The rescue of hidden treasures: the organization of the miners for the open pit work on the Cerro de San Pedro Potosí during the 17th century.

Abstract

The process of extracting metals from Cerro de San Pedro mines; located in el real de San Luis Potosí Real during its first century of existence was possible due to different factors. In most of them, Spanish authorities had participation. They conceded mine land grants, established the rules for them to be used and tried to create favorable conditions for the functioning of mining centers. The request of the miners to the Crown for a loan in the last decade of XVII century, in order to rescue the treasure from a group of collapsed mines in el Cerro de San Pedro has opened the possibility to analyze the way they organized to carry out common works. This is the aim of the present work which studies the role played by the greater mayors from San Luis Potosí in the organization and the attainment of works like tunnel and open pit mines. Despite the existence of a substantial number of studies about New Spain mining, that problem has not been addressed. The significance of the participation of these officials consists in the fact that, with those works they tried to keep the mining functioning, which benefited the Real Hacienda by the income of taxes from that activity.