COLONIAL SILVER MINING

First finished lecture on race (2009).

I. Introduction

A. From plunder to encomienda to state-regulated economy
B. Importance of mining: silver lifeblood of economy (“trunk lines”)
C. Review Andrien on the mita, 52-53, 61-64

By what means did the Spanish Crown attempt to stimulate and control the production and export of silver?

II. Spanish Control of Economy

A. Mining

1. mercury monopoly
2. labor: forced drafts (Andes: "mita")
3. taxation: royal fifth

B. International Trade

1. Monopoly Merchant Guilds (Mexico City and Lima in America, Cadiz in Spain)
2. Controlled ports: Veracruz (New Spain) and Panama (Peru--after transfer to Pacific)
3. Royal Fleets

III. Silver Production

A. Processing

1. Smelting

a. application of heat
b. relatively low tech (both European and Indigenous)

2. Amalgamation

a. chemical process using mercury
b. more efficient, but requires more capital investment

B. Production Trends

1. 16th century: rapid growth

a. introduction of amalgamation and labor draft
b. 1520-1620: 181 tons of gold and 16,000 tons of silver shipped to Spain

2. 17th century: decline (especially Peru)

a. depletion of richest ores
b. shortages of mercury
c. declining labor supply
d. possible rise in contraband

3. 18th-century recovery (especially New Spain/Mexico)

a. discovery of new mines
b. improvements in technology
c. population (i.e. labor) increases (especially New Spain)

IV. Labor [finished on Nov. 12, 2009]

A. Peru: mita (forced labor draft), est. by Toledo c. 1570

1. Each year 1/7 adult male population: initially 13,500 workers/year
2. Work one week, 2 weeks off and earn small wage
3. Debt from journey, so you “voluntarily” worked other 2 weeks
4. Growing sector of skilled, wage laborers supplemented mita
5. Exploitation

a. communities: subsidizing mining
b. individual mineworkers

Film clip on child labor in present-day Potosi mines: "The Devil's Miner" (2005)

B. Resistance: How did resistance affect labor systems in mining?

1. Communities: sued and petitioned to reduce quota graduallyto 3000 by c. 1800
2. Individual: flight (forasteros)
3. Skilled wage workers: custom of mining on Sunday for their own profit (kajcheo): effective at cutting into profits of mineowners
4. Interaction of resistance strategies:

a. numbers in mita draft reduced
b. mita does not get abolished because it is a necessary subsidy given high cost of skilled labor

C. New Spain (Mexico)

1. Production spread among more mines
2. Earlier reliance on African slavery and wage labor supplement smaller forced drafts
3. Skilled workers demand share of ore
4. 18th-century: vagrancy laws to limit ability of workers to move from mine to mine

IV. Conclusions: thinking about resistance

ID Terms:

• Potosi
• royal fifth (quinto real)
• fleet system
• Veracruz
• Mexico City
• Panama
• Lima
• mita
• kajcheo
• forastero
• Viceroy Toledo
• partido
  

Questions:

By what means did the Spanish Crown attempt to stimulate and control the production and export of silver?

How did resistance affect labor systems in mining?

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Last updated November 12 , 2009
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