Page 24 - Chinese SIlver By Adrien Von Ferscht

directly to the Spanish Crown. Hydraulic technology was introduced to mining and an on-
site mint was established at Potosi to create silver coinage and ingot bars.

The reality of the regime imposed upon the Indians was completely uncaring and brutal.
The greed-driven Spanish stance could be likened to a full-scale rape and plunder of the
food and mineral capabilities the country presented.

Firstly, Potosi must be taken in the context of it being situated some 4100 metres above
sea level - it was to become the highest city in the world. Potosi was also unequivocally
expropriated by the Spanish Crown and the population forced to work it. In an account
written by José de Acosta, a Jesuit, in 1569 he wrote “ Indians labour in these mines in
continual darkness and obscurity, without knowledge of day or night. And forasmuch as
those places are never visited with the sun, there is not only a continual darkness, but also
an extreme cold, with so foul an air contrary to the disposition of man, that such as newly
enter are as they are at sea.” He then deliberates on the process of separating the silver
from the lethal quicksilver [mercury]: “When the melting is finished, they unstop the pots
and draw forth the metal, sometimes staying until it be very cold, for if there remained any
fume or vapour, which should encounter them that unstopped the pots, they were in
danger of death, or to be benumbed of least to loose their teeth, their limbs, or fat.”

If this wasn’t perilous enough, the ore was first carried out of the interior of the mine by
carrying loads in the region of 11 kilograms physically on human backs up a series of
vertical ladders in the pitch dark of the shafts. José de Acosta concludes with an appeal to
the Spanish Emperor “Your Majesty should know: where do the mine owners get the
means to dress up all in silk and gold and silver, other than from the labor of the poor
Indians and from what they steal from Your Majesty? Therefore, it would be good that
these mine owners be inspected every six months and audited…”

A 16th century woodcut of Potosi Hill [Cerro de Potosi], aka Rich Hill [Cerro Rico]