Working Silver for the World

Mining Labor and Popular Economy in Colonial Potosí

Bibliographic Data

ID2789112
AuthorsRossana Barragán (0000-0002-8638-6228, corresponding author)
Year2017
Volume97
Issue2
Pages193-222
Publication date2017-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueHispanic American Historical Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0018-2168 • E-ISSN: 1527-1900
PublisherDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1215/00182168-3824041
OpenAlexW2609455723
LanguageEN
Citations received26
References cited13

The silver produced by indigenous mine workers in Potosí, Bolivia, helped fuel early modern global trade. While historiography has analyzed the structure of the labor force, one important question has not been addressed: how workers themselves acted on and changed the conditions imposed on their lives. This article argues that they fundamentally shaped Potosí's labor system. I analyze, then, the interaction between coerced and free labor— mitayos and mingas —and emphasize their interconnection with k'ajchas (self-employed workers) and the rudimentary ore mills known as trapiches . The article demonstrates how k'ajchas and trapiches contested the property rights of the traditional Spanish mine- and millowners in Potosí. I also highlight the key role of women in refining and trading ores, which challenges standard gender assumptions about mining labor. By the eighteenth century a heterogeneous popular economy broke the monopoly over production once held by Spanish mine- and millowners

Archaeology · Colonialism · Economics · Economy · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Historical Economic and Social Studies · History · Indigenous Cultures and History

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