For twenty-five years, Kendall Brown studied Potos, Spanish America's greatest silver producer and perhaps the world's most famous mining district. He read about the flood of silver that flowed from its Cerro Rico and learned of the toil of its miners. Potos symbolized fabulous wealth and unbelievable suffering. New World bullion stimulated the formation of the first world economy but at the same time it had profound consequences for labor, as mine operators and refiners resorted to extreme forms of coercion to secure workers. In many cases the environment also suffered devastating harm.All...
For twenty-five years, Kendall Brown studied Potos, Spanish America's greatest silver producer and perhaps the world's most famous mining district. He...