Potosí, BO
Silver by llama to the Pacific
The patio process, invented by the Spanish merchant Bartolomé de Medina in 1554, used mercury amalgamation to take silver out of lower-grade ores. At the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries the city was the second largest in the world, after London. The silver left by llama and mule train for the Pacific coast, went north to Panama City, crossed the isthmus to Nombre de Dios, and sailed to Spain with the treasure fleets. Guanajuato in Mexico surpassed it in the 18th century.
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Sources
- Wikidata · CC0
- Wikipedia (en) · CC BY-SA 4.0