History

Silver in Mexico

By Catherine Krantz

Perhaps one of the best known Mexican exports is silver. The mines of Mexico are renowned for their rich ore deposits and high quality specimens of silver and silver sulfides, over the centuries providing as much as a third of the world's silver in circulation. Over time silver production has dropped off, but Mexico remains a leading world producer.

Silver, the discovery of it, the mining of it and the wealth generated by it has played a very large role in the history of Mexico and indeed a major role in the development of the new world. As soon as the Spanish arrived they discovered the rich mineral wealth of Mexico. They came looking for tin, but what they found were vast lodes of silver. As little as one year after the conquest in 1521, Hernan Cortes was already staking his silver mining claim in Taxco, then called Tlachco. Taxco was founded as a colonial city in 1529, with 3 Spanish miners who in 1531 founded the first Spanish mine on the North American continent. By the end of the 16th century, silver from Taxco had spread from Spain all across Europe, and Taxco became world renowned for its wealth of silver. Taxco became a prosperous mining area and Spain's principal source of precious metals in the New World. After Taxco came the mines of Zacatecas, Arizpe, Guanajuato, Pachuca, Batopilas, Fresnillo and Puebla where Spain actively pursued mining in Mexico and many wealthy regions were born. In Zacatecas, vast silver deposits were found in the late 1540's fueling a boom that was to propel Zacatecas into the place of Mexico's 3rd largest city. By the early 17th Century, Zacatecas was producing a third of Mexico's silver and a fifth of the total world supply. As early as 1536 copper, silver and cold coins were being milled in Mexico City at the Western Hemisphere's first mint. From the 1600's to the 1800's Boliva, Peru and Mexico grew to produce up to 85% of the worlds' silver production. The Mines of Pachuca and Real del Monte, 9km to the north still produce substantial amounts of silver to this day. Interestingly Pachuca also has the distinction of being the birth place of soccer in Mexico, having been introduced to Mexico by British miners working there in the 19th century.

While Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo itself is not a silver producing area, other parts of the state of Guererro are and most of the silver you will find here is from Taxco, Guererro's main silver producing city. After Taxco's first boom, the mines were soon emptied and the next veins were not discovered for 200 more years. In 1743, Don Jose de la Borda discovered a new vein and started another long run of prosperity for Taxco. The architecture of the town, most notably the Templo de Santa Prisca, is directly related to the wealth generated from the silver trade in this time period. Borda's wealth brought the prospectors back to Taxco and these new veins too were emptied, and for several generations after Taxco settled into a quiet non-silver related existence. It wasn't until 1929 when silver came back to Taxco by way of William Spratling, an American, who started the wheels in motion to turn Taxco into a famous city of world class jewelry design. Spratling, a Tulane university architecture professor living in Taxco had a conversation with then US Ambassador Dwight Morrow, about how a city with such a rich silver mining history had never been known for it's silver design. He had the idea to train the local craftsmen in the intricate work of jewelry design and set up a work shop. From this simple idea began an entire new industry, Taxco now has over 300 silver work shops, their artisans are world renowned and hand made silver jewelry is now one the most recognized Mexican art forms. From the mining of the ore to the molding of the metal, silver has been intricately linked with Mexico and Mexican history for centuries and many parts of the country can credit this shiny substance with their very existence. Many resources exist if you want to learn more about the drama of the silver booms and this fascinating part of Mexican history.

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