A New World of Gold and Silver

Atlantic World

Europe, Africa and the Americas, 15001830

Edited by

Benjamin SchmidtUniversity of Washington

andWim KloosterClark University

VOLUME 21

A New World of Gold and Silver

ByJohn J. TePaske

Edited byKendall W. Brown

LEIDEN BOSTON2010

ISSN 1570-0542ISBN 978 90 04 18891 4

Copyright 2010 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishers, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher.

Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Brill provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA.Fees are subject to change.

Cover illustration: a collage made by the editor of colonial Spanish American coins generously provided by the State of Florida from its collection and by Mel King and Faye Asano, of Big Blue Wreck Salvage, headquartered in Denver, Colorado.

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

TePaske, John Jay, 19292007. A new world of gold and silver / by John J. TePaske ; edited byKendall W. Brown. p. cm. (Atlantic world ; v. 21) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-18891-4 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Gold mines and miningLatin AmericaHistory. 2. Silver mines andminingLatin AmericaHistory. 3. Latin AmericaHistoryTo 1830. I. Brown, Kendall W., 1949 II. Title. HD9536.L292T47 2010 332.46dc22

2010030374

CONTENTS

Maps, Illustrations, Figures, and Tables ........................................ viiEditors Preface .................................................................................. xvii

Chapter One Introduction ............................................................ 1

Chapter Two Gold: The Scarcer Metal? ...................................... 23

Chapter Three Silver, the Abundant Metal: Mexico ................ 69

Chapter Four Silver, the Abundant Metal: Upper and Lower Peru .................................................................................................. 141

Chapter Five New World Mintage: Mxico, Santo Domingo, Lima, and Potos ............................................................................ 213

Chapter Six New World Mintage II: Santa Fe de Bogot, Popayn, Santiago de Guatemala, Santiago de Chile, and Brazil (Rio de Janeiro, Bahia, and Villa Rica de Ouro Preto) ..... 261

Chapter Seven Conclusion ............................................................ 305

Glossary ............................................................................................... 317Bibliography ........................................................................................ 325Index .................................................................................................... 333

MAPS, ILLUSTRATIONS, FIGURES, AND TABLES

Maps

1. Mining Cajas and Mints in Colonial Mexico and Central America ......................................................................... xxi

2. Mining Cajas and Mints in Colonial South America ........ xxii

Illustrations

1ab. Moneda Macuquina .................................................................. 2182ac. Peso Cordoncillo ....................................................................... 2183ab. Peso de Busto ............................................................................. 218

Figures

Chapter One

11. New World Gold and Silver Output, 14921803 ............. 412. Shipment of Gold and Silver to Castille, 15031660,

according to Earl J. Hamilton ................................................ 613. New World Silver and Gold Output, 14921810 ............. 1614. New World Gold and Silver output by Region,

14921810 ................................................................................... 17

Chapter Two

21. Estimated New World Gold Production by Region, 14921810, in pesos .................................................................. 28

22. Estimated New World Gold Output, 14921810, by decade in kilograms .................................................................. 29

23. Spanish American Gold Production by Region, 14921810, in kilograms ......................................................... 30

24. Caribbean Gold Production by Region, 14921555, in kilograms ..................................................................................... 33

viii maps, illustrations, figures, and tables

25. Caribbean Gold Production by Decade, 14921555, in kilograms .................................................................................... 33

26. Mexican Gold Output, 15211810, in kilograms ............. 3527. Estimated Mexican Gold Production by Caja 15211810,

in kilograms ............................................................................... 3528. Estimated New Granada Gold Production, 15331810,

by decade in kilograms ............................................................ 3929. Ecuador Gold Production, 15351810, by decade in

kilograms .................................................................................... 41210. Peru Gold Production 15331810, by decade in

kilograms .................................................................................... 43211. Peru Gold Production by Region, 15331810,

in kilograms ............................................................................... 44212. Chile Gold Production, 15411810, in kilograms ............ 45213. Brazil Gold Production, 16911810, in kilograms ........... 47214. Brazil Gold Production by Region, 17001801,

in kilograms ............................................................................... 48215. New World-World Gold Production, 14911810,

in kilograms ............................................................................... 49

Chapter Three

31. New World Silver Output, 15211810, in pesos .............. 7532. New World Silver Output, 15211810, in kilograms ...... 7633. New World Silver Output by Region, 15011810 ............ 7834. Mexican Silver Output, 15211810, in pesos .................... 8135. Mexican Silver Production by Caja District, 15211810,

in kilograms ............................................................................... 8236. Mexico (Caja) Silver Output, 15211810, in pesos .......... 8737. Zacatecas Silver Output, 15591810, in pesos ................... 8838. Guadalajara Silver Output, 15681810, in pesos .............. 9139. Durango Silver Output, 15991810, in pesos .................... 93310. San Luis Potos Silver Output, 16281810, in pesos ....... 95311. Guanajuato Silver Output, 16651810, in pesos ............... 96312. Pachuca Silver Output, 16671810, in pesos ..................... 98313. Sombrerete Silver Output, 16831810, in pesos ............... 99314. Zimapn Silver Output, 17291810, in pesos .................... 101315. Bolaos Silver Output, 17531810, in pesos ...................... 102316. Veracruz Silver Output, 17651805, in pesos ................... 103317. Rosario Silver Output, 17731813, in pesos ...................... 104318. Chihuahua Silver Output, 17851814, in pesos ................ 105

maps, illustrations, figures, and tables ix

319. Mexican Mercury Supply, 15611810 ................................. 108320. Mercury Allocated to the Mining Cajas of Mexico,

17091753 ................................................................................... 109321. World-New World-Mexican Silver Output, 15211810,

in kilograms ............................................................................... 111

Chapter Four

41. Peruvian Silver Production, 15311810, in pesos ............ 14542. Peruvian Silver Production, 15311810, in kilograms .... 14543. Peruvian Silver Production by Caja District, 15311810,

in kilograms ............................................................................... 14844. Lima Silver Output, 15311810, in pesos ........................... 14945. Potos Silver Output, 15451810, in pesos ......................... 15246. Oruro Silver Output, 16091809, in pesos ......................... 15447. Castrovirreyna Silver Output, 16091652, in pesos ......... 15648. Cailloma Silver Output, 16311779, in pesos .................... 15749. Arequipa Silver Output, 15991810, in pesos ................... 159410. La Paz Silver Output, 16241810, in pesos ........................ 160411. Carangas Silver Output, 16521803, in pesos ................... 161412. Chucuito Silver Output, 16581800, in pesos ................... 162413. Pasco Silver Output, 16711810, in pesos .......................... 164414. Trujillo Silver Output, 16011810, in pesos ...................... 166415. Cuzco Silver Output, 15711810, in pesos ......................... 167416. Huancavelica Silver Output, 15771784, in pesos ........... 168417. Huamanga Silver Output, 17851810 ................................. 169418. Jauja Silver Output, 17211785, in pesos ........................... 170419. Arica Silver Output, 17801810, in pesos .......................... 172420. Mercury Supply in Peru, 15711810 ................................... 176421. Peruvian-New World-World Silver Output, 15311810,

in kilograms ............................................................................... 178

Chapter Five

51. Mexican Silver Mintage, 16901821, in pesos ................... 23052. Mexican Gold Mintage, 17331821, in pesos .................... 23053. Mexican Silver Mintage and Output, 16911810,

in pesos ........................................................................................ 23254. Mexican Gold Mintage and Output, 17331810,

in pesos ........................................................................................ 23255. Lima Silver Mintage, 16841821, in pesos ......................... 238

x maps, illustrations, figures, and tables

56. Lima Gold Mintage, 16961821, in pesos .......................... 23857. Lower Peru Silver OutputLima Mintage, 16911810,

in pesos ........................................................................................ 23958. Lower Peru Gold OutputLima Gold Mintage,

17011810, in pesos ................................................................. 24059. Potos Silver Mintage, 15741825, in pesos ....................... 245510. Potos Gold Mintage, 17811806, in pesos ........................ 245511. Upper Peru Silver OutputPotos Mintage, 15811810,

in pesos ........................................................................................ 246512. Upper Peru Gold OutputPotos Gold Mintage,

17811810, in pesos ................................................................. 247

Chapter Six

61. New Granada Gold and Silver Production, 15331620, in pesos ........................................................................................ 262

62. New Granada Annual Gold Mintage, 16211819,in pesos ........................................................................................ 267

63. New Granada Annual Silver Mintage, 16211819, in pesos ........................................................................................ 267

64. Popayn Gold Mintage, 17581810, in pesos .................... 26965. Guatemala Silver Mintage, 17331817, in pesos .............. 27166. Guatemala Gold Mintage, 17331817, in pesos ................ 27467. Chile Gold Mintage, 17561820, in pesos .......................... 27768. Chile Silver Mintage, 17561815, in pesos ......................... 27869. Brazil Gold Mintage, 17031800, in pesos ......................... 284

Chapter Seven

71. Gazette Bullion Shipments and Registered Silver Output, 15811805 ................................................................................... 311

Tables

Chapter One

11. Adolf Soetbeers Estimates of World Silver and Gold Production, 17931810 ........................................................... 19

12. New World Silver and Gold Output, 14921810 ............. 20

maps, illustrations, figures, and tables xi

13. Estimated Total Gold and Silver Production in the Indies, 14921810 ..................................................................... 21

Chapter Two

21. Estimated New World Gold Production by Region and Decade, 14921810, in pesos ................................................. 54

22. Estimated New World Gold Production by Region and Decade, 14921810, in kilograms ......................................... 56

23. Estimated Caribbean Gold Production by Region and Decade, 14921555 ................................................................... 57

24. Estimated Mexican Gold Production by Caja and Decade, 15211810, in pesos ................................................................. 58

25. Estimated Mexican Gold Production by Caja and Decade, 15211810, in kilograms ......................................................... 59

26. Estimated New Granadan Gold Production by Decade 15331810, in pesos and kilograms ..................................... 60

27. Estimated Ecuadorian Gold Production by Decade 15351810, in pesos and kilograms ..................................... 61

28. Estimated Upper and Lower Peruvian Gold Production by Caja and Decade, 15311810, in pesos ......................... 62

29. Estimated Upper and Lower Peruvian Gold Production by Caja and Decade, 15311810, in kilograms ................. 63

210. Estimated Chilean Gold Production by Decade, 15411810, in pesos and kilograms ..................................... 64

211. Estimated Brazilian Gold Production by Decade, 16911810, in pesos and kilograms ..................................... 65

212. Estimated Brazilian Gold Production by Region and Decade, 17001801, in pesos and kilograms ..................... 66

213. New World-World Gold Production 14921810, by decade in kilograms ................................................................. 67

Chapter Three

31. New World Silver production by Region and Decade, 15211810, in pesos ................................................................. 112

32. New World Silver Production by Region and Decade, 15211810, in kilograms ......................................................... 113

33. Mexican Silver Production by Caja and Decade, 15211810, in pesos ................................................................. 114

xii maps, illustrations, figures, and tables

34. Mexican Silver Production by Caja District and Decade, 15211810, in kilograms ......................................................... 115

35. Caja of Mexico Registered Silver Production, 15761817, in pesos and kilograms ............................................................ 117

36. Mexican Reales de Minas, 17611767 ................................. 11937. Zacatecas Registered Silver Production, 15591821,

in pesos and kilograms ............................................................ 12138. Guadalajara Registered Silver Production, 15681816,

in pesos and kilograms ............................................................ 12339. Durango Registered Silver Production, 15991813,

in pesos and kilograms ............................................................ 125310. San Luis Potos Registered Silver Production,

16281810, in pesos and kilograms ..................................... 127311. Guanajuato Registered Silver Production, 16651816,

in pesos and kilograms ............................................................ 130312. Pachuca Registered Silver Production, 16671807,

in pesos and kilograms ............................................................ 132313. Sombrerete Registered Silver Production, 16831816,

in pesos and kilograms ............................................................ 133314. Zimapn Registered Silver Production, 17291810,

in pesos and kilograms ............................................................ 134315. Bolaos Registered Silver Production, 17531810, in

pesos and kilograms ................................................................. 135316. Veracruz Registered Silver Production, 15691805,

in pesos and kilograms ............................................................ 136317. Rosario/Los Alamos/Cosal Registered Silver Production,

17701813, in pesos and kilograms ..................................... 136318. Chihuahua Registered Silver Production, 17851814,

in pesos and kilograms ............................................................ 137319. Mercury Shipments to Mexico from Almadn, Idria,

and Peru, 15581805, in quintales ....................................... 138320. Mexican, New World, and World Silver Production,

15211810, in kilograms ......................................................... 140

Chapter Four

41. Upper and Lower Peruvian Silver Production by Caja and Decade, 15311810, in pesos ......................................... 181

42. Upper and Lower Peruvian Silver Production by Caja and Decade, 15311810, in kilograms ................................. 183

maps, illustrations, figures, and tables xiii

43. Lima Registered Silver Production, 15741820, in pesos and kilograms ............................................................................ 185

44. Lima Silver Output as Percentage of Peruvian, New World, and World Production, 15311810, in kilograms ... 187

45. Potos Registered Silver Production, 15451823, in pesos and kilograms ................................................................. 188

46. Potos Silver Output: Percentages by Decade of Peruvian, New World, and World Production, 15451810,in kilograms ............................................................................... 190

47. Oruro Registered Silver Production, 16091809, in pesos and kilograms ............................................................................ 191

48. Castrovirreyna Registered Silver Production, 16001652, in pesos and kilograms ......................................................... 193

49. Cailloma Registered Silver Production, 17631779, in pesos and kilograms ............................................................ 194

410. Arequipa Registered Silver Production, 15991817, in pesos and kilograms ................................................................. 195

411. La Paz Registered Silver Production, 16241824, in pesos and kilograms ................................................................. 197

412. Carangas Registered Silver Production, 16521803, in pesos and kilograms ............................................................ 199

413. Chucuito Registered Silver Production, 16581800, in pesos and kilograms ............................................................ 201

414. Pasco Registered Silver Production, 16701820, in pesos and kilograms ............................................................................ 202

415. Trujillo Registered Silver Production, 16011817, in pesos and kilograms ............................................................ 204

416. Cuzco Registered Silver Production, 15711822, in pesos and kilograms ............................................................ 205

417. Huancavelica Registered Silver Production, 15771784, in pesos and kilograms ............................................................ 207

418. Huamanga Registered Silver Production, 17851819, in pesos and kilograms ............................................................ 208

419. San Juan de Matucana-Jauja Registered Silver Production, 17211785, in pesos and kilograms .................................... 209

420. Arica Registered Silver Production, 17801819, in pesos and kilograms ............................................................................ 209

421. Huancavelica Mercury Production and Shipments to Peru from Europe, 15711814 .............................................. 210

422. Peruvian-New World-World Silver Output: Percentages15311810 (percentage by Decade in Kilograms of FineSilver) ........................................................................................... 212

xiv maps, illustrations, figures, and tables

Chapter Five

51. Mexican Silver Mintage, 16901821, in pesos and kilograms .................................................................................... 248

52. Mexican Gold Mintage, 17331821, in pesos and kilograms .................................................................................... 249

53. Mexican Silver Mintage and Output, 16911810, in pesos and kilograms ............................................................ 250

54. Mexican Gold Mintage and Output, 17331810, in pesos and kilograms ................................................................. 251

55. Early Lima Silver Mintage, 15801587, in marks and pesos .................................................................................... 251

56. Lima Silver Mintage, 16841821, in pesos and kilograms .................................................................................... 251

57. Lima Gold Mintage, 16961821, in pesos and kilograms .................................................................................... 253

58. Lower Peru Silver OutputLima Mintage, 16911810, in pesos and kilograms ............................................................ 254

59. Lower Peru Gold OutputLima Gold Mintage, 17011810, in pesos and kilograms ..................................... 255

510. Potos Annual Silver Mintage, 15741825, in pesos and kilograms .................................................................................... 255

511. Potos Gold Mintage, 17781810, in pesos and kilograms .................................................................................... 258

512. Upper Peru Silver OutputPotos Mintage, 15811810, in pesos and kilograms ............................................................ 258

513. Upper Peru Gold OutputPotos Mintage, 17811806, in pesos and kilograms ......................................................... 259

Chapter Six

61. Estimated Early New Granada Gold and Silver Production by Decade, 15331620, in pesos and kilograms .................................................................................... 287

62. Santa Fe de Bogot Gold Mintage, 16211819, in marks, pesos, and kilograms ................................................................ 288

63. Bogot Silver Mintage, 16211819, in marks, pesos, and kilograms .................................................................................... 291

64. Popayn Gold Mintage, 17581810, in marks, pesos, and kilograms .................................................................................... 295

maps, illustrations, figures, and tables xv

65. Popayn Silver Mintage, 17581810, in marks, pesos, and kilograms .................................................................................... 296

66. Guatemalan Silver Mintage, 17331817, in marks, pesos, and kilograms ............................................................................ 297

67. Guatemalan Gold Mintage, 17331817, in marks, pesos, and kilograms ............................................................................ 299

68. Santiago de Chile Gold Mintage, 17561820, in marks, pesos, and kilograms ................................................................ 301

69. Santiago de Chile Silver Mintage, 17561815, in marks, pesos, and kilograms ................................................................ 302

610. Brazilian Mintage Estimates by Decade, 17031806, in pesos and kilograms ............................................................ 303

Chapter Seven

71. Estimates of Bullion Shipments from the Indies to Europe, 15031805 ................................................................... 314

72. Gazette Bullion Shipments and Registered Silver Output, 15811805 ................................................................... 315

EDITORS PREFACE

For much of his academic career, Professor John Jay TePaske studied the economic and fiscal history of the early modern Spanish empire. He was drawn to the work of French scholars from the Annales school, such as Fernand Braudel and Pierre and Huguette Chaunu, who focused on how history was influenced by social and economic structures. TePaske found particularly impressive the Chaunus Seville et lAtlantique, with its massive compilation of data regarding trans- Atlantic trade during the first century and a half of Spanish coloni-zation in the Americas. By the time I became one of his graduate students at Duke University in 1973, he had already begun to analyze imperial fiscal records with the goal of using the information con-tained in them to provide long-term quantitative data for study of the imperial economy.

He began with the accounts generated by the royal treasury office (real caja) of Lima. The typical account contained summary pages for income and expenditures, which it broke down according to the specific taxes and other sources of revenues. Using those summaries (often referred to by colonial fiscal officials as cartas cuentas), he dis-covered data concerning, among other things, the amount of indig-enous tribute collected, commercial tariffs paid, and miners gold and silver taxed, besides the quantities spent by the treasury on imperial defense and the funds remitted by the government to Spain. Com-pared to other European imperial powers of the early modern period, the Spaniards were compulsive record-keepers, and furthermore trea-sury officials had shipped to Spain copies of most of the cartas cuentas, and often the entire ledgers themselves. Once in Spain, the records found their way to the Council of the Indies, which had bureaucratic jurisdiction over the colonies; and then were deposited in the Coun-cils archive, the holdings of which came to constitute the bulk of the great Archivo General de Indias (AGI) in Sevilla.

The emergence of the computer in the 1970s as a more and more common tool for historical research made it possible for TePaske to move beyond his hand-written note cards listing the income and expenditures of the Lima caja. He began to envision a massive data base containing fiscal data taken from the cartas cuentas of all the

xviii editors preface

colonial treasuries over the entire colonial period. He and Herbert S. Klein, at the time professor of history at Columbia University and who had also worked on treasury accounts, joined forces and in 1975 secured a generous research grant from the Tinker Foundation to compile and computerize the treasury data. Under their direction, Kenneth Andrien, Miles Wortman, Josefina Teriyakin, and I worked in the AGI in 19751976 to locate and microfilm all the cartas cuentas available in that great repository. The following year Andrien, Eileen Keremetsis, and I searched for additional fiscal records in Argentina, Chile, Peru, Bolivia, and Mexico. It took several years to code the data in the cartas cuentas for the computer. Meanwhile, TePaske and Klein continued to search for treasury materials from Central America, the Caribbean, and any other colonial enclaves.

They also turned their attention to two other goals: making their data available to other scholars and analyzing economic trends discern-ible within the fiscal records. In 1976 TePaske had already published the summaries of the treasury accounts for the Mexico City caja.1 In the 1980s the team published similar materials for Peru, Upper Peru, Chile, and the other Mexican treasury offices, followed by accounts for Ecuador in 1990.2 They also made the data available electronically to interested historians. At the same time they began analysis of the fiscal information. TePaske and Klein used data on mining taxes to write an article in which they argued that the Mexican mining industry had not suffered a long depression during the seventeenth century.3 TePaske also turned his attention to the issue of bullion flows from Spanish America to Europe and Asia during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.4 Klein later published a book examining trends in taxation

1 John J. TePaske, Jos Jess Hernndez Palomo, and Mari Luz Hernndez Palomo, La real hacienda de Nueva Espaa: la real caja de Mxico (Mxico: Instituto Nacional de Antropologa e Historia, 1976).

2 John J. TePaske and Herbert S. Klein, The Royal Treasuries of the Spanish Empire in America 3 vols. (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1982); John J. TePaske and Herbert S. Klein, Ingresos y egresos de la real hacienda de Nueva Espaa (Mxico: Instituto Nacional de Antropologa e Historia, 1986); and John J. TePaske and Alvaro Jara, The Royal Treasuries of the Spanish Empire in America, vol. 4: Eighteenth-Century Ecuador (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1990).

3 John J. TePaske and Herbert S. Klein, The Seventeenth-Century Crisis in New Spain: Myth or Reality? Past & Present 90 (February 1981): 116135.

4 John J. TePaske, New World Silver, Castile and the Philippines, 15901800, in J. F. Richards, ed., Precious Metals in the Later Medieval and Early Modern Worlds (Durham, N.C.: Carolina Academic Press, 1983): 425445.

editors preface xix

and expenditure in colonial Peru, Bolivia, and Mexico during the long eighteenth century.5

TePaske used the treasury records to focus on colonial mining pro-duction, that interest being, of course, the origin of the present volume. He aimed to generate for each treasury district a series showing how much gold and silver the mines had officially produced, and based on those series, to calculate output over time for the major regions of Spanish America, particularly New Spain, Peru, and Upper Peru. To those he hoped to add a series on the gold mined in Portuguese Brazil. These efforts, he believed, would provide the best compilation of data likely to be had by historians regarding the mining yield of colonial Latin America, data that could be used both to analyze the internal workings of the colonial and imperial economies and data that could provide a firmer foundation for studying bullion flows in the early modern world economy. It was not his intention, however, to engage in economic analysis or to take on discussion of exports of bullion from Latin America in this volume. For TePaske the important first step was to determine with as much precision as possible the quanti-ties of gold and silver produced by the American mines from the six-teenth to early nineteenth centuries. Indeed, in conversations with his friend Douglass North, the Nobel-prize laureate in economics, North reportedly recommended that TePaske concentrate on presentation of the data rather than complicating the volume with analysis.

TePaske unfortunately died on 1 December 2007 before bringing the volume of data to publication. Before his death, he asked that I finish the volume. Going through his papers, his computer disks, and other materials, I found to my relief that he had largely completed drafts of all seven chapters. Thus, this book is essentially his work. I have revised it, added occasional clarification, and expanded the con-clusion but have left the focus of the volume and the approach to the data as he envisioned them.

The book consists of seven chapters. The first examines the histori-cal work previously done on colonial mining production. It pays par-ticular attention to the findings of Alexander von Humboldt, the great German polymath who visited Spanish America near the end of the

5 Herbert S. Klein, The American Finances of the Spanish Empire: Royal Income and Expenditures in Colonial Mexico, Peru, and Bolivia, 16801809 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1998).

xx editors preface

colonial period and spent months there studying the regions mining industry and estimating its output. Humboldt gained access to official colonial records to formulate his conclusions. His first-hand experi-ence also enabled him to estimate the amount of illicit bullion output that occurred. The following three chapters rely heavily on the data TePaske obtained from his treasury project. Chapter Two examines the output of gold in both Spanish and Portuguese America. Silver takes center stage in the third and fourth chapters, with the former concentrating on Mexico and the latter on the Andean mines. In chap-ters five and six TePaske turns his attention to colonial mintage, again supplying quantitative data on the coinage produced over time in the colonial mints of Brazil and Spanish America. The seventh and con-cluding chapter is brief but importantly analyzes TePaskes conclu-sions in light of what French scholar Michel Morineau (Incroyables gazettes et fabuleux mtaux [1985]) discovered about colonial Ameri-can bullion exports by using information contained in European com-mercial gazettes.

TePaskes project would have been impossible without the generous support of the Tinker Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foun-dation. The Social Science Research Council, the American Philosoph-ical Society, and the Banco de Espaa also provided timely funding; and he benefited from a stay at the National Humanities Center in North Carolinas Research Triangle Park. It is, of course, impossible for me to acknowledge the contributions of all those scholars with whom he consulted over the years regarding one aspect or another of the project. I can, however, express my gratitude for the comments and suggestions offered to me by Richard Garner, Kenneth Andrien, Mark Burkholder, Shawn Miller, and Alan Craig. Ryan Wheeler, Dave Dickell, and Roy Lett graciously made available images of coins from the State of Florida collection, and Mel King and Faye Asano, of Big Blue Wreck Salvage, enthusiastically offered me photographs of coins and bars of bullion, which show in physical form what TePaske spent years studying. Miles Miller, Daniel Kirkpatrick, Rebekah Lund, Megan Olsen, and Sara Moore helped prepare parts of the manuscript.

Kendall W. BrownProvo, Utah

editors preface xxi

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xxii editors preface

CHILE

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Huamanga

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Salvador da Bahia

Ouro Preto

La PazDiamantina

HuancavelicaCastrovirreyna

Treasury OfficeMint

Map 2. Mining Cajas and Mints in Colonial South America.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Glory, God, and Gold, so goes the refrain, drove Spain into its New World ventures. In the late fifteenth century, however, the shortage of gold in Europe was compelling enough in itself to motivate the quest for new sources of that metal. Moreover, the bullionist outlook of emerging nation-states like Portugal and Spainthat a nations power and prestige depended upon control over large supplies of gold and silveralso fueled the search for these metals. A monetary historian, Pierre Vilar, notes that in his diary Columbus mentions gold sixty-five times between October 12, 1492, and January 1493 when the Genoan-born sailor began his return to Castile.1 He arrived home from his first voyage with gold nuggets worth 20,000 escudos, approximately 9,000,000 maraveds or 33,100 silver pesos of eight reales. That his sec-ond voyage was fitted out with the primary purpose of finding gold is good evidence of the metals high priority in the age of discovery and conquest. When Columbus brought back thirty thousand ducats in gold amounting to 11,250,000 maraveds or a bit more than 41,000 silver pesos of eight reales, he reinforced his claims that the Indies offered new sources of wealth for the Catholic Kings.2

Early Estimates of New World and World Bullion Output

Both the conquistadores and the swashbucklers and settlers who fol-lowed them found a plentitude of gold and silver in the New World. In Spanish America silver ultimately dominated, although very early

1 Pierre Vilar, A History of Gold and Money, 1450 to 1820 (London: Verso, 1991), 63.2 Jaime Vicens Vives, ed., Historia social y econmica de Espaa y Amrica 4 vols.

(Barcelona: Editorial Libro Vicens-Bolsillo, 1961): Vol. II, Guillermo Cspedes del Castillo, ed., Baja edad media. Los Reyes Catlicos. Descubrimientos, 468. Maraveds were small coins, primarily of copper, that were used in Castile. More importantly, the maraved became a standard Spanish unit of account. One silver peso or piece of eight consisted of eight reales. Each real was worth 34 maraveds, and thus the peso had a value of 272 maraveds.

2 chapter one

in the colonial epoch Europeans discovered gold in the Caribbean and later in Chile, Ecuador, and New Granada (present-day Colombia) as well. These regions became the major producers of that metal in Span-ish America. In Luso-America (Brazil) the Portuguese eventually found gold in great abundance, primarily in the eighteenth century. Because such huge amounts of precious metals were extracted, refined, and minted in the Indies during the three centuries of European domina-tion, observers from the Old Worldwith their bullionist attitudesmade valiant efforts to estimate New World gold and silver output.

Among the most perceptive of these was Alexander von Humboldt (17691859), the distinguished German scientist who traveled exten-sively throughout Spanish America at the end of the eighteenth cen-tury and beginning of the nineteenth. Gaining access to Spanish royal fiscal records with the blessing of Charles IV, he had a great advan-tage over previous observers. When he published his detailed Political Essay on the Kingom of New Spain at the beginning of the nineteenth century, he not only put forward his own calculations of New World gold and silver output, but he also credited those before him who had made informed estimates of New World bullion production and pro-vided benchmarks for Humboldts own estimates.3

Humboldt referred to a wide variety of European statesmen, histo-rians, and political economists. In the seventeenth century, for exam-ple, Juan Solrzano Pereira (15751655), a Spanish jurist, fiscal of the Council of the Indies, and a former judge on the high court (audien-cia) of Lima, published his De indiarium jure between 1629 and 1637, subsequently printed in five volumes as Poltica indiana. In his work he calculated New World bullion output between 1492 and 1628 at 1,500,000,000 silver pesos of 272 maraveds.4

In the eighteenth century two French observers, Guillaume Fran-ois Thomas Raynal or Abb Raynal (17131796), and Jacques Necker (17321804) provided their assessments of New World gold and silver production. In Histoire philosophique et politique des tablissements et du commerce dans les deux Indes, published first in six volumes in 1770 and in many later editions, Raynal estimated that between 1492 and

3 Alexander von Humboldt, Ensayo poltico sobre el Reino de Nueva Espaa 5 tomos (Mexico, D. F.: Editorial Robredo, 1941). A much abridged edition in English taken from the John Black translation, edited by Mary Maples Dunn, is also available: Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1972).

4 Humboldt, Ensayo poltico, 3:378.

introduction 3

1770, New World bullion output was 5,154,000,000 pesos. Minister of Finance under Louis XVI, Jacques Necker confined his observations to the period from 1763 to 1777, when he believed New World mines yielded 304,000,000 pesos. Another French observer, the anonymous author of Recherches sur le commerce, set output between 1492 and 1775 at 5,072,000,000 pesos, very close to Raynals estimate.5

In Spain in the early eighteenth-century the proyectista Gernimo de Uztriz (16701732) also calculated gold and silver output in the Indies. Among a number of political economists promoting economic and social reforms under the new house of Bourbon, he wrote Therica y prctica de comercio, y de la marina, en diferentes discursos in 1724, subsequently republished a number of times in Spain and England. His assessment of Spanish American bullion production from 14921724 was 3,536,000,000 pesos. Another estimate, which Humboldt believed to be too high, came from the Scottish historian William Robertson (17211793) who calculated that between 1492 and 1775 the Indies produced 8,800,000,000 pesos.6

As virtually the last during the ancien rgime to assess New World bullion output, Humboldt had many advantages over his predecessors. Benefitting from these earlier calculations and with access to Span-ish fiscal records, he made his estimates after the Spanish imperial bureaucracy had begun generating much more detailed and plentiful statistics. Those data from the government provided a clearer, more precise long-range picture of mining and minting activity. Viewing nearly the entire period of Spanish and Portuguese domination in the New World from 14921803, Humboldt set the amount of gold and silver produced in the Indies at 5,706,700,000 pesos. He estimated colonial Spanish output at 4,851,156,000 pesos and Luso-American at 855,544,000 pesos85 percent of the grand total from the Span-ish Indies and 15 percent from Brazil. Humboldt also attempted to account for unregistered and untaxed output. He estimated that of the totals for each region, 816,000,000 pesos were unregistered in Span-ish America and 171,000,000 pesos in Luso-Americaa fraud rate of 16.8 percent in the Spanish empire and 20.0 percent in Brazil or 17.3

5 Humboldt, Ensayo poltico, 3:378.6 Humboldt, Ensayo poltico, 3:378, 381.

4 chapter one

percent overall.7 Figure 11 provides a breakdown of Humboldts esti-mates for the Spanish and Portuguese Indies.8

Once the Indies became independent and with more European expansion in Africa and Asia, attention also turned to world bullion production. In 1892, for example, the German scholar Adolf Soetbeer (18141892) laid out his estimates of world gold and silver output from 1493. His calculations for the ancien rgime to 1810 appear in marks and kilograms of fine silver and gold. Soetbeer concluded that between 1493 and 1810 Spanish and Portuguese America yielded 126,657,400 kilograms of silver and 3,743,770 kilograms of gold (see Table 11; all tables are at the end of each chapter).9 In 1911 another German, Wilhelm Lexis (18371914), a professor at the University of Gttingen, refined Soetbeers estimates a bit. For Spanish America he made new calculations for silver output in Potos, Lower Peru, and Mexico1,200,000,000 pesos from Potos (15451800); 550,000,000 pesos from Lower Peru (15331800); and 1,870,000,000 pesos from Mexico (15221800).10 Nonetheless the Soetbeer estimates have

7 Humboldt, Ensayo poltico, 3:379381. 8 The estimates for Figure 11 are from Humboldt, Ensayo poltico, 3:382. 9 Adolf Soetbeer, Litteraturnachweis ber Geld und Mnzwesen insbesondere ber

den Whrungsstreit, 18711891 (Berlin: Putkammer & Mulbrecht, 1892), 23, 1618.10 Wilhelm Lexis, Silber und Silberwhrung, in Handwrterbuch der Staatswis-

sensschaften (Jena: Verlag von Gustav Fischer, 1911): 506507.

Figure 11. New World Gold and Silver Output, 14921803

According to Alexander von HumboldtIn Billions of Silver Pesos of 272 maraveds

Peru and BuenosAires

2.41 = 42%

New Spain2.028 = 36%

Chile0.138 = 2%

Brazil0.855 = 15%

New Granada0.275 = 5%

introduction 5

remained conventional wisdom since they were published in 1892 until the present.11 They have been used in this study as well.

Estimations of New World bullion output continued into the early twentieth century. About the time Lexis was revising Soetbeers figures, Clarence Haring returned to the Humboldt tradition by consulting archival materials, among them the accounts of the colonial treasuries (cajas).12 In the early 1930s Earl J. Hamilton provided an important benchmark for determination of trends in New World gold and silver output by making scrupulous compilations of the amounts of precious metals remitted from the Spanish Indies to Spain (refer to Figure 12). His quest initially was to disprove the quantity theory of money, but after his research in Sevilla in the records of the House of Trade (Casa de Contratacin) and in other archives throughout Spain, he became a confirmed believer in that theory.13 Unfortunately some scholars used his figures on shipments as an index to New World bullion output. Official remittances to Europe did not necessarily correlate with the amount of bullion being extracted from the American mines nor did they account for gold and silver smuggled out of the colonies.

After World War II scholars resumed efforts to refine estimates of silver and gold output. In the late 1950s, Chilean scholar lvaro Jara calculated legally registered gold and silver yields in sixteenth-century Peru and later for other regions and epochs.14 His work was

11 See for example, J. Laurence Laughlin, The History of Bi-Metallism in the United States, 4th ed. (New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1897), p. 42; Charles White Merrill, Summarized Data of Silver Production (Washington, DC: U. S. Bureau of Mines, Eco-nomic Paper # 8, 1930); Robert H. Ridgeway, Summarized Data of Gold Production (Washington, DC: U. S. Bureau of Mines, Economic Paper # 6, 1930); Harry E. Cross, South American Bullion Production and Export, 15501750, in John F. Richards, ed., Precious Metals in the Later Medieval and Early Modern Worlds (Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 1983): 397423.

12 Clarence H. Haring, American Gold and Silver Production in the First Half of the Sixteenth Century, The Quarterly Journal of Economics 29 (May 1915): 54579. See also Trade and Navigation between Spain and the Indies in the Time of the Haps-burgs (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1918), 33235.

13 Earl J. Hamilton, American Treasure and the Price Revolution in Spain, 15011650 (Cambridge Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1934).

14 lvaro Jara, La produccin de metales preciosos en el Per en el siglo xvi, Boletn de la Universidad de Chile 44 (Noviembre, 1963): 5864. Tres ensayos sobre economa minera hispanoamericana (Santiago de Chile: Centro de Investigaciones Historia Americana de la Universidad de Chile, 1966), 111118; La minera ameri-cana: produccin y exportacin de metales preciosos, Historia Universal Salvat 122 (18 de Agosto de 1982): 269270; and Estructuras coloniales y subdesarrollo en His-panoamrica, Journal de la Socite des Amricanistes 65 (1978): 145171.

6 chapter one

groundbreaking primarily because he used the royal accounts during the very early period of Spanish domination. Moreover, he incorpo-rated the findings of his mentors Pierre and Huguette Chaunu in his analysis.15 Peter Bakewell was another pioneer who used the royal accounts to good advantage for his studies of Zacatecas, Potos, Oruro, and his excellent synthesis on colonial mining for The Cambridge His-tory of Latin America.16 At the same time, Bakewells work and a wide

15 Pierre and Huguette Chaunu, Sville et lAtlantique (15041650), 8 vols. in 11 vols. (Paris: Ecole Practique des Hautes Etudes VIe Section et Service dEdition et de Vente des Publications de lEducation Nationale, 195560). Their estimates of mer-cury shipments to the Indies and silver remissions to Castile and elsewhere are dis-cussed in detail in Chapters 3 and 4.

16 Peter H. Bakewell, Silver Mining and Society in Colonial Mexico, Zacatecas 15461700 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1971); Registered Silver Production in the Potos District, 15501735, Jahrbuch fr Geschichte von Staat, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft Lateinamerikas 12 (1975): 67103; Notes on the Mexican Silver Mining

Figure 12. Shipment of Gold and Silver to Castille, 15031660, according to Earl J. Hamilton

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

1503

1511

1521

1531

1541

1551

1561

1571

1581

1591

1601

1611

1621

1631

1641

1651

By Decade 1571 = 15711580

Mill

ions

of S

ilver

Pes

os o

f 272

mar

aved

s

SILVER

GOLD

introduction 7

variety of published material on mercury shipment and production resulted in the much cited article by David Brading and Harry Cross on South American and Mexican gold and silver output to 1700. Their examination of long-term production trends provided a new, more rigorous look at New World production, although they overestimated Peruvian and Mexican gold production and missed the resurgence of both gold and silver output in the 1670s and 1680s after the depressed middle decades of the seventeenth century.17

Other scholars concentrated on production in various regions of colonial Latin America in diverse epochs. Adam Szasdi, for example, provided insights into production from the conquest to 1610, an epoch for which it is particularly difficult to calculate bullion output. Szasdi concluded that for that early period 25 percent of all gold and silver output remained in the Indies, 60 percent went to Seville, and the remaining 15 percent to the Far East, probably via Manila.18 During the 1970s John Fisher focused on mining in Lower Peru, primarily in the eighteenth century with penetrating insights into mining areas such as Pasco, Hualgayoc, Huantajaya, and other lower Peruvian mines. His quantitative data too was derived from the accounts of the cajas (treasury offices) which served these mines.19

In addition to Peter Bakewells monumental efforts, other histori-ans have contributed insights into silver mining in New Spain and elsewhere. The work of Richard Garner, for example, concentrates on eighteenth-century Mexico and describes the underpinnings of the mining economy, long-range trends in production, and quantitative estimates of output.20 David Brading has also taken a significant place

Industry in the 1590s, Humanitas (University of Nuevo Len) 19 (1978): 383409; Mining in Colonial Spanish America, in Leslie Bethell, ed., The Cambridge History of Latin America, The Colonial Period, 2 vols. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), 2:10551.

17 David A. Brading and Harry E. Cross, Colonial Silver Mining: Mexico and Peru, Hispanic American Historical Review 52 (November 1972): 545579.

18 Adam Szasdi, Preliminary Estimates of Gold and Silver Production in America, 15011610, in Hermann Kellenbenz, ed., Precious Metals in the Age of Expansion (Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1981): 151223.

19 John R. Fisher, Silver Mines and Silver Miners in Colonial Peru (Liverpool, Eng.: Centre for Latin American Studies, University of Liverpool, 1977); and Miners, Sil-ver Merchants, and Capitalists in Late Colonial Peru, Ibero-Amerikanisches Archiv 3 (1976): 257268.

20 Richard L. Garner, Reformas borbnicas y operaciones hacendariasLa Real caja de Zacatecas17501821, Historia Mexicana 27 (1978): 542587; Silver Produc-tion and Entrepreneurial Structure in 18th-Century Mexico, Jahrbuch fr Geschichte

8 chapter one

as analyst of the Mexican mining scene, particularly in Guanajuato, Bolaos, and Zacatecas; and also demonstrated the ties between mer-chants and miners in colonial New Spain.21 Bernd Hausberger has ana-lyzed the mining scene in New Spain for a seven-year period in the eighteenth century. Using data from the royal accounts from 1761 to 1767, he has delved into most aspects of the silver economy in New Spain. He has also analyzed locally generated silver reports presented at the various Mexican treasuries as a check on the reliability of the accounts as a source for production.22 In 1998 Engel Sluiter, who well over fifty years ago realized the importance of the royal accounts for determining buillion output, published his informative study on gold and silver production, 15931663. It provided a potpourri of accounts from various areas of the Spanish Indies as well as a good deal on the costs of colonial defense and remissions of precious metals to Castile and elsewhere. A real advantage of Sluiters work is his inclusion of a few accounts from the mining areas of New Granada and Chile. Moreover, before his death, he deposited his photocopies and personal transcripts in the Bancroft Library at the University of California at Berkeley, where they are available to interested investigators.23

Those scholars cited above greatly enriched our knowledge of Span-ish American gold and silver mining. Other important contributors to colonial mining history will emerge in chapters two through six, which follow. Colonial mintage too became a target for a number of investigators. By the end of the colonial period there were seven mints in colonial Spanish America in Mexico City, Guatemala City, Bogot,

von Staat, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft Lateinamerikas 17 (1980): 157185; Problmes dune ville a la fin de lpoque coloniale: Prix e salaires Zacatecas (17601821), Cahiers des Amriques Latines 6 (1972): 137; Long-Term Silver Mining Trends in Spanish America: A Comparative Analysis of Peru and Mexico, American Historical Review 93 (October 1988): 898935; and Economic Growth and Change in Bourbon Mexico (Gainesville: University Presses of Florida, 1993).

21 David A. Brading, Miners and Merchants in Bourbon Mexico (Cambridge: Cam-bridge University Press, 1971); Mexican Silver Mining in the Eighteenth Century: The Revival of Zacatecas, Hispanic American Historical Review 50 (November 1970): 66581; La minera de la plata en el siglo XVIII: El caso de Bolaos, Historia Mexi-cana 18 (1969): 31733; and his study of mining trends in Mexico and Peru with Harry Cross, cited above.

22 Bernd Hausberger, La Nueva Espaa y sus metales preciosos. La industria minera colonial a travs de los libros de cargo y data de la Real Hacienda, 17611767 (Fran-kfurt am Main: Vervuert Verlag, 1997 and Madrid, Iberoamericana, 1997).

23 Engel Sluiter, The Gold and Silver of Spanish America, 15931663 (Berkeley: The Bancroft Library, 1998).

introduction 9

Popayn, Lima, Potos, and Santiago de Chile. The mint on Espaola ceased operations in the seventeeth century.

Once again it was Alexander von Humboldt who led the way in estimating mint output. Among other things on his visits to Mexico, he inspected the mint (ceca or casa de moneda). Awed by its size and productive activity (it was the largest mint of its time), Humboldt compiled coinage figures for Mexico from 1690 to the beginning of the nineteenth century. In fact, he used mintage as his guide to production in New Spain from 16901803.24 He also commented on mintage pro-duction elsewhere in the Indies. In the mid-nineteenth century Man-uel Orozco y Berra published a record for the Mexican government on mintage in that country from earliest colonial times to the middle of the nineteenth century.25 His listing is reliable only after 1690.

Historians interest in mintage temporarily declined thereafter, and only in 1919 did the inveterate Chilean bibliophile Jos Toribio Med-ina publish his Las monedas coloniales.26 In it he provided capsule his-tories of each of the eight Spanish American mints (including the one in Espaola). He also estimated mint output in some areasthe first few years of gold output at the Guatemalan mint years, for example, as well as plates of the various coins produced in these cecas. Toribio Medina chronicled the institutional history of the Mexican ceca, dis-cussing events such as the shift of control from empresarios to royal mint officials appointed by the viceroy. In 1994 the Mexican historian Victor Manuel Soria Murrillo filled a large gap when he published his La casa de moneda de Mxico bajo la administracin borbnica, 17331821, a thoroughgoing study including the amounts coined dur-ing that period. Humboldt believed that the mintage estimates avail-able to him for the period prior to 1690 were not accurate, due in large part to the fact that private empresarios controlled mint operations in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Soria does not provide annual mint production figures until 1733 but then lists the marks of gold and

24 Humboldt, Ensayo polttico, 3:302304.25 Manuel Orozco y Berra, Informe sobre la acuacin en las Casas de Moneda de la

Repblica, G. Manuel Siliceo, ed., Memoria de la Secretara de Fomento, Colonizacin, Industria, y Comercio de la Repblica Mxicana (Mxico, 1857). These mint output figures have been reprinted in Walter Howe, The Mining Guild of New Spain and Its Tribunal General, 17701821 (Cambridge, Mass., 1949), 453459.

26 Jos Toribio Medina, Las monedas coloniales (Santiago de Chile: Imprenta Elzeviriana, 1919).

10 chapter one

silver coined, including those of lower silver or gold content ( febles).27 Humboldts figures beginning in 1690 and Sorias estimates offer a reliable assessment of Mexican coinage for the Bourbon period. Mint operations in the sixteenth and seventeenth century under the private empresarios still await careful analysis.

Some other mints of colonial Spanish America have received schol-arly attention as well. The ceca at Bogot, for example, has benefitted from the efforts of A. M. Barriga Villallba, whose three-volume work, Historia de la Casa de Moneda, describes the activities and output of the first New Granadan mints at Cartagena and then at Bogot from 1607 to the close of the wars of independence. He also analyzes pro-duction at the Popayn mint established in the 1750s.28 Also useful for New Granadan mint output in the eighteenth century is Jorge Orlando Melos essay on minting in his Sobre historia y poltica, based on archival documents. This article assesses gold production in dif-ferent regions of New Granada in various epochs.29 Works of Jaime Jaramillo Uribe, Germn Colmenares, and the nineteenth-century observer Vicente Restrepo examine New Granadan gold output gener-ally.30 Barriga Villalba and Orlando Melo are sound references for mint output. Two other volumes are particularly enlightening on Popayn, one by Zamira Daz Lpez that covers the period to 1733 and the other by Guido Barona from 17301830.31

27 Victor Manuel Soria Murillo, La casa de moneda de Mxico bajo la adminis-tracin borbnica, 17331821 (Iztapalapa: Universidad Autnoma Metropolitana, 1994), 101107, 111114.

28 A. M. Barriga Villalba, Historia de la Casa de Moneda, 3 tomos (Bogot: Banco de la Repblica, 1969). For the Bogot mint I have also consulted documents in the Archivo General de Indias. Santa Fe, Legajos 373, 828833 and Quito, Legajos 565, 568, and 586.

29 Jorge Orlando Melo, Sobre historia y poltica (Bogot: La Carreta Inditos, Ltda., 1979 ), 6184. I have also checked the mint records for Popayn in the Archivo Gen-eral de Indias, Quito, Legajos 56268; and Santa Fe, Legajos 830 and 832.

30 Germn Colmenares, La formacin de la economa colonial (1500 1740), and Jaime Jaramillo Uribe, La economa del virreinato (17401810), in Historia eon-mica de Colombia, ed. Jos Antonio Ocampo (Bogot: Siglo Veintiuno de Colombia, 1987): 585. A republication of Vicente Restrepos Estudio sobre las minas de oro y plata de Colombia (Bogot: Publicaciones del Banco de Repblica, 1952) provides aggregate estimates of gold and silver output. This nineteenth-century work estimates silver output in New Granada at 4 percent and gold at 96 percent Also useful for a description of the mining economy is Germn Colmenares, Historia econmica y social de Colombia (Bogot: Editorial La Carreta, 1973).

31 Zamira Daz Lpez, Oro, sociedad y economa. El sistema colonial en la Goberna-cin de Popayn:15331733 (Bogot: Banco de Repblica, 1994); and Guido Barona

introduction 11

For Upper and Lower Peru the mint in Potos was founded in the mid-sixteenth century and operated continuously until the very end of the colonial period. The casa de moneda in Lima had its origins in the seventeenth century. It closed briefly for a few years toward the end of the seventeenth century but reopened a few years later. Peru-vian scholars, Carlos Lazo Garca32 and Manuel Moreyra y Paz Soldn have analyzed in detail the output of both the Potos and Lima mints. Lazos three-volume history of those two cecas contains a wealth of information on mint output, mint technology, and virtually all aspects of mint activity. He is careful to make the distinction between major money or ingots (moneda mayor) and lesser money or coins (moneda menor). Another virtue of this study is Lazos use of mint seigniorage taxes to determine output for the early years of the Potos mint. The importance of this work should not be underestimated.

Lazos progenitor, Manuel Moreyra y Paz Soldn, also contributed a great deal to the study of Peruvian monetary history in the colonial epoch, including quantitative estimates of the mint output at Lima and Potos.33 His collection of articles on coinage is particularly illuminat-ing on the construction and development of the Lima mint and on its discussion of the peso ensayado, the peso of 450 maraveds used for so long as a unit of account in Peru. His efforts along with those of Mazo are fundamental for understanding mintage at both Potos and Lima. In addition, Julio Benavides has written a history of the Potos mint that provides aggregate estimates of mint output and a good deal on the history of that ceca.34

In the eighteenth century the Spanish crown established three new mints in the IndiesGuatemala, Chile, and Popayn. Sources on mint production at Popayn have already been discussed, but sources for the Guatemalan and Chilean mints are scanty. In the end I have had to conduct new research in the mine records of the Archive of the Indies in Sevilla to determine the output of these casas de monedas. For Guatemala the tables on mint production came from records in

Becerra., La maldicin de Midas en una regin del mundo colonial: Popayn, 17301830 (Cali: Editorial de la Facultad de Humanidades, 1995).

32 Carlos Lazo Garca, Economa colonial y rgimen monetario: siglos XVIXIX 3 tomos (Lima: Banco Central de Reserva del Per Fondo Editorial, 1992).

33 Manuel Moreyra y Paz Soldn, La moneda colonial en el Per; captulos de su historia (Lima: Banco Central de Reserva del Per, 1980).

34 Julio Benavides, Historia de moneda en Bolivia (La Paz: Ediciones Puerta del Sol, 1972).

12 chapter one

the Audiencia of Guatemala section, Legajos (bundles) 79195. For the early period of the mint, 17291746, Jos Toribio Medina provides a list of gold marks coined in Guatemala.35 On balance, however, the historical literature contains little on the Guatemalan mint.

Few published records exist for the mint at Santiago de Chile, but fortunately in 1881 the Chilean historian Benjamn Vicua Mackenna wrote a two-volume history, The Age of Gold in Chile.36 In it he pro-vided mint output figures for Santiago from its founding in 1749 to the end of the colonial epoch. I have supplemented his figures for coinage with new research in the Audiencia of Chile section of the Archive of the Indies, primarily the biennial reports of mintage sent to Spain.37

Gold production and mintage output for Brazil have received a good deal of attention, although not the rigorous analysis of archi-val records which has characterized the historiography of Spanish American precious metals. At present Brazilianists consider output and mintage estimates to be tentative. Moreover Brazil was a more free-wheelng area of the Indies than Spanish America, with far less peninsular control exercised over Portuguese or creole subjects. Fraud was rampant. In fact, one knowledgeable expert on colonial Brazil esti-mated a fraud rate of 50 percent or more in the official reporting of mining and slave records, two keys to Brazilian output. Still, most of those willing to estimate Brazilian gold output have concluded that it was close to 1,000,000 kilograms.

Not surprisingly, Alexander von Humboldt was one of the first to hazard an estimate for Brazilian gold. He calculated that from 1492 to 1803 Brazil produced approximately 1,375,000 kilograms of fine gold (the equivalent of 855,544,000 in silver pesos). As noted earlier, Hum-boldt held that 19 percent of this was illicit production, a fraud rate for Luso-America that is probably far too low.

About the time Humboldt was putting forward his figures, the Portuguese monarchy appointed Wilhelm Ludwig von Eschwege (17771855) as intendant of the Minas Gerais mines. A colonel in the Portuguese royal corps of engineers at the end of the eighteenth

35 Toribio Medina, Monedas coloniales, 287.36 Benjamn Vucua Mackenna, La edad del oro en Chile 2 tomos (Santiago: Biblio-

teca de Vida Chilena, 1932).37 AGI, Chile, Legajos 374376, 381, and 38485. These figures on coinage conform

closely with those of Vicua Mackenna. Where data in the AGI were not extant, I used his figures for the years 17721781, 17891800, and 18051820.

introduction 13

century and beginning of the nineteenth, he assumed the office with orders to increase production and reduce fraud in the gold and dia-mond trade. He also had a deep-seated historical interest in gold min-ing in Brazil, not only in Minas Gerais but also in Gois, Mato Grosso, and So Paulo. The result was a book published in Berlin in 1833, Contributions to Brazilian Mining, subsequently translated into Por-tuguese as Pluto Brasiliensis. In it Eschwege put forward statistics on production at Minas from 17001820 of 35,687 arrobas38 or 535,305 kilograms; for Gois (17201730), 9,212 arrobas or 138,180 kilograms; for Mato Grosso (17211820), 3,187 arrobas or 47,805 kilograms; and for So Paulo (16901820), 4,650 arrobas or 69,750 kilograms, a total of 527,360 arrobas of gold or approximately 791,040 registered kilo-grams. Not included was the illegal gold confiscated in Brazil and later exported from 1600 to 1820, 10,709 arrobas or 160,635 kilograms, creating a grand total for this epoch of 951,675 kilograms.39 While Eschwege seemed certain about output at Minas Gerais, he was less sure about the yield in other areas. Nonetheless as a careful observer he provides useful benchmarks. The translator of Pluto Brasiliensis, Domicio de Figuerido Murta, complicated the picture somewhat when he noted in 1944 that Brazilian output from 17251822 totaled 1,047,500 kilograms.40 That figure appears close to Humboldts cal-culation, but significantly it does not include output from the 1690s, when the great Brazilian gold rush began, until 1725.

In 1879 Adolf Soetbeer (18021892) offered his calculations of Bra-zilian gold production for the period 16911875, cited in J. F. Nor-manos Brazil: A Study of Economic Types. For the period 16911820 Soetbeer believed that the mines of Brazil produced 910,100 kilograms of gold and that the peak twenty years were between 1741 and 1760 when extractions from Brazilian mines reached 292,000 kilograms.41

At the same time Normano published his work, other analysts sur-veyed the economic history of colonial Brazil and wrote substantial works useful for the understanding of gold mining in Luso-America.

38 One arroba was equal to 15 kilograms. 39 Wilhelm Ludwig von Eschwege, Pluto Brasiliensis 2 vols. (So Paulo: Companha

Editora Nacional, 1944), 1:37071. The German edition was entitled Beitrage zunge-birgskunde brasilien (Berlin: 1833).

40 Eschwege, Pluto, 1:375.41 J. Normano, Brazil: A Study of Economic Types (Chapel Hill: University of North

Carolina Press, 1933), 92. Normano cites Soetbeers figures, taken from Edelmetall-Produktion und werthverhltnis zwischen gold und silber (Gotha: J. Perthes, 1879).

14 chapter one

In 1930 Joo Pandi Calgeras wrote his Historical Formation of Bra-zil, a book that was republished in many later editions. By his cal-culations, between 1700 and 1801 the gold mines of Brazil produced 65,500 arrobas of gold or 982,500 kilograms712,500 kilograms in Minas Gerais; 195,000 kilograms in Gois and Mato Grosso; and 75,000 kilograms in So Paulo and Bahia-Cear, the latter two calcula-tions only from 1720 to 1801.42 Of all those who presented estimates of Brazilian gold output, Calgeras appears closest to the mark. Writing about the same time as Calgeras was completing his history, the eco-nomic historian Roberto Simonsen produced a two-volume Economic History of Brazil 15001820. While he hazarded no guesses as to the course of Brazilian gold output, he did provide an excellent picture of the mining economy in colonial Brazil.43 Charles Boxer also detailed the intricacies of mining operations in Luso-America in The Golden Age of Brazil, 16951750.44

The Brazilian historian Virgilio Noya Pinto has made one of the more recent estimates of Brazilian gold output in his book Brazilian Gold and Anglo-Portuguese Trade, estimates that he published again in 1987 in a compilation of essays: Colonial Brazil.45 He calculates that between 1700 and 1799, 128,831 kilograms were produced in Minas Gerais; 31,880 kilograms in Gois; and 12,000 kilograms in Mato Grosso. This amounts to 172,711 kilograms for Luso-America in this perioda surprisngly low estimate by a well established economic his-torian of Brazil. Meanwhile, Michel Morineau used data from Euro-pean commercial gazettes to estimate the volume of gold shipped from Brazil to Lisbon from 16991810, concluding that 819,279 kilograms of fine gold reached Lisbon.46 Morineau also calculates that 446,627

42 Joo Panda Calgeras, Formao histrica do Brasil 7 ed. (So Paulo: Companha Editora Nacional, 1987), 46. Other editions appeared in 1930, 1935, 1938, and 1963.

43 Roberto C. Simonsen, Historia econmica do Brasil, 15001820 2 vols. (So Paulo: Companhia Editora Nacional, 1937).

44 Charles R. Boxer, The Golden Age of Brazil, 16951760 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1964).

45 Virgilio Noya Pinto, O ouro brasileiro e o comrcio anglo-portugus (So Paulo: Companhia Editra Nacional, 1979). See also Leslie Bethell, ed., Colonial Brazil (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987). Noya Pintos estimates may be found in J. R. Russell-Woods chapter, The Gold Cycle, c. 16901750, 191243. The table is on page 237.

46 Michel Morineau, Incoyables gazettes et fabuleux mtaux. Les retours des trsors amricains daprs les gazettes hollandaises (XVIeXVIIIe sicles) (Paris: Maison des

introduction 15

kilograms of gold were coined in Brazilian mints between 1703 and 1806.47 The paper by Jorge Braga de Macedo, Alvaro Ferreira da Silva, and Rita Martins de Sousa, War, Taxes, and Gold: The Inheritance of the Real, presented at the Twelfth International Economic History Congress in Madrid in 1998, encompasses output at the Lisbon mint 16881797. The paper is useful for what was occurring in the metro-politan mint, but incorporates both the raw gold coined from Brazil and shipped to Portugal from Africa.

That sources are available for a more concise analysis of registered gold output in Brazil seems evident from a document provided to me by Professor Mary Karasch. This document contains a list of the marks of gold registered at the two gold smelters of Gois from 1752 to 1803 at Villaboa and at El Norte. This document, similar to the kinds of sum-maries (estados) emanating from bureaucrats in the Spanish empire, demonstrates that the most productive years in Gois were from 1752 to 1774, with output falling below one thousand marks after that. Together these two smelters produced approximately 11,500 kilograms of gold from 17521803. The document does not, however, include the amounts registered during the early years of mining in Gois.48

The discussion above reveals the relatively narrow range of esti-mates on Brazilian gold output. In this study I have relied primarily on the estimates of Joo Panda Calgeras supplemented by those of von Eschwege and the document from Gois provided by Professor Karasch. The Brazilian mintage figures presented by Michel Morineau are crucial. The same is true of his estimates of gold shipments from Brazil to Lisbon. Most likely because it incorporated a fraud factor of 19 percent, the early nineteenth-century calculation of Alexander von Humboldt seems reasonable, although the fraud rate was probably much higher than his estimate.

As indicated in the preface, this study intends to take a new look at New World gold and silver output based primarily on the royal accounts (cartas cuentas) wherever possible. When other sources have

Sciences de lHomme; and London: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 13537, 164, 167.

47 Morineau, Gazettes, 14445.48 Mappa do rendimiento de real quinto das duas caxas de fundao da capitanias

de Goyaz, Contaduria de Vllaboa, 3 Janeiro de 1805. The document is housed in the Ministerio do Ultamar, Arquivo Histrico Ultramarino, Gois. The fundao in the north of Gois began operation in 1752.

16 chapter one

been used to supplement the accounts, a methodological appendix at the end of each chapter will explain the other sources. In Spanish America 99 percent of all silver was mined in New Spain and Upper and Lower Peru. Fortunately, there are accounts extant for these areas for virtually the entire colonial period.

Gold and Silver in a Comparative New World Perspective

In many ways this brief section anticipates the contents of the chapters which follow, but at the outset it provide a clear picture of the impor-tance of gold and silver in the Indies in the colonial epoch. Except for Brazil in Luso-America and New Granada, Ecuador, Chile, and the Caribbean in Spanish America, gold in the Indies was scarcer than silver. Silver output by weight during the colonial epoch to 1810 amounted to 86,000,000 kilograms, fifty times that of gold (1,700,000 kilograms). Gold constituted about 2 percent of the total by weight of the two precious metals (see Table 12 and Figure 13). In value, however, silver amounted to 3,500,000,000 silver pesos of eight reales, whereas gold amounted to the equivalent of 1,100,000,000 silver pesos, almost 25 percent of combined gold and silver output in terms of its purchasing power (see Figure 12).

In the early decades of Spanish penetration of the Indies, gold dom-inated. Despite the abundance of silver ultimately found in America, none reached Castile until the 1520s, and in that decade only a meager

Figure 13. New World Silver and Gold Output, 14921810

0

50

100

150

200

250

30014

91

1511

1531

1551

1571

1591

1611

1631

1651

1671

1691

1711

1731

1751

1771

1791

By Decade 1681 = 16811690

Mill

ions

of S

ilver

Pes

os o

f 272

mar

aved

s

Silver

Gold

santiago_robledoResaltadoIn SpanishAmerica 99 percent of all silver was mined in New Spain and Upperand Lower Peru.

santiago_robledoResaltadoGold constituted about 2 percent of the total by weightof the two precious metals (see Table 12 and Figure 13). In value,however, silver amounted to 3,500,000,000 silver pesos of eight reales,whereas gold amounted to the equivalent of 1,100,000,000 silver pesos,almost 25 percent of combined gold and silver output in terms of itspurchasing power

introduction 17

150 kilograms or 5,800 pesos.49 In the 1530s, however, silver shipments to the Old World constituted almost 30 percent, remaining in that range until the 1570s when silver made up almost 90 percent to well over that amount in the ensuing decades to 1660.

Over the colonial period to 1810 the ratio of gold to silver out-put fluctuated markedly (see Figure 13). In the 1550s gold produc-tion amounted to less than 20 percent of the total and dropped below 10 percent in the 1580s until the opening of the eighteenth century when the effects of the rich gold strikes in Brazil made their mark. Gold, in fact, reached almost 30 percent of total New World bullion output in the first two decades of the eighteenth century, 40 percent or more in the ensuing three, but fell into the 30-percent range in the 1750s through the 1780s, and 20 percent in the decades to 1810, explained in part by the increased production of silver in Mexico and Peru after 1750 and the drop in gold output in Brazil. Over the entire colonial period, Mexico generated approximately 45 percent of the bullion, followed by Peru with 32 percent and Brazil 14 percent (see Figure 14).

49 Earl J. Hamilton, Tesoro americano y la revolucin de los precios en Espaa, 15011650 (Barcelona: Editorial Ariel, 1975), 5455. This is a Spanish translation of his American Treasure and the Price Revolution in Spain (Cambridge: Harvard Uni-versity Press, 1934).

Figure 14. New World Gold and Silver output by Region, 14921810

In Millions of Silver Pesos of 272 maraveds

MEXICO2058.03 = 45%

CHILE49.5 = 1%

NEW GRANADA217.02 = 5%

PERU1470.56 = 32%

BRAZIL656.4 = 14%

OTHER*80.45 = 2%

*Includes registries in the Caribbean, Central America, Ecuador, and the Rio de la Plata

santiago_robledoResaltado**** Figure 14. New World Gold and Silver output by Region, 14921810

18 chapter one

Together gold and silver production in the New World from 1492 to 1810 amounted to 4,600,000,000 silver pesos, a very conservative estimate based primarily on registry figures with no fraud percent-age factored in, although there clearly was illicit unregistered output. The trajectory of the output of both metals combined was generally upward from the moment of conquest except for a slight dip in the last half of the seventeenth century (Figure 13). In general, though, production of gold and silver rose, oftentimes dramatically, and the eighteenth century became the great age of both gold and silver in the Indies. In fact in the 1790s, the most productive ten years of the entire colonial epoch, the two metals combined reached an amount worth almost four hundred million silver pesos.

introduction 19

Tables

Table 11. Adolf Soetbeers Estimates of World Silver and Gold Production, 17931810.

Silver Gold

DECADE MARKS KILOGRAMS MARKS KILOGRAMS

14931500 103,200 376,000 129,600 46,40015011510 129,000 470,000 162,000 58,00015111520 129,000 470,000 162,000 58,00015211530 230,000 900,000 200,000 71,60015311540 230,000 900,000 200,000 71,60015411550 620,000 2,843,000 220,000 78,35015511560 770,000 3,116,000 240,000 85,10015611570 728,000 2,995,000 191,000 68,40015711580 728,000 2,995,000 191,000 68,40015811590 989,000 4,190,000 206,000 73,80015911600 989,000 4,190,000 206,000 73,80016011610 664,000 4,230,000 238,000 85,20016111620 664.000 4,230,000 238,000 85,20016211630 783,260 3,936,000 231,570 83,00016311640 783,260 3,936,000 231,570 83,00016411650 703,300 3,663,000 244,680 87,77016511660 703,300 3,663,000 244,680 87,77016611670 626,820 3,370,000 258,350 92,60016711680 626,820 3,370,000 258,350 92,60016811690 635,930 3,419,000 300,350 107,65016911700 635,930 3,419,000 300,350 107,65017011710 650,750 3,556,000 357,680 128,20017111720 650,750 3,556,000 357,680 128,20017211730 797,720 4,312,000 532,330 190,80017311740 797,720 4,312,000 532,330 190,80017411750 1,007,640 5,331,450 686,620 246,10017511760 1,007,640 5,331,450 686,620 246,10017611770 1,240,210 6,527,400 577,670 207,05017711780 1,240,210 6,527,400 577,670 207,05017811790 1,626,260 8,790,600 496,340 177,90017911800 1,626,260 8,790,600 496,340 177,90018011810 1,600,530 8,941,500 496,000 177,780TOTAL 24,717,510 126,657,400 10,450,780 3,743,770

20 chapter one

Table 12. New World Silver and Gold Output, 14921810.in Millions of Pesos of 272 Maraveds

DECADE SILVER GOLD TOTAL %SILVER %GOLD

14921500 0 0.70 0.70 0 100.00%15011510 0 8.20 8.20 0 100.00%15111520 0 7.21 7.21 0 100.00%15211530 0.34 3.92 4.26 7.98% 92.02%15311540 7.55 11.12 18.67 40.44% 59.56%15411550 28.12 8.73 36.85 76.31% 23.69%15511560 42.71 10.64 53.35 80.06% 19.94%15611570 56.05 8.85 64.90 86.36% 13.64%15711580 71.47 13.00 84.47 84.61% 15.39%15811590 100.19 10.18 110.37 90.78% 9.22%15911600 113.40 11.91 125.31 90.50% 9.50%16011610 121.81 12.75 134.56 90.52% 9.48%16111620 124.28 10.43 134.71 92.26% 7.74%16211630 123.63 9.91 133.54 92.58% 7.42%16311640 128.60 5.24 133.84 96.08% 3.92%16411650 102.83 6.72 109.55 93.87% 6.13%16511660 92.16 6.73 98.89 93.19% 6.81%16611670 85.73 4.74 90.47 94.76% 5.24%16711680 100.02 4.54 104.56 95.66% 4.34%16811690 109.85 5.85 115.70 94.94% 5.06%16911700 92.80 8.24 101.04 91.84% 8.16%17011710 78.25 33.24 111.49 70.19% 29.81%17111720 92.61 37.05 129.66 71.43% 28.57%17211730 112.45 74.25 186.70 60.23% 39.77%17311740 130.65 99.12 229.77 56.86% 43.14%17411750 147.94 108.73 256.67 57.64% 42.36%17511760 174.58 90.41 264.99 65.88% 34.12%17611770 166.72 95.41 262.13 63.60% 36.40%17711780 216.55 104.65 321.20 67.42% 32.58%17811790 241.88 102.27 344.15 70.28% 29.72%17911800 289.94 102.59 392.53 73.86% 26.14%18011810 279.46 82.06 361.52 77.30% 22.70%TOTAL 3432.57 1099.39 4531.96 75.74% 24.26%

introduction 21

Tabl

e 1

3. E

stim

ated

Tot

al G

old

and

Silv

er P

rodu

ctio

n in

the

Indi

es, 1

492

1810

.in

Mill

ions

of P

esos

of 2

72 M

arav

eds

DEC

AD

EC

ARI

BBEA

NM

EXIC

OC

ENTR

AL

AM

ERIC

APE

RUN

EW

GRA

NA

DA

ECU

AD

OR

CH

ILE

BRA

ZIL

RIO

DE

LA

PLA

TATO

TAL

1492

150

00.

70

0.

7015

011

510

8.20

8.20

1511

152

07.

21

7.

2115

211

530

2.40

1.82

0.04

4.26

1531

154

01.

554.

670.

0610

.61

1.61

0.17

18

.67

1541

155

00.

9311

.38

0.09

20.4

41.

480.

562.

00

36

.88

1551

156

018

.71

0.09

25.9

13.

971.

643.

00

53

.32

1561

157

034

.42

0.09

21.8

95.

392.

081.

03

64

.90

1571

158

039

.27

0.30

32.1

55.

653.

963.

14

84

.47

1581

159

034

.16

0.85

65.4

44.

774.

151.

00

11

0.37

1591

160

042

.67

0.68

70.3

18.

902.

250.

50

12

5.31

1601

161

050

.39

0.64

72.2

19.

881.

340.

10

13

4.56

1611

162

052

.98

0.55

72.6

27.

910.

600.

05

13

4.71

1621

163

050

.75

0.30

74.5

36.

671.

280.

01

13

3.54

1631

164

046

.39

0.21

84.1

72.

650.

410.

01

13

3.84

1641

165

034

.55

0.30

69.3

35.

290.

080

109.

5516

511

660

37.2

70.

3455

.76

5.39

0.13

0

98

.89

1661

167

036

.21

0.26

50.7

73.

080.

150

90.4

716

711

680

53.3

90.

1747

.95

2.92

0.13

0

10

4.56

1681

169

059

.88

0.17

51.3

14.

210.

130

115.

7016

911

700

51.5

20.

2642

.92

3.29

0.22

0.04

2.79

10

1.04

1701

171

051

.21

0.34

28.4

83.

360.

190.

0127

.90

11

1.49

1711

172

066

.30

0.51

27.6

64.

830.

220.

1230

.02

12

9.66

1721

173

083

.04

0.68

30.5

45.

580.

090.

1666

.61

18

6.70

1731

174

095

.63

1.76

36.5

36.

590.

060.

2788

.93

22

9.77

1741

175

010

7.07

1.73

44.0

49.

570.

030.

4693

.77

25

6.67

1751

176

012

3.85

2.08

53.5

511

.49

1.30

0.71

72.0

1

264.

9917

611

770

113.

671.

7358

.4

13.2

51.

084.

4169

.59

26

2.13

1771

178

015

4.06

1.51

72.3

314

.90

1.17

6.44

70.7

9

321.

2017

811

790

176.

161.

7176

.35

18.5

32.

667.

5760

.95

0.22

344.

1517

911

800

209.

281.

9597

.57

22.4

83.

279.

9747

.57

0.44

392.

5318

011

810

217.

331.

4276

.79

23.3

80.

628.

5025

.47

8.01

361.

52To

tal

20.9

92,

058.

0320

.82

1,47

0.56

217.

0229

.97

49.5

065

6.40

8.67

4,53

1.96

CHAPTER TWO

GOLD: THE SCARCER METAL?

This chapter begins with a question: was gold the scarcer metal? The answer, of course, is yes. According to the discussion in chapter one, silver was more abundant, a ratio in value of four to one in favor of silver. But the answer is not necessarily a resounding yes. As noted previously, gold nuggets and dust were a common means of exchange in gold producing areas such as San Luis Potos in Mexico; Antioquia and the Choc in New Granada; Carabaya in Lower Peru and Zaruma in Ecuador in the viceroyalty of Peru; Santiago and La Serena in Chile; and Minas Gerais, Gois, and Mato Grosso in Brazil. Residents in these areas traded in gold chunks or powder and quickly learned ways of identifying the fineness of gold used as a medium of exchange in this form, and ways of making th