Silver ore is registered at the Cerro Rico of Potosí
node
Ore of extraordinary richness was registered on the mountain above what became Potosí, in the high Andes of what is now Bolivia. Early workings used indigenous smelting technology and exploited the richest surface ore; the industrial phase came a generation later with mercury amalgamation. Potosí became the single largest source of silver in the world and the origin point of a bullion flow that reached Seville, Amsterdam, Istanbul and Canton.
A node is not a place. Drawing it on a map would assert something about the world that no stored fact supports.
Read in · 1
Timeline
No dated observations are stored for this object. Atlas shows what was observed and when — it does not infer a history.
Assembled narrative · 1
Assembled from 27 blocks · 1 evidence · 32 related
- Story
- Ore of extraordinary richness was registered on the mountain above what became Potosí, in the high Andes of what is now Bolivia. Early workings used indigenous smelting technology and exploited the richest surface ore; the industrial phase came a generation later with mercury amalgamation. Potosí became the single largest source of silver in the world and the origin point of a bullion flow that reached Seville, Amsterdam, Istanbul and Canton.
- Knowledge
- Silver
- Potosí
- Silver ore is registered at the Cerro Rico of Potosí
- Connections
- Potosí
- Silver
- Silver
- Silver ore is registered at the Cerro Rico of Potosí
- Mercury amalgamation and the mita transform Potosí
- Tea
- The Columbian Exchange
- Manila
- Canton (historical) — modern Guangzhou
- Opium
- Qing trade confined to Canton
- Commutation Act cuts British tea duty
- The Opium Wars
- Treaty of Nanking
- Potosí
- Silver ore is registered at the Cerro Rico of Potosí
- Manila is founded as the eastern terminus
- Mercury amalgamation and the mita transform Potosí
- Evidence
- The standard study of the labour system at Potosí, including the mita draft, wage labour and the organisation of mining and refining after the introduction of mercury amalgamation. V55 verification basis: NOT consulted in this session. Cited for the structure of the labour system; no population, output or mortality figure is asserted from it in this pack because none could be checked.
Observed changes · 0
No public Signals are attached to this object. Signals show what changed and when it was observed — never a direction or a rank.
Actions
/atlas?object=EVT_POTOSI_ORE_REGISTERED_1545&experience=EVT_POTOSI_ORE_REGISTERED_1545