ABSTRACT
Henry Wagner published one oř the first essays on early silver mining in New Spain in 1942, and some 27 years later Alan Proberťs 1969 essay dealt, in part, with the so-called “mining crisis” in Mexico during the late 1540s and early 1550s, a period just prior to the introduction of the amalgamation process. Some of the data presented by these two scholars are reviewed, and additional information concerning the first two decades of silver mining in Mexico — the 1530s and 1540s — is presented, pointing out: problems connected with the extraction and refining of silver ores; the systems of labor employed; the supply of equipment and food for the mines; and quantity of silver production.
