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  • Mercury Mining, and Empire: The Human and Ecological Cost of Colonial Silver Mining in the Andes by Nicholas A. Robins
  • Susan Elizabeth Ramírez
Nicholas A. Robins. Mercury Mining, and Empire: The Human and Ecological Cost of Colonial Silver Mining in the Andes. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2011. 320 pp. ISBN 978-0-253-35651-2, $45.00 (cloth).

Robbins re-situates the extraction of mercury and silver in a globalizing context that also underscores the sometimes appalling and serious demographic and ecological costs of such activities. The close-to-his sources study builds on such pioneering and classic works as Bakewell’s studies of Mexico and Bolivia, but complements mainstream historical analysis with scientific modeling and interpretation of environmental impacts. In the process, he links the local with the viceregal and imperial until finally he explores the ties with China to the west and Europe across the Atlantic.

He traces mining at Potosí from preamalgamation days when the natives, he concludes, made a relatively good living, but, in the process, denuded the landscape. This era ended after the Spanish “discovery” of mercury at Huancavelica that had been exploited by the Incas. The mita (a system of forced, rotating labor service) that provided both mining complexes with native workers led to further environmental degradation (e.g., toxic clouds of dust, rockslides, and cave-ins); increasing human mortality and morbidity (e.g., mercury poisoning, silicosis); the appointment of mestizo curacas to fill the forced labor quotas; massive population shifts as people fled their communities to become forasteros (strangers in other communities) or yanaconas (personal retainers on estates, for example); and increasing numbers of free laborers as the quotas of mitayos shrunk. Corruption, sometimes extending from the local level to the viceroy (e.g., Manuel de Amat y Juniet) also plagued these colonial enterprises and the relations with the state. Violence, especially in Potosí, followed. Depopulation allowed enterprising individuals to expand onto unused native land. In contrast, the poor made a few individuals rich; generated tax revenues for the government; and fed contraband trade with the French and British.

Distracting from this otherwise compelling story is a propensity to condemn and see only one side of an issue. The author uses words like “hovels” to refer to dormitory-like shelters for mitayos at Potosí that later in the text are identified as shacks. The use of terms like “serf” and “genocide” also take away from the text. Furthermore, whereas he is good on the macroeconomic, his local-level analysis reveals an ignorance of the ethnohistorical literature. He describes natives with “paltry possessions,” making no reference to native values, that in contrast to European ideas, define being “rich” as having a large group of kin, near-kin, and allies—not material possessions. [End Page 179] Elsewhere, he discusses clerical coercion and excessive demands for service and fees for celebrations, rituals, funerals, baptisms, and the like. He fails to mention the account of Father Bartolomé Álvarez, who in the 1580s served as priest to the Lake Popó population, who writes of his own fear of community members. They could poison or otherwise kill him and his assistant easily should he persecute their ancestral beliefs and rituals too strenuously, showing that churchmen did not have carte blanche to exploit parishioners and making light of everyday forms of native resistance. His discussion of appointed mestizo curacas would have been enriched had he made reference to curacas intrusos described by Thierry Saignes and others. Where he describes the mitayos returning to their communities and the loss of land and animals, he neglects to mention that community members, at least in theory, shared a long tradition of tilling land for the poor (defined as orphaned, widowed, or lone individuals) and absent members. In addition, natives often willingly sponsored religious celebrations because their extended families contributed to their provisioning and the sponsor enjoyed a spike in his local prestige that lingered long after the event. Modern anthropological studies likewise note that such participation and sponsorship leveled income disparities and fostered communal solidarity.

Despite these issues, readers will find that Robin’s book updates the literature on Latin American mining with ecological considerations. The academic community as...

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