Bewitchment of Silver The Social Economy of Mining in Nineteenth-Century Peru

9780896802094

0896802094

Mining was crucial for the development of nineteenth-century Peru. Silver mining in particular was a key not only to the export sector but also to the creation of an internal market and national development. The Bewitchment of Silver is an inquiry into the impact of that mineral on a national economy in a country at the periphery of nineteenth-century capitalism. Josh Deustua argues that developing countries, such as Peru, must be understood in terms of achieving domestic development as well as in their role in generating foreign exchange and in linking themselves to the world economy. Focusing on the different sectors of mining production in nineteenth-century Peru, the mines, mine owners and mine workers, the transportation networks and the use of muleteers, this study is equally concerned with market-building and domestic development in nineteenth-century Latin America.