Discovery of Potosí Silver Mines
In April 1545 a Quechua herder named Diego Huallpa discovered the silver mountain of Cerro Rico at Potosí in present-day Bolivia, setting off a rush that transformed world economics. By the 1570s Potosí was one of the largest cities in the world, with some 160,000 inhabitants and an industrial-scale silver extraction operation using the mercury amalgamation process introduced by Viceroy Toledo. Over two centuries Potosí produced perhaps half of the world's silver supply, financing the Spanish Habsburg war machine and fuelling the 'Price Revolution' that reshaped European economies. The mita forced labour system drove hundreds of thousands of indigenous men to work in conditions of extreme mortality.
- Year: 1545 CE
- Category: Economic
