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Patio Process
The patio process is a process for extracting silver from ore. Smelting, or refining, was necessary because silver does not occur by itself in a natural state like some metals. Instead, it is made up of a larger ore body. Thus, smelting, or refining, is necessary to remove other byproducts to get at pure silver. The process, which uses mercury amalgamation to recover silver from ore, was reportedly invented by Bartolomé de Medina in Pachuca, Mexico, in 1554. It replaced smelting as the primary method of extracting silver from ore at Spanish colonies in the Americas. Although some knowledge of amalgamation techniques were likely known since the classical era, it was in the New World that it was first used on a large industrial scale. Other amalgamation processes were later developed, importantly the pan amalgamation process, and its variant, the Washoe process. The silver separation process generally differed from gold parting and gold extraction, although amalgamation with mercury ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hacienda Nueva De Fresnillo
An ''hacienda'' ( or ; or ) is an estate (or ''finca''), similar to a Roman ''latifundium'', in Spain and the former Spanish Empire. With origins in Andalusia, ''haciendas'' were variously plantations (perhaps including animals or orchards), Mining, mines or Factory, factories, with many ''haciendas'' combining these activities. The word is derived from Spanish ''hacer'' (to make, from Latin ''facere'') and ''haciendo'' (making), referring to productive business enterprises. The term ''hacienda'' is imprecise, but usually refers to landed estates of significant size, while smaller holdings were termed ''estancias'' or ''ranchos''. All colonial ''haciendas'' were owned almost exclusively by Spaniards and Criollo people, criollos, or rarely by mestizo individuals. In Mexico, as of 1910, there were 8,245 haciendas in the country. In Argentina, the term ''estancia'' is used for large estates that in Mexico would be termed ''haciendas''. In recent decades, the term has been used i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amalgam (chemistry)
An amalgam is an alloy of mercury with another metal A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall .... It may be a liquid, a soft paste or a solid, depending upon the proportion of mercury. These alloys are formed through metallic bonding, with the electrostatic attractive force of the conduction electrons working to bind all the positively charged metal ions together into a Crystal structure, crystal lattice structure. Almost all metals can form amalgams with mercury, the notable exceptions being iron, platinum, tungsten, and tantalum. Silver-mercury amalgam (dentistry), amalgams are important in dentistry, and gold-mercury amalgam is used in the Gold extraction, extraction of gold from ore. Dentistry has used alloys of mercury with metals such as silver, copper, indium, tin a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Silver Mining
Silver mining is the extraction of silver from minerals, starting with mining. Because silver is often found in intimate combination with other metals, its extraction requires elaborate technologies. In 2008, ca.25,900 metric tons were consumed worldwide, most of which came from mining. Silver sources Silver-bearing ore typically contains very little silver, with much higher percentages of copper and lead. Specific minerals include argentite (Ag2 S), chlorargyrite ("horn silver," Ag Cl), polybasite (Ag, Cu)16Sb2S11), and proustite (Ag3AsS3). Silver mainly occurs as a contaminant in chalcopyrite and galena, important ores of copper and lead, respectively.Kassianidou, V. 2003. Early Extraction of Silver from Complex Polymetallic Ores, in Craddock, P.T. and Lang, J (eds) Mining and Metal production through the Ages. London, British Museum Press: 198–206 Some ores are actually mined explicitly for their silver value vs the silver being a byproduct of other metals. However ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Fifth
The royal fifth (Spanish language, Spanish and pt, quinto real / quinto del rey) is an old royal tax that reserves to the monarch 20% of all precious metals and other commodities (including Slavery in medieval Europe, slaves) acquired by his subjects as war loot, found as treasure or extracted by mining. The 'royal fifth' was instituted in Islamic Golden Age, medieval Muslim states, Christian Iberian kingdoms and their overseas colonial empires during the age of exploration. The 'royal fifth' has a dual origin. In Christian kingdoms, it partly comes from the medieval legal conception of Manorialism, seigneural or regalian rights over the natural national patrimony, patrimony, which assigned to the monarch or feudal overlord original property rights over all unclaimed, undiscovered and undeveloped natural resources (e.g. precious metals in the subsoil, salt in the rock, virgin forests, fish in the sea, etc.) within his jurisdiction. Consequently, private individuals who extract ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Price Revolution
The Price Revolution, sometimes known as the Spanish Price Revolution, was a series of economic events that occurred between the second half of the 15th century and the first half of the 17th century, and most specifically linked to the high rate of inflation that occurred during this period across Western Europe. Prices rose on average roughly sixfold over 150 years. This level of inflation amounts to 1.2% per year compounded, a relatively low inflation rate for modern-day standards, but rather high given the monetary policy in place in the 16th century. Generally it is thought that this high inflation was caused by the large influx of gold and silver from the Spanish treasure fleet from the New World; including Mexico, Peru, Bolivia and the rest of the Spanish Empire. Specie flowed through Spain increasing its prices and those of allied European countries (e.g., the imperial territories of Charles V). Wealth then spread to the rest of Western Europe as a result of the Spanish ba ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ayllu
The ''ayllu'', a family clan, is the traditional form of a community in the Andes, especially among Quechuas and Aymaras. They are an indigenous local government model across the Andes region of South America, particularly in Bolivia and Peru. Ayllus functioned prior to Inca conquest, during the Inca and Spanish colonial period, and continue to exist to the present day – such as the Andean community Ocra. Membership gave individual families more variation and security on the land that they farmed. Ayllus had defined territories and were essentially extended family or kin groups, but could include non-related members. Their primary function was to solve subsistence issues, and issues of how to get along in family, and the larger community. Ayllus descended from stars in the Inca cosmogony, and just like stars had unique celestial locations, each ayllu had a terrestrial location defined by the paqarina, the mythical point of emergence of the lineage huaca. Current practice ''A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mit'a
Mit'a () was mandatory service in the society of the Inca Empire. Its close relative, the regionally mandatory Minka is still in use in Quechua communities today and known as ''faena'' in Spanish. Historians use the Hispanicized term ''mita'' to differentiate the system as it was modified and intensified by the Spanish colonial government, creating the encomienda system. ''Mit'a'' was effectively a form of tribute to the Inca government in the form of labor, i.e. a corvée. Tax labor accounted for much of the Inca state tax revenue; beyond that, it was used for the construction of the road network, bridges, agricultural terraces, and fortifications in ancient Peru. Military service was also mandatory. All citizens who could perform labor were required to do so for a set number of days out of a year (the basic meaning of the word ''mit'a'' is a regular ''turn'' or a ''season''). The Inca Empire's wealth meant a family often needed only 65 days to farm; the rest of the year was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Repartimiento
The ''Repartimiento'' () (Spanish, "distribution, partition, or division") was a colonial labor system imposed upon the indigenous population of Spanish America. In concept, it was similar to other tribute-labor systems, such as the ''mit'a'' of the Inca Empire or the corvée of the Ancien Régime de France: Through the pueblos de indios, the Amerindians were drafted work for cycles of weeks, months, or years, on farms, in mines, in workshops (''obrajes''), and public projects. Establishment of the ''repartimiento'' and decline of the ''encomienda'' With the New Laws of 1542, the ''repartimiento'' was instated to substitute the '' encomienda'' system that had come to be seen as abusive and promoting of unethical behavior. The Spanish Crown aimed to remove control of the indigenous population, now considered subjects of the Crown, from the hands of the ''encomenderos,'' who had become a politically influential and wealthy class, with the shift away from both the ''encomienda'' s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Encomienda
The ''encomienda'' () was a Spanish labour system that rewarded conquerors with the labour of conquered non-Christian peoples. The labourers, in theory, were provided with benefits by the conquerors for whom they laboured, including military protection and education. The ''encomienda'' was first established in Spain following the Christian conquest of Moorish territories (known to Christians as the ''Reconquista''), and it was applied on a much larger scale during the Spanish colonization of the Americas and the Spanish Philippines. Conquered peoples were considered vassals of the Spanish monarch. The Crown awarded an ''encomienda'' as a grant to a particular individual. In the conquest era of the early sixteenth century, the grants were considered to be a monopoly on the labour of particular groups of indigenous peoples, held in perpetuity by the grant holder, called the ''encomendero''; following the New Laws of 1542, upon the death of the ''encomendero'', the encomienda end ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Spain
New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( es, Virreinato de Nueva España, ), or Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain during the Spanish colonization of the Americas and having its capital in Mexico City. Its jurisdiction comprised a huge area that included what is now Mexico, the Western and Southwestern United States (from California to Louisiana and parts of Wyoming, but also Florida) in North America; Central America, the Caribbean, very northern parts of South America, and several territorial Pacific Ocean archipelagos. After the 1521 Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire, conqueror Hernán Cortés named the territory New Spain, and established the new capital, Mexico City, on the site of the Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Mexica (Aztec) Empire. Central Mexico became the base of expeditions of exploration and conquest, expanding the territory claimed by the Spanish Empire. With the polit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Potosí
Potosí, known as Villa Imperial de Potosí in the colonial period, is the capital city and a municipality of the Department of Potosí in Bolivia. It is one of the highest cities in the world at a nominal . For centuries, it was the location of the Spanish colonial silver mint. A considerable amount of the city's colonial architecture has been preserved in the historic center of the city, which - along with the globally important Cerro Rico de Potosí - are part of a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site. Potosí lies at the foot of the ''Cerro de Potosí'' —sometimes referred to as the ''Cerro Rico'' ("rich mountain")— a mountain popularly conceived of as being "made of" silver ore that dominates the city. The Cerro Rico is the reason for Potosí's historical importance since it was the major supply of silver for the Spanish Empire until Guanajuato in Mexico surpassed it in the 18th century. The silver was taken by llama and mule train to the Pacific coast, shipped north ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Idrija
Idrija (, in older sources ''Zgornja Idrija''; german: (Ober)idria, it, Idria) is a town in western Slovenia. It is the seat of the Municipality of Idrija. It is located in the traditional region of Inner Carniola and is in the Gorizia Statistical Region. It is notable for its mercury mine with stores and infrastructure, as well as miners' living quarters, and a miners' theatre. Together with the Spanish mine at Almadén, it has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2012. In 2011, Idrija was given the Alpine Town of the Year award. Geography The town of Idrija lies in the Idrija Basin, surrounded by the Idrija Hills. It is traversed by the Idrijca River, which is joined there by Nikova Creek. It includes the hamlets of Brusovše, Cegovnica, Prenjuta, and Žabja Vas close to the town center, as well as the more outlying hamlets of Češnjice, Ljubevč, Kovačev Rovt, Marof, Mokraška Vas, Podroteja, Razpotje, Staje, and Zahoda. The Marof hydroelectric plant is located on the Id ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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