Patio Process - Broader Historical Significance

Broader Historical Significance

The introduction of amalgamation to silver refining in the Americas not only ended the mid-sixteenth century crisis in silver production, it also inaugurated a rapid expansion of silver production in New Spain and Peru as miners could now profitably mine lower-grade ores. As a result of this expansion, the Americas became the primary producer of the world's silver, with Spanish America producing three-fifths of the world's silver supply prior to 1900.

While a number of factors resulted in the minimal use of forced Indian labor in Mexican silver production, the introduction of silver amalgamation allowed for an expansion of silver production in Peru that had profound consequences for Peru's native population. Francisco Toledo, the Viceroy of Peru in the 1570s, saw amalgamation as the key to expanding Peruvian silver production. He encouraged miners to adopt amalgamation and construct mercury mines. More significantly, in order to provide sufficient labor to accommodate the expansion of silver mining to lower-grade ores, Toledo organized an Indian draft labor system, the mita. Under this system, thousands of natives were forced to work in silver and mercury mines for less than subsistence-level wages. Twelve thousand draft laborers regularly worked at the largest mine in the Americas, located at Potosí in modern Bolivia. Native attempts to avoid the mita led to the abandonment of many Indian villages throughout Peru. Spanish monopolization of refining through amalgamation cut natives out of what had earlier been a native-dominated enterprise. Refining represented the most profitable segment of silver production. In conjunction with the mita, the exclusion of natives from owning refineries contributed to the transformation of Peruvian natives into a poorly paid labor force.

The rapid expansion of silver production and coinage—made possible due to the invention of amalgamation—has often been identified as the primary driver of the price revolution, a period of high inflation lasting from the sixteenth to early seventeenth-century in Europe. Proponents of this theory argue that Spain's reliance on silver coins from the Americas to finance its large balance of payments deficits resulted in a general expansion of the European money supply and corresponding inflation. Critics of the theory, however, argue that inflation was really a result of European government policies and population growth.

While the role of the expansion in silver production in the price revolution may be disputed, this expansion is often acknowledged as a key ingredient in the formation of early-modern world trade. Spanish American production fed Chinese demand for silver, facilitating the development of extensive trade networks linking Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas as Europeans sought to gain access to Chinese wares.