Maurice Mounsdon

Old habits die hard and Antonio scattered coca leaves at the site and also poured alcohol over Tio’s feet and hands. Dodoy. Most huayras burned llama dung and a type of heavy, high-altitude moss called yareta. This article examines the long history of Potosí, Bolivia, home of the world’s most productive silver mines. Little has changed since colonial times. Whilst I had initially thought the dressing up was purely for the benefit of tourist photos, it turns out I wasn’t quite correct. Madrid: CSIC, 2000.Find this resource: Hanke, Lewis. Surprisingly, the miners were very jolly and greeted us with enthusiasm. Toledo ordered thousands of native workers to construct dams in the neighboring Kari-Kari mountains to supply water for dozens of new mills, or ingenios. I also think, that if you are going to tour the mine, it is hugely important to go with a responsible provider. We drove up to Cerro Rico which is where the Potosí silver mines are located. However, this isn’t to say that these things don’t happen.

Even so, the Royal Mint continued to operate long into the republican period, its equipment updated with the arrival of railroads. All Rights Reserved. Yanaconas were mostly men unattached to their home villages, and many served as personal servants to Europeans. I felt much more like an invited guest. Nothing happens, but if you’re asking for protection I’m not sure whether playing with alcohol and fire in a mine is a good idea. “Registered Silver Production in the Potosí District, 1550–1735.” Jahrbuch fur Geschichte von Staat, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft Lateinamerikas 12 (1975): 67–103.Find this resource: Bakewell, Peter J. 2d ed. . On the Bolivian Altiplano, at more than 4000 meters above sea level, lies South America's most elevated town. Antonio explained that although working in the mines is not a hugely desirable job, it pays very well compared to other options in and around Potosí. It took nearly a decade to restore confidence in Potosí coinage, and the disruption caused by the mint fraud and its aftermath was seen as the death knell for the Imperial Villa. These were made possible with the construction of rail lines, which linked mining towns of the Andean highlands like Oruro and Potosí to the Pacific coast. There was the Centeno Vein, the Vein of the Flemings, the Tin Vein, La Veta Rica, and the Vein of Mendieta. Potosí’s underground innovations included the cutting of horizontal tunnels or adits (in Spanish, socavones) to drain and provide easier access to steeply inclined vein systems. Reports of raw ingots being smuggled to Buenos Aires or the Pacific coast were common throughout colonial times. Africans, especially women, worked in almost every Potosí household of note by 1600; even rich artisans and some indigenous chieftains owned slaves purchased with silver. As well as the fee from the entrance ticket directly benefiting injured miners, a significant percentage of the proceeds from Antonio’s tours are also flushed directly back into the mine. I was pleased to find out that all of the proceeds from the cost of the tickets, essentially act as insurance in case of an accident.

Antonio announced that our first stop would be at a storehouse to get kitted out with the proper equipment for our adventure.
For many mine owners and asogueros the mita turned into a cash subsidy, a disincentive to mine and refine silver. Farther out from the core, where temperatures were lower, silver, zinc, lead, iron, copper, and other metals precipitated in various combinations, along with quartz, calcite, and other non-metals.

It was an experience for sure. Owing to the dangerous powders that the miners breathe in every day, they also suffer long-term effects from their job. Pendant 300 ans, Potosi fût un fournisseur primordial pour les colons espagnols, d´argent, qui servait à payer leurs dettes de guerre. Native Andeans like Huallpa led the way.

La política de repartimientos para la minería de Potosí (1680–1732). Miners dug shafts in pursuit of steeply inclined veins, which eventually yielded only dark-grey, harder ores of lower grade, many of them containing refractory sulfur compounds. Llamas are typically slaughtered and their blood used to paint the mine threshold, ore carts, and other mining equipment. The mines, discovered in 1545 and still active today, are discussed in terms of their geology, discovery, productivity, labor history, and technological development.

US-Mining … The red mountain, now known as Cerro Rico, sits nestled between the Porco and Sucre mines, which had previously been discovered, being at lower altitudes and therefore easier to mine.
The tourists are appreciated because they bring along presents such as cigarettes, coca leaves, and sticks of dynamite bought at the miner's market before entering the mines. For centuries, it condensed and settled over large parts of the city of Potosí and its environs, fouling soils, food, clothing, cooking gear, and practically everything else. Antonio poured some of the 98% alcohol he had bought, at the entrance to the mine. There is no question that the Cerro Rico alone provided a considerable boost to the world’s currency supply. As we neared the end of our time inside the mine, one of the other travellers in our group asked how many accidents happened inside. After meeting with Antonio in person, it wasn’t long before Tim and I embarked on a mine tour.

The priest Alvaro Alonso Barba worked for many years in the early 1600s developing new refining processes for the ores of the Cerro Rico as well as for silver ores produced in dozens of more distant mining zones in the city’s hinterland. The mines are dark and cramped. Madrid: Casa de Velázquez, 1993.Find this resource: Kindleberger, Charles P. Spenders and Hoarders: The World Distribution of Spanish American Silver, 1550–1750. Required fields are marked *. 1, Ponencias del VI Congreso Internacional de Minería. There are no safety laws within the mines and accidents and deaths happen frequently: dynamite going off at the wrong time, falls from great heights. Dans les mines, on descend dans un petit train, entassés comme les mineurs, par une voie étroite. At the same time it’s incredible to see these men at work and what they go through every single day. Shortly the city of Potosí appeared, one of the world’s highest at over 13,200 feet (4060m) above sea level. | Donor Privacy Policy | EIN: 23-7182593, Cultural Survival E-Newsletter - News and Updates, Information on conferences, meetings and global events pertaining to Indigenous Peoples, Learn about Cultural Survival's response to Covid-19. Our first stop is at the miner’s market to buy gifts for the mine workers. Zaragoza, Spain: Delegación de Distrito de Educación Nacional, 1950.Find this resource: Barnadas, Josep M. “Una polémica colonial: Potosí, 1579–1684.” Jarbuch fur Geschichte von Staat, Wirtschaft un Gessellschaft Lateinamerikas 10 (1973): 16–70.Find this resource: Brading, David, and Harry Cross.

He introduced him as Tio. New York: Routledge, 2003.Find this resource: Mumford, Jeremy Ravi. Some mineworkers nevertheless developed great skill in drilling and placing charges, and they soon commanded higher than average wages.

Mexico City: Editorial Nueva Imagen, 1983.Find this resource: Bakewell, Peter J. Pumping flooded mines was a never-ending chore, which led to the cutting of horizontal drainage tunnels as early as 1556.

Today tin, zinc, lead, and silver are the main types of ore mined at Cerro Rico. Potosí, predtým známe tiež ako Villa Imperial de Potosí, je mesto na juhu Bolívie, hlavné mesto rovnomenného departementu a provincie Tomás Frías.Rozkladá sa na úbočí povesťami opradenej hory Cerro Rico (špa. Primitive as this archaic, almost medieval system was, it worked. Just one year ago, someone accidentally blew themselves up and had to be recovered in pieces. © 2018 Cultural Survival. Excursion dans les mines de Potosi : Notre guide est excellent, nous comprenons tout ce qu'il dit tellement son élocution est bonne, on a l'impression d'être excellents en Espagnol ! They then insert a stick of dynamite, blow out a piece of rock, and have their assistants -- young boys, many of them not yet in their teens -- carry the debris out of the mine in a wheelbarrow. Potosí’s powerful mill owners, known as asogueros, nevertheless clung to their crown-mandated mita allotments, demanding cash payment in lieu of labor service. The mineworker also has to cover the costs of his equipment -- tools, acetylene lamps, dynamite, and the coca leaves that react with saliva and calcium carbonate to produce the strong, pain- and hunger-killing stimulant essential to mastering the sometimes 72-hour work shifts. Les indiens aymara supportaient mieux que les africains, qui mourraient par dizaines et ne supportaient pas l´altitude.

Collapsing tunnels are very common and explosions also go wrong with alarming frequency. 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).

He said this was for Pachamama, to ask for our safe passage. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Your Privacy Controls. Founded in 1575, the Casa Real de la Moneda began coining silver on a small scale, relying on a mix of drafted indigenous and enslaved African workers. Potosi, MO mines, mine companies, mine owners and mine information. By the time Simón Bolívar reached Potosí in 1825, the Potosí mita was seen as the single most potent symbol of more than two-and-a-half centuries of Spanish oppression.

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