La mineria mexicana de la colonia al siglo XX (review)

La minería mexicana: De la colonia al siglo XX. Edited by Inés Herrera Canales. Lecturas de historia económica mexicana. Mexico City: Instituto de Investigaciones Dr. José María Luis Mora; El Colegio de Michoacán; El Colegio de México; Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas-UNAM, 1998. Maps. Tables. Bibliographies. 271 pp. Paper.

Mining has occupied a special place in Latin American historiography. For the colonial period precious metals were the very basis of Spanish imperialism, and in the national period mining underwent modernization and underwrote much of the development of Latin America. One, therefore, is particularly interested in this valuable volume on Mexican mining as a point of departure for comparison elsewhere. Inés Herrera Canales showcases the new research undertaken in Mexico in the last decade by presenting 10 essays by 14 authors. She sets the stage by reviewing the published work on Mexican mining for the 50-year period, 1940-90. Four contributions follow on the eighteenth century, three more on the Porfiriato, while the last two concentrate entirely on the twentieth century.

For the colonial period Brígida von Mentz's contribution is of special interest. While the current historiography blames the great wave of popular discontent of the eighteenth century on the expulsion of the Jesuits and Bourbon administrative reforms--the state monopoly of tobacco, new taxes, and militia conscription--she finds an extensive correlation in the documents between the forced labor drafts of unskilled workers (both Indian and non-Indian) for the mines and the protests and uprisings.

Leonor Ludlow follows the elite group of merchants in the Mexico City consulado whose control of the silver trade allowed them to monopolize the fiscal, credit, and monetary systems. Their power prevented the miners from forming a cohesive social group. José Uribe looks at colonial copper mining and finds that while demand increased significantly in the eighteenth century, production declined as bureaucratic interference hamstrung development. In David Navarrete's study, the Real del Monte silver mine entered a prolonged decline beginning in 1770. But, its owner, the conde de Regla, surmounted the serious production problems and continued to explore, extract, and produce, because his administrators kept the mine supplied by transferring necessary resources from the conde's rural properties.

For the national period Juan Romero's long overview of mining in the northwest--Sonora, Baja California, and Sinaloa--in the decade 1870-80, shows that the main obstacles to modernization were labor shortages, crushing taxes, prohibitions against exporting metal in bars, requirements to mint all precious metals, transportation costs, banditry, Indian rebellions, and epidemics. Nevertheless, modernization did occur in some mines as new technology and government liberalization overcame some barriers. Four authors, namely, Cuauhtémoc Velasco, Eduardo Flores, Alma Parra, and Edgar Gutiérrez present a countrywide overview of the modernization of Porfirian mining. And Atlántida Coll-Hurtado and María Sánchez-Salazar document how electricity became the motor force in modernization as it revolutionized extraction and smelting at the end of the nineteenth century. Electrification of the mines began in the north in the 1880s and spread rapidly elsewhere. Between 1877 and 1911 more than 100 electrical companies were formed. Their main customers were the mines. Those mines that were electrified were those closest to the railroad grid.

Nicolás Cárdenas documents how the 1910 revolution pushed workers, government, and company officials into a corporate partnership. The state negotiated with companies in the name of the workers. This happened at Cacanea, Pachuca, Tlalpujahua, and El Oro. A working class had not only formed, but could be mobilized, and could expect its demands to be favorably viewed by the government. On the other hand, the companies also knew that the state would limit the workers' demands, since it needed the tax revenues. Juan Sariego's case study of Chihuahua's mining industry in the twentieth century is the first of its...