The first global city: High in the Andes, Potosí supplied the world with silver [tr]

Aeon ^ | July 30, 2019 | Adam W

[C19fan]

In 1678, a Chaldean priest from Baghdad reached the Imperial Villa of Potosí, the world’s richest silver-mining camp and at the time the world’s highest city at more than 4,000 metres (13,100 feet) above sea level. A regional capital in the heart of the Bolivian Andes, Potosí remains – more than three and a half centuries later – a mining city today. Its baroque church towers stand watch as ore trucks rumble into town, hauling zinc and lead ores for export to Asia.

Elias al-Mûsili – or Don Elias of Mosul, as he was known – arrived in 17th-century Potosí with permission from Spain’s Queen Regent, Mariana of Austria, to collect alms for his embattled church. Potosí silver, Don Elias believed, would stave off the Sunni Ottomans and Shiite Safavids who battled for control of Iraq, periodically blasting Baghdad to smithereens with newly scaled-up gunpowder weapons. Just as worrisome to Don Elias were fellow Christians, schismatics with no ties to Rome.

[C19fan]

The Cerro Rico mountain might have been the richest mine in human history. The silver mined there fueled the Spanish Empire and had global impact. About 25% of the silver was shipped to China to purchase silks and porcelain. The importation of silver into Europe lead to inflation throughout the 15th/16th centuries. That silver besides leading to the development of the mining town Potosi lead to the development of Lima, Acapulco and Manila. Potosi at its heights might have been the richest city in the world. There was a price to be paid. Natives were "drafted" to work in the mines leading to tens of thousands of deaths from work conditions and exposure to mercury used to extract the silver from the ore.

[aspasia]

It’s curious that history textbooks always mention the gold rush. in looking at the periodic table of elements, I noticed there is an associated rush for each one of the elements. Lithium being a recent one. Anyhow, back to silver.

[Paladin2]

[PeterPrinciple]

It took more than a decade to hunt down and punish the great Potosí mint fraud’s culprits and to restore the coinage to proper weight and purity. A new design debuted to signal the new coins, but winning back global trust in Potosí silver took decades. Into the 1670s, even as Don Elias took donations in exchange for sermons in Syriac, Sumatran pepper-growers balked at coins stamped with a ‘P’.

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They debased the coins. what goes around, comes around.

[Freedom4US]

I wonder how the Comstock Lode and other silver-rich mines of Nevada compare to Potosi? It was a huge strike. They were actually looking for gold around Mt. Davidson. This thick, heavy blue mud, almost like a putty, was clogging everything up. Somebody finally came along who had at least some geology training and quietly bought up all the “worthless” gold claims. The blue mud assayed at better than 75% pure silver.

Comstock himself traded his 1/6 share of the mine for an old blind mule and a bottle of whiskey. Oops.

It was basically a mountain of silver. So much, it interfered heavily in American politics. Rural agrarian interests (And Nevada, natch) favored minting large numbers of silver dollars, and the large banks in the east favored adherence to the gold specie, and didn’t want to lend gold and get paid back in depreciated dollars.

This was kind of the impetus behind William Bryan’s “Cross of Gold” speech during his presidential campaign.

[C19fan]

Based on some information I found the Comstock Lode produced at today’s prices almost $500 MM worth of silver. Potosi produced 40,000 tons of silver = 1.28 billion ounces valued at today’s prices a little over $20 billion.

[DUMBGRUNT]

A nice find!
Thanks

[Freedom4US]

Wow, Potosi was huge. That’s about what I found in a cursory search. Comstock produced produced $50,000,000 dollars worth, smelted and minted out of the ore. Close to $800,000,000 at today’s silver price. Potosi dwarfed Comstock, if figures are correct. Thanks for the info.

http://www.insidemydesk.com/comstockmss/ComDd.pdf

[SunkenCiv]

This topic was posted 8/1/2019, thanks C19fan.