The Peruvian Financial Crisis at the Beginning of the Eighteenth Century: Silver Mining and the Mercury Mine of Huancavelica

Abstract

During the early years of the eighteenth century the Peruvian treasury faced a critical situation of indebtedness. In both the metropolis and the viceroyalty this problem was blamed on the lack of revenue caused by the extensive illicit trade in mercury and silver. This article analyzes the structure and production cycles of Huancavelica from the end of the seventeenth century to approximately 1730, reaching the conclusion that mercury contraband must have been much less important than what the authorities said it was, and in any case, limited to the small deposits in the proximities of the mercury mine.