Potosi

The Silver City That Changed the World

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Pub Date May 28 2019 | Archive Date Jul 30 2019

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Description

In 1545, a native Andean prospector hit pay dirt on a desolate red mountain in highland Bolivia. There followed the world's greatest silver bonanza, making the Cerro Rico or "Rich Hill" and the Imperial Villa of Potosí instant legends, famous from Istanbul to Beijing. The Cerro Rico alone provided over half of the world's silver for a century, and even in decline, it remained the single richest source on earth.
 
Potosí is the first interpretive history of the fabled mining city’s rise and fall. It tells the story of global economic transformation and the environmental and social impact of rampant colonial exploitation from Potosí’s startling emergence in the 16th century to its collapse in the 19th. Throughout, Kris Lane’s invigorating narrative offers rare details of this thriving city and its promise of prosperity. A new world of native workers, market women, African slaves, and other ordinary residents who lived alongside the elite merchants, refinery owners, wealthy widows, and crown officials, emerge in lively, riveting stories from the original sources. An engrossing depiction of excess and devastation, Potosí reveals the relentless human tradition in boom times and bust.

In 1545, a native Andean prospector hit pay dirt on a desolate red mountain in highland Bolivia. There followed the world's greatest silver bonanza, making the Cerro Rico or "Rich Hill" and the...


Advance Praise

“Potosí is the stuff of myth and the fuel of enormous global changes. With wonderful quotes and poetic, evocative language, Kris Lane's historical writing is outstanding.”—Steven Topik, editor of The Second Conquest of Latin America

“I can think of no person better suited to write this wondrous story.”—Tatiana Seijas, coauthor of Spanish Dollars and Sister Republics

“From the leading authority on mining, Potosí combines a strong narrative voice with deft use of primary sources to demystify how global flows of silver shaped world economic history.”—Zephyr Frank, author of Reading Rio de Janeiro

“When we think of mineral bonanzas, we think of the gold rushes of the 1800s in California, South Africa, and the Klondike. But arguably the discovery of a mountain full of silver at Potosí, in today’s Bolivia, centuries earlier, had far more impact on history. Kris Lane tells the full, fascinating story, from the mixture of churches, brothels, riches, and slavery in a 16th century boom town to Potosí’s reverberations throughout the Spanish Empire and the world.”—Adam Hochschild, author of Lessons from a Dark Time and Other Essays



“Potosí is the stuff of myth and the fuel of enormous global changes. With wonderful quotes and poetic, evocative language, Kris Lane's historical writing is outstanding.”—Steven Topik, editor of The...


Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9780520280847
PRICE $32.95 (USD)
PAGES 272

Average rating from 2 members


Featured Reviews

Once the Spanish realized the possibilities of the silver mining in Potosi in the 1540s, the city became the center of a rapidly globalizing world. Lane offers a long trajectory of the region and its influence, from the payroll of the Counter-reformation armies to the Atlantic slave trade, and the wild mix of peoples attracted to the riches. It is particularly interesting to see the town as a long-cycle boomtown, with all the features of a pirate haven criminal economy as well as the lavish baroque establishment of churches, palaces and concert halls bought by dynastic wealth.

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There is ton of history in Potosi, which (given its importance) I am surprised that I never heard of it previously. I skipped around, looking at exciting bits of its history through the centuries, and I will mention its influence on the ancient world economy to my students when we discuss economics.

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