Colonial Silver Mining: Mexico and Peru

C OLONIAL SILVER MINING began when European techniques of production were introduced into the New World to satisfy the sustained European demand for precious metals. At first the industry formed little more than an overseas extension of the great central European mining boom of the years 1451-1540. Certainly it was then that an association of high capital investment with a remarkable range of technical innovation succeeded in pushing German silver production to unparalleled heights. Problems of drainage were solved by cutting adits several miles long beneath the lode, or by the installation of great water wheels and whims moved by teams of up to a hundred horses. As early as 1451 the invention of lead smelting facilitated the separation of silver from the copper compounds with which it was usually found. The construction of stamp mills, impelled by either water power or horses, completed the circle of improvements.' The publication of G. Agricola's De re metallica (1556), a lavishly illustrated work, hastened the diffusion of practical knowledge.2 Despite these obvious technical debts, colonial silver mining soon acquired a structure of production radically distinct from its Old World predecessor. The difference in scale was striking. Although when at its peak in the decade 1526-35 the European industry cut 350,000 marks (of 832 ounces) a year, by the close of the century its output had fallen to loo,ooo marks, a mere tenth of the American bullion imports then registered at Seville. Equally important, as early