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Hello to all.

I found out that one way to tax silver and gold was through the consumption of the mercury used to amalgam them. This lead me to places like Almadén and Huancavelica, from where the mercury was extracted through forced labor and later, slavery.

But information about the numbers of men used in these type of mines eludes me. I couldn't even find any reasonable guess. The mercury poisoning would make for a terrible death rate*, probably worse than pre-industrial mining in general, but how many miners, furnace operators etc, could one find at any particular moment?

Could you help me here?

Regardless, thank you for your time.

*The wikipedia mentions 24% of the convicts between 1566 and 1593 died before being freed, but doesn't provides a source on this.
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