Discovery of the silver of Potosí (Cerro Rico)
- Date
- 1545
- Category
- Economy & trade
- Region
- Andes; Potosí (Bolivia); global
- Era
- Early Modern
- Significance
In 1545 rich silver veins were found at Cerro Rico, the "rich hill" above what became the city of Potosí in present-day Bolivia, traditionally credited to an Indigenous prospector named Diego Huallpa.
Within a generation Potosí grew into one of the largest cities in the world, and from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century the mountain supplied a large share of global silver output. After the introduction of mercury amalgamation, production was sustained by the mita, a coerced rotational labour system that, together with brutal conditions and mercury poisoning, killed enormous numbers of Indigenous and African workers over the colonial period. Potosí silver, struck into the famous "pieces of eight," financed the Spanish monarchy's European wars, flooded markets from Seville to Ming China via the Manila galleons, contributed to a long inflation in Europe, and helped knit together the first genuinely global economy linking the Americas, Europe and Asia.
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Empires active in 1545
- Songhai Empire1464 CE – 1591 CE
- Ming Dynasty1368 CE – 1644 CE
- Ottoman Empire1299 CE – 1922 CE
- Solomonic dynasty1270 CE – 1974 CE
- Mughal Empire1526 CE – 1857 CE
- Portuguese Empire1415 CE – 1999 CE
Related economy & trade events
- Founding of the English and Dutch East India Companies1600–1602
- The Manila galleon opens trans-Pacific trade1565
- Founding of the Bank of England27 July 1694
- Joint-stock companies and the world's first stock exchange1600–1611 (VOC chartered 20 March 1602; exchange opened 1611)
- Founding of the Bank of Amsterdam (Wisselbank)31 January 1609
- Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations9 March 1776
Further reading
The wider story
The Silk Roads: A New History of the World
Best-selling world history told through the trade routes that moved goods, faiths and ideas.
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