Potosi: The Silver City That Changed the World

In 1545, a native Andean prospector hit pay dirt on a desolate red mountain in highland Bolivia. There followed the worlds 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 worlds 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 citys rise and fall. From Potosís startling emergence in the sixteenth century to its collapse in the nineteenth, Kris Lane tells the story of global economic transformation and the environmental and social impact of rampant colonial exploitation. Lanes invigorating narrative offers rare details of this thriving city and its promise of prosperity. A new worldnative workers, market women, African slaves, and other ordinary residents living alongside elite merchants, refinery owners, wealthy widows, and crown officialsemerges 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.