Potosi: The Silver City That Changed the World"For anyone who wants to learn about the rise and decline of Potosí as a city . . . Lane's book is the ideal place to begin."—New York Review of Books In 1545, a native Andean prospector hit pay dirt on a desolate red mountain in highland Bolivia. There followed the world’s greatest silver bonanza, making the Cerro Rico, or “Rich Hill,” and the Imperial Villa of Potosí instant legends, famous from Istanbul to Beijing. The Cerro Rico alone provided over half of the world’s silver for a century, and even in decline, it remained the single richest source on Earth. Potosí is the first interpretive history of the fabled mining city’s rise and fall. From Potosí’s startling emergence in the sixteenth century to its collapse in the nineteenth, Kris Lane tells the story of global economic transformation and the environmental and social impact of rampant colonial exploitation. Lane’s invigorating narrative offers rare details of this thriving city and its promise of prosperity. A new world—native workers, market women, African slaves, and other ordinary residents living alongside elite merchants, refinery owners, wealthy widows, and crown officials—emerges in lively, riveting stories from the original sources. An engrossing depiction of excess and devastation, Potosí reveals the relentless human tradition in boom times and bust. |
Contents
| 8 | |
| 10 | |
| 12 | |
Chinese world map by Matteo Ricci and Li Zhizou ca 1602 | 16 |
Bonanza | 20 |
Geological crosssection of the Cerro Rico de Potosí | 25 |
Interior mine scene Theodor de Bry America Part IX 1601 | 33 |
Cerro Rico with idealized mines and drainage adit after Bakewell | 35 |
Viceroy Francisco de Toledo Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala ca 1615 | 70 |
Cerro Rico and silver refinery ca 1603 | 80 |
Potosís registered silver output vs coin mintage in pesos ca 15701810 | 86 |
Miracle of the Mill Stamps ca 1603 Alonso Ramos Gavilán Historia del Célebre Santuario de Nuestra Señora de Copacabana | 97 |
Spanish playing cards Seville 1647 | 110 |
Secret Judgments of God | 117 |
Potosí ca 1630 Francisco López de Caravantes | 118 |
From Revival to Revolution | 158 |
Age of Wind Age of Iron | 46 |
Estos yndios estan guayrando ca 1603 | 47 |
Coca vendor Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala ca 1615 | 62 |
The Viceroys Great Machine | 67 |
La Villa Rica Enperial de Potocchi Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala ca 1615 | 68 |
Potosí since Independence | 186 |
Glossary | 203 |
Bibliographical Essay | 229 |