A 1581 illustration by Richard Ihones of Potosi, a silver-mining city in Peru that was, at the time,
A 1581 illustration by Richard Ihones of Potosi, a silver-mining city in Peru that was, at the time, one of the largest cities in the world. Perhaps 200,000 people came to work at the “ritche Mines,” the precious metals from which caused massive inflation in the global economy. Of course, many of the workers at Potosi, who worked in brutal and unsafe conditions, were not free to leave, as they were required to work under the Incan mita forced-labor system, which the Spanish had continued once they took the area over. {WHF} {HTE} {Medium} -- source link
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