Potosi Silver Route

The colonial paths that moved Andean silver from Potosi to the Pacific and Atlantic export gates from 1545 onward.

Overview

The Cerro Rico strike of 1545 turned Potosi, in modern Bolivia, into one of the world's largest cities within decades, worked by the mita, a colonial rotational labor draft. Silver traveled by llama and mule to Arica or Callao, north by sea to Panama, over the isthmus by mule to Portobelo, and onward in the fleets. A later Atlantic branch ran through Buenos Aires. The pieces of eight minted there became the world's most trusted coin, reaching Manila and Canton. Mercury from Huancavelica kept the refining mills running. Output declined in the 18th century, but the silver had already globalized money.