potosí to great wealth. La Paz, Bolivia: Colección Popular, 1969.Find this resource: Cunietti-Ferrando, Arnaldo J. Historia de la Real Casa de Moneda de Potosí durante la dominación hispánica, 1573–1652. Portuguese ms. c.1620]); García de Llanos, Diccionario y maneras de hablar que se usan en las minas y sus labores en los ingenios y beneficios de los metales (1609) (La Paz: Banco Central de Bolivia, 1983); Juan Matienzo, Gobierno del Perú, edited by Guillermo Lohmann-Villena (Paris and Lima: IFEA, 1967); Fray Diego de Ocaña, Viaje por el Nuevo Mundo: de Guadalupe a Potosí, 1599–1605, edited by Blanca Lopez de Mariscal and Abraham Madroñal (Madrid: Iberoamericana, 2010); Enrique Otte, Cartas privadas de emigrantes a Indias, 1540–1616, 2d edition (Mexico City: FCE, 1996); Edmond Temple, Travels in Various Parts of Peru, including a Year’s Residence in Potosí, 2 volumes (Philadelphia: Carey & Hart, 1833); José María Vargas, Fr. Others would soon be uncovered and pursued deep underground. In early modern times silver and gold were the most widely accepted forms of money, and this meant that kingdoms, empires, and principalities from England to China all desired streams of precious metals, both to add glamour to their courts and to expand their realms through warfare. Lima: Instituto de Apoyo Agrario, 1989.Find this resource: González Casasnovas, Ignacio. Since the 1980s, scholars have shifted away from labor, gross production, and technical matters to focus on mining culture, urban development, women’s lives, and the environmental impacts of mining and refining.

Many mine and mill owners hoped for a miracle, but it soon became clear that the barrel-type amalgamation machines that Nordenflicht promoted, designed by the Austrian engineer Ignaz von Born, were difficult to build in Potosí, which lacked “high-spec” craftsmen, as well as trained engineers and high-quality steel. Bolívar climbed to the top of the Cerro Rico to declare this age of horror over.

He was fully representative of the “New Science” of the 17th century, and he cited the work of his contemporary, Galileo Galilei, on the moons of Jupiter. Even so, the Royal Mint continued to operate long into the republican period, its equipment updated with the arrival of railroads.

Primitive as this archaic, almost medieval system was, it worked. “Diego de Ocaña’s Hagiography of New and Renewed Devotion in Colonial Peru.” In Colonial Saints: Discovering the Holy in the Americas, 1500–1800, edited by Allan Greer and Jodi Bilinkoff, 51–75. Contribución a su investigación histórica. “Worth a Potosí” was a catchphrase when Miguel de Cervantes wrote his great two-part novel Don Quixote in the first years of the 17th century. Madrid: Cátedra, 2005.Find this resource: Robins, Nicholas A. Mercury, Mining, and Empire: The Human and Ecological Cost of Colonial Silver Mining in the Andes. See.

The world's largest underground iron ore mine. Native Andeans like Huallpa led the way. The demand for fuel and construction materials both above and underground led to deforestation even at great distances from the Cerro Rico.

Medina’s mercury-based refining process was adapted to the ores and conditions of Potosí in 1572, during the visit of Peru’s most famous viceroy, Francisco de Toledo. British attempts to introduce new technologies in this first round failed. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1994.Find this resource: Crespo Rodas, Alberto. It was a major offense to dodge quinto payments, particularly for large producers, but a significant percentage of silver clearly went untaxed. When British speculators arrived in Potosí with Bolivia’s independence in the early 1820s, indigenous mineworkers were still hand cutting ore, shouldering it in sacks, and sending it down the hill on the backs of llamas to a dozen or so water-powered stamp mills for trituration. Procesos identitarios y fronteras sociales en la America hispánica (siglos xvii–xviii), edited by Christian Büschges and Frederique Langue, 23–57. Vol. The main source of the Global Silver trade – Potosí In the 1540s, the first Spanish explorers described a “thumb of silver” sticking out from the Altiplano. Much taken by Enlightenment science, Spain’s Bourbon administrators organized a series of technical missions to the mines of the Americas in hopes of reviving them with the latest tools, theories, and technologies. The main Spanish interventions were two: (1) the introduction of iron and steel tools, which greatly facilitated ore extraction and crushing, and (2) the introduction of mercury amalgamation, a key refining method.

We will never know exactly how much silver Potosí produced, but we have a useful guide in the form of quinto records, which date to just after discovery. Many more adits were cut or attempted after Toledo left in 1575, but not all were carefully planned. Every weekday we compile our most wondrous stories and deliver them straight to you. Tour Parque Nacional Sajama y Rio Lauca, 2 días - 1 noche, Tour Parque Nacional Sajama, Día completo (12 horas), Todo Turismo Semi-Bed Bus Ticket La Paz - Uyuni, La Paz- Uyuni - La Paz Shared Tour by Bus, 1 Day, 2 Nights, La Paz - Uyuni - Sucre Statistics are less clear for the post-independence period, but the Cerro Rico of Potosí has proved to be one of the most long-lived of the world’s silver mining sites. Photographing Palm Springs: The Quirky & Surreal, Layer by Layer: A Mexico City Culinary Adventure, Members Only: Accidental Discoveries – In the Kitchen, The Hidden History of the Radical Suffragette Bodyguards, Inside One Man's Quest to Taste Every Fruit on Earth, The Segregated Campground That Was a Refuge for Black Travelers, 'Lovecraft Country' Is Haunted by the Ghosts of Real-Life Places, How Japanese Canadians Survived Internment and Dispossession, Meet the Artist Who Does Extreme Close-Ups of Utility Poles, Inside a Domed Pyramid With Astounding Acoustics and a History of Miracles, See the Mysterious Horned Helmet of Henry VIII, Searching for Home and Connection Through Typewritten Poetry, The Female Shark Spotter Protecting Réunion Island’s Surfers, Peek Inside NYC’s Iconic Rubber Stamp Shop, Torotoro National Park Dinosaur Footprints, Paseo Túnel Minería Durango (Durango Mining Tunnel Walk), http://www.lonelyplanet.com/bolivia/the-southwest/potosi/history, http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/devilsminer/mountain.html, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/oct/02/bolivia-potosi-mountain-silver-mining, http://www.npr.org/2012/09/25/161752820/bolivias-cerro-rico-the-mountain-that-eats-men. León, Spain: Cátedra de San Isidoro, 1970.Find this resource: Lohmann Villena, Guillermo. El Tio, meaning “the Uncle,” appears as a devilish creature, and his statues in the mines are given offerings of cigarettes, strong alcohol, and coca leaves. Family members accompanied mita workers in their long migrations, turning Potosí into one of the most populous cities in the world and certainly the largest in the Americas at over 120,000.

Ores produced by the indios varas were sorted by grade, carried down the mountain by either indigenous workers or llamas, and distributed to indigenous refiners. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2005.Find this resource: Mills, Kenneth. Also known as Cerro Rico (Spanish for “Rich Mountain”), the peak’s huge supply of silver has led to both immense riches and appalling suffering.



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