On the basis of an examination of the colonial mercury and silver production processes and related labor systems, Mercury, Mining, and Empire explores the effects of mercury pollution in colonial Huancavelica, Peru, and Potosí, in present-day Bolivia. The book presents a multifaceted and interwoven tale of what colonial exploitation of indigenous peoples and resources left in its wake. It is a socio-ecological history that explores the toxic interrelationships between mercury and silver production, urban environments, and the people who lived and worked in them. Nicholas A. Robins tells the story of how native peoples in the region were conscripted into the noxious ranks of foot soldiers of proto-globalism, and how their fate, and that of their communities, was—and still is—chained to it.

Potosí, a mining center in what is now Bolivia, was the most productive source of silver in the Spanish American Empire between the mid-1500's and the late seventeenth century. Much of this success was attributable, at least initially, to the mita, a system of draft Indian labor instituted by Viceroy Francisco do Toledo in 1573 for the working of the silver mines and refineries. Bitter debate swirled around the mita during most of its 250-year history. It was assailed by its enemies as a form of servitude worse than slavery and accused of depopulating the provinces subject to it, yet it was supported by many, however reluctantly, who believed that the Spanish Empire depended on Potosí silver for its survival. The author traces the evolution of the mita from its inception to the end of the Hapsburg epoch in 1700. The primary focus is on the metamorphosis of the mita under the pressures of changing production realities at Potosí and demographic developments in the provinces from which the Indians were drafted. The author describes the role of native headmen (kurakas) in the system, the means used by Indians to evade service, and the efforts of the mining guild to tailor the mita to its needs. The secondary focus is on the Hapsburg government's administration of the mita, especially those factors that prevented the Crown or its viceroys from being fully effective.

"For anyone who wants to learn about the rise and decline of Potosí as a city . . . Lane’s book is the ideal place to begin."—The New York Review of Books In 1545, a native Andean prospector hit pay dirt on a desolate red mountain in highland Bolivia. There followed the world's greatest silver bonanza, making the Cerro Rico or "Rich Hill" and the Imperial Villa of Potosí instant legends, famous from Istanbul to Beijing. The Cerro Rico alone provided over half of the world's silver for a century, and even in decline, it remained the single richest source on earth. Potosí is the first interpretive history of the fabled mining city’s rise and fall. It tells the story of global economic transformation and the environmental and social impact of rampant colonial exploitation from Potosí’s startling emergence in the sixteenth century to its collapse in the nineteenth. Throughout, Kris Lane’s invigorating narrative offers rare details of this thriving city and its promise of prosperity. A new world of native workers, market women, African slaves, and other ordinary residents who lived alongside the elite merchants, refinery owners, wealthy widows, and crown officials, emerge in lively, riveting stories from the original sources. An engrossing depiction of excess and devastation, Potosí reveals the relentless human tradition in boom times and bust.

Toward the end of this period, the analysis focuses on the important Indian uprisings of the 1780s (the rebellions of Tupac Amaru) and the causes of the alliances or confrontations between the members of the distinct bands, either white or Indian. These episodes are of particular interest because some aspects of the present guerrilla activity in Peru by the Shining Path can be seen in the insurrections of the 1780s.