The Envy of Kings

And for a million silver pesos, the final question:

Which of the following was the largest and richest city in South America in the 17th Century:

A: Rio de Janeiro

B: Santiago de Chile

C: Lima

D: Potosi

Too easy, you say? So let's go one harder:

What was the source of the city's wealth:

A: A river

B: A port

C: A mountain

D: Lots of llamas

Hah! There's just no tricking you is there?

"I am rich Potosi

The treasure of the world...

And the envy of kings."

This quote from the city's first coat of arms says it all. Kings throughout Europe were, indeed, keenly enviouys of the Spanish kings, who bankrolled their whole nation for close to centuries with the proceedings from just one mountain - Cerro Rico in Potosi.

 

Pretty enough as mountains go, the Spanish were much more interested in what was under that hill: possibly the largest silver deposit ever found. For centuries the vein seemed unending, a common belief was that if you built a bridge from pure silver from Potosi to Spain, there would still be silver left to carry over the bridge. And if the Spaniards never managed to find Eldorado, they certainly got a good paycheck from Potosi's silver.

So for centuries money flowed and Potosi flowered. But the reality for the men forced to work in the mines was far from rosy. It is estimated that in the slighly under 3 centuries that the Spanish were here, some 8 million slaves from Bolivia and Africa (imported after they pretty much killed off the locals) were killed in the mines.

The vein finally ran out and Potosi dwindled and sank into oblivion, but tin, zinc and smaller deposits of silver are still mined in conditions, which are not that much better than they were in the past centuries. The one major improvement being, that whereas in the good old days slaves were kept working 12 hours a day in the mines for 4 months at a stretch and never allowed to come up, the job nowadays is more nine to five. But investigative journalist that I am, I am going to the mines tomorrow and you shall hear all when I return.

Today I also visited the Potosi's national mint, which still has intact the systems used in the 16th to the 18 th centuries for making coins from the old mule and slave powered mints to the "modern" steam engine powered and even some electically powered minting machinery. 

However what really struck me was this old painting called the Virgin de la Monte - virgin of the mountain (apologies on the bad photo). As you may have gathered from my previous entries, HolyMaryMotherOfGod has many faces - Virgin de la Candelaria, Virgin de la Milagros - but in Potosi also uniquely Virgin de la Monte. In the paintings foreground three holy men (of the left - the pope, the cardinal and a priest) and the king of Spain and two other Spanish notables of the right stand beside a (coincidentally?) silver sphere representing the world. In the background are the twin mounds of Cerro Rico morphed into the holy virgin herself, on whome God and Jesus pour their heavenly blessing. The small crowned person standing on the hem of the virgin's dress is the Inca king giving orders to his people and llamas to trudge up the hill and dig silver for the godly Spaniards, and shining in the sky are the moon and sun, symbols of the Inca's Pachamama - mother earth. Here, in one painting, is that devine mix of plundering in the name of the Lord brought to life. All wrongdoing (about 8million lives worth of them) is forgiven, since the purpose is devine and the mandate comes from God himself.

Now I will wander off to enjoy the pretty colonial centre of Potosi and try to psyche myself for the pits tomorrow.