The Imperial City of Potosí
1668: This same year the diminishment of the grandeurs of Potosí began; although they continued, they were not with the same pomp and brilliance as before; and so that you learn something of that grandeur up to this year, when they began to diminish, I say that gold, silver, pearls, and precious metals of such worth used to be so abundant that there was no limit to all of these: the riverbank had 132 refineries; five thousand Indians came each year to work in the great Cerro and the refineries; there were 48 watermills where they refined rich bars of metal, and from which very many
bars of silver left each week
.—The Annals of Potosí,1803

I Am Rich Potosi is published by The Monacelli Press and will be
available as of July 15 at better bookstoreseverywhere.
To order in the US, you may contact:
Penguin-Putnam 1-800-788-6262; in Europe:TBS Distributors 44-1206-256-000.
An exhibition will be held 17th June- 1st August at: Saba Gallery,
116 East 16th Street, NY. NY. 10010