Potosí, Mining and Food

Historical period

⚠ NOT ROMANTICISED. The Cerro Rico at POTOSÍ produced an enormous share of the silver that financed the Spanish empire, worked under the MITA forced labour draft that conscripted Indigenous communities across the Andes, with a death toll over centuries that historians count in the hundreds of thousands. Potosí was briefly among the largest cities in the world and had to be fed from far away — which built the mule trains, the valley agriculture and the chuño and charque trade that supplied it. Coca was distributed to workers. Modern mining foodways in Potosí and Oruro descend from this.

What is recorded

The Cerro Rico at Potosí was worked under the mita forced-labour draft which conscripted Indigenous communities across the Andes, with a death toll over the colonial centuries that historians count in the hundreds of thousands. Supplying the city shaped valley agriculture, the chuño and charque trade and the mule-train networks of the region. documented

The Cerro Rico at Potosí worked under the mita forced-labour draft; the city briefly among the largest in the world and fed from far away. documented