From Silver to Tin and Lithium: Five Centuries of Mining In Potosi.

TY - CHAP

T1 - From Silver to Tin and Lithium

T2 - Five Centuries of Mining In Potosi.

AU - Barragán R., Rossana

AU - Soliz, Carmen

PY - 2024

Y1 - 2024

N2 - In this chapter, I examine how minerals destined for the global market expanded the commodity frontier from one mineral to another in short boom cycles and longer periods of decline. The Bolivian case is studied in different historical moments, from the sixteenth century to twenty-first century. Silver was at the center of the exports in the colonial period as well as in the nineteenth century. Tin became Bolivia’s most important export in the twentieth century; and lithium will become the new backbone in the twenty-first century. Three economic and political actors of mining are at the center of this analysis. First, the colonial and national state with its policies defining the rules of property, the legitimate access to minerals, and the rights to trade and export them in the global market. Second, the concessionaires of the mines and refineries. Finally, the workers that struggled for better conditions as wage-workers or to avoid becoming proletarians. Through this long-term study, the global, regional, and local scales are studied in its connections. The role of global actors like the Spanish Empire, the international market, and the transnational firms, together with the state, are key to understand the conflicts grasping historical continuities, ruptures, and cycles.

AB - In this chapter, I examine how minerals destined for the global market expanded the commodity frontier from one mineral to another in short boom cycles and longer periods of decline. The Bolivian case is studied in different historical moments, from the sixteenth century to twenty-first century. Silver was at the center of the exports in the colonial period as well as in the nineteenth century. Tin became Bolivia’s most important export in the twentieth century; and lithium will become the new backbone in the twenty-first century. Three economic and political actors of mining are at the center of this analysis. First, the colonial and national state with its policies defining the rules of property, the legitimate access to minerals, and the rights to trade and export them in the global market. Second, the concessionaires of the mines and refineries. Finally, the workers that struggled for better conditions as wage-workers or to avoid becoming proletarians. Through this long-term study, the global, regional, and local scales are studied in its connections. The role of global actors like the Spanish Empire, the international market, and the transnational firms, together with the state, are key to understand the conflicts grasping historical continuities, ruptures, and cycles.

KW - Natural Resources

KW - Frontiers commodities

KW - Social conflict

KW - Bolivia History

KW - Mining

KW - Workers

UR - https://www.unmpress.com/9780826366177/the-struggle-for-natural-resources/

M3 - Chapter

SN - 9780826366160

BT - The Struggle for Natural Resources

A2 - Barragan, Rossana

A2 - Soliz, Carmen

PB - University of New Mexico Press

ER -