Description: Today, if Spaniards speak of something very expensive, they say 'vale un porosi'. In the 16th century, the area around Potosi, Bolivia, was regarded as the world's largest industrial complex. The processed silver from the ore out of the Cerro Rico would have been sufficient to build a silver bridge with a silver road across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe, with enough more to haul the same amount across it. It had a large part in fueling the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. From the men of the silver mountain (mostly indigenious) pressed into work up through those today working as cooperatives more than 6 million died. Even now there are one or two serious accidents per day. |
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