Cerro Rico, looming over Potosí, was the source of most of the silver that financed the Spanish Empire
Potosí, one of those once-great cities no one has never heard of. How great? You’ve heard of the Spanish Empire, right, and how all that New World silver discovered in the 16th century financed, well, everything, right? It pretty much all came from Cerro Rico (Rich Hill) in Potosí. According to a history of the Silk Roads – the trade routes across Central Asia and the Near East I just happened to be reading before going to Potosí – the mine there accounted for more than half of all global silver production for more than 100 years. Think of that, for over a century most of the silver mined in the entire world came from one mine high in the Bolivian Andes. The author goes on to talk about the impact this Bolivian silver had on civilizations as far-flung as Spain, Italy, India, and China.
It probably goes without saying that the conditions for 16th and 17th century miners weren’t exactly up to today’s OSHA standards. Slaves, both indigenous and imported for Africa, were impressed into the mines, working six-month shifts where they never saw the light of day. Lonely Planet says it’s estimated that as many as eight million slaves died in the 280 years of colonial silver extraction.
Here I am inside Cerro Rico, near the end. Not all of the tour was this colorful and through lots of it you were walking through tunnels at most four feet high.
We toured the mine over a couple hours one day, which consisted of essentially walking through the mountain; there wasn’t nearly as much discussion of the history of the mine or the impact the mine had on the colonial experience, the Spanish Empire, and ultimately European history as I’d hoped. Still, it was striking to be walking in the very same mine that funded Spanish imperialism. You enter through the same entrance and walk some of the same passageways as those built in the mid-16th century. Today they still mine very modest amounts of silver, along with tin and … other stuff the tour guide told us about. The thought of staying in there for weeks on end was pretty overwhelming, and even today the conditions are abysmal. Potosí miners still have substantially lowered life expectations due primarily to the dust and various chemicals they inhale all day, every day.
A cute kid giving me a high five while parading in honor of Holy Week
A couple days in Potosí was just about all that was needed; a great if somewhat depressing taste of history. From here it’s on to Sucre, one of Bolivia’s capital cities.
We arrived to a parade of cute kids
Though not all the kids seemed quite as happy. Even his palm leaf is sad.
Mark & I with our guide Wilson, himself a former miner, after our tour of Cerro Rico. You definitely needed the hard hat and light and face mask and all that inside the mine.
Wilson & I high above the city, on the walk back to our bus
A great big German Shepherd on a balcony saw a smaller dog down below and really wanted down there
And finally, these tigers were all over central Potosí when we got in. We never figured out the significance of them, but they all seemed to like Mark.