Abstract

Mercury was an essential substance in the “patio” amalgamation method of silver refining. This essay focuses on the patio method for refining silver that was imported from Europe and the New World into Asia, and the associated export of mercury from China into Japan and New Spain. Spanish government officials were ambivalent about the import of mercury into the colonies, since the patio process allowed even more silver to flow out of these locations. These officials passed laws limiting mercury import, but the trade continued, often illegally. This essay extensively documents the role of Spanish merchants and investors in facilitating the illegal import of mercury into the Spanish viceroyalties from Asia. Considerable trade took place beyond the volumes officially recorded.

Keywords: refining silver; mercury trade; patio process; colonial Latin American smuggling; Manila galleons; Japan and mercury

Chinese merchandise is so cheap and Spanish goods so dear that I believe it impossible to choke off the trade to such an extent that no Chinese wares will be consumed in the realm, since a man can clothe his wife in Chinese silks for two hundred reales, whereas he could not provide her clothing of Spanish silks with two hundred pesos.