Potosí hydraulic system and ingenios
Sistema hidráulico e ingenios de Potosí
- Date
- 1573-1621 · confidence medium
- Place
- Cerro Rico, Potosí, Bolivia
- Credited to
- Viceroyalty of Peru (Viceroy Toledo's reforms); mita labour
- Field
- Matter & energy
What it is
A chain of reservoirs and canals in the mountains that fed water-powered ingenios to grind silver ore before amalgamation. By about 1621 some 130 mills lined the Potosí riverbed.
Figures for mills and reservoirs vary by source (110-140 ingenios in the early 17th century); the work was mostly carried out between 1573 and 1621.
What it led to
- Industrial ore grinding on an unprecedented scale in the Americas
- Silver output that fuelled 17th-century world trade
- Massive exploitation of mita labour