CALIFORNIA QUICKSILVER IN THE PACIFIC RIM ECONOMY, 1850–90

Did Pacific rim trade play an important role in developing the early California economy? This chapter will argue that it did. Most histories, however, emphasize the state’s integration into the domestic United States economy after 1848, neglecting Pacific Rim trade and ignoring this important factor. Nowhere is this neglect more striking than in the case of California’s quicksilver mining industry.