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Author:   Saul Guerrero
Publisher:   Brill
Imprint:   Brill
Volume:   25
Weight:   0.844kg
ISBN:  

9789004343825

ISBN 10:   9004343822
Pages:   440
Publication Date:   28 September 2017
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Available To Order  
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Table of Contents

General Series Editor's Preface Acknowledgements List of Illustrations Guide to the text Introduction 1 The genesis and nature of silver ores â Why Spain? â To have and have not â Old World silver ores â New World silver ores â A red herring â The other chemical keys â The immoveable object and the unstoppable force â The table is set 2 The dry refining process: smelting of silver ores â Deceitful mercury â Smelting of silver ores: the human context â The chemistry of smelting and the nature of the ore â The architecture of smelting in New Spain â The infrastructure of smelting in New Spain â Plata de fuego (silver by fire) 3 The dry refining process: its impact on the environment â Lead: the nature of its consumption â Lead: the directionality of its loss â Lead: its source â Charcoal and the scale of depletion of woodland â The local environmental impact of smelting â A straightforward decision 4 The wet refining process: the chemistry of the patio process â Plus ca change â The alchemy of Mercury â The gold connection â The complex mechanism of a mercury-based refining process â The correspondencia: the key to the fate of mercury â The loss of calomel â The stages in the use of mercury to refine gold and silver ores â The twists in the trail â Mercury-based refining of silver ores: the human factor â Plata de azogue (silver by mercury) 5 The physical infrastructure of the patio process â The patio process â The architecture of the patio process â The environmental impact vectors of the patio process â A unique industrial effort 6 The Hacienda Santa Maria de Regla â The nineteenth century â The Adventurers in the Mines of Real del Monte â The Hacienda de Regla â Main process areas â The mass balance of the silver refining processes at Regla, 1872 to 1888 7 The patio process and smelting at Regla â The keys to an efficient patio process at Regla â The challenges of the smelting process at Regla â The efficiency of extracting silver at Regla â The labour force at Regla â The mass balance for the patio process at Regla â The mass balance for smelting at Regla â The environmental loss vectors in the period 1872 to 1888 â A snapshot of a refining hacienda 8 The economies of refining silver â Roads to riches â Refining costs in New Spain, as reported â The refining costs at Regla â The false positives of the patio process â Silver in the context of other commodity trades â The bottom line 9 The environmental impact of silver refining: a shift of paradigm â The base line â An estimate of the breakdown of silver production by refining process by Caja â Aggregate totals for New Spain â Aggregate totals for Mexico, 1820 to 1900 â Environmental impact vectors, sixteenth to nineteenth century â What did they know and when did they know it? â Was mercury the indispensable key to silver in the New World? Epilogue Appendix A: The accounting books of Regla Appendix B: Sensitivity matrix for refining costs Appendix C: Estimates of silver production by Caja and refining process, including balance of mercury consumption and physical losses Glossary of technical terms in Spanish Archival sources Bibliography Index

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Saul Guerrero is Visiting Professor of the Universidad Metropolitana, Caracas, Venezuela. He has a Ph.D. in Polymer Science from Bristol University (1980), and a Ph.D. in History from McGill University (2015). He has published articles on polymer science, oil energy policy and history.

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