Outlining a Complex Profile Medium-sized Mining in Colonial Mexico Pachuca-Real del Monte in the Second Half of the 18th Century

Abstract

This article examines and discusses the existence, characteristics, and importance of medium-sized mining in central New Spain in the second half of the 18th century. The study focuses on the district of Pachuca and Real del Monte, a prominent colonial silver-producing center, and is based on historical documents from different archives in Mexico and the Archivo General de Indias. The central argument of the study is that medium-scale mining constituted a structural, relevant, and recognizable sector of the mining industry, with a specific composition and functioning distinct from large-scale mining. A first line of analysis, of a quantitative nature, distinguishes the volume and trajectory of silver production attributable to medium and small local producers, thereby challenging the prevailing historiographic perspective on the preeminence of the Counts of Regla and their company of Real del Monte, archetypes of the large-scale mining industry of New Spain during the Bourbon period. The subsequent analysis of the article focuses on the composition of the medium-sized mining segment. The examination of diverse qualitative sources reveals a group with a complex composition and varied profiles, thus refuting simplistic characterizations. The article’s primary findings demonstrate that, taken as a whole, medium-sized production units and their owners constituted a fundamental element of silver production, as well as the economic and social structure of this mining region. This assertion can be extrapolated to other mining regions of New Spain and allows for a comparative dialogue with colonial Andean mining.