The exploitation of mines and minerals was of central importance to Spain’s American empire. Throughout the colonial period and even beyond, the vision of a territory endowed with prodigious subterranean riches was also central to wider European ideas and imaginings of the New World. Only rarely, however, are these preoccupations with mineral wealth given prominence in early modern maps of America. 1.

A map of South America, made in London by Herman Moll between 1709 and 1720, offers a striking exception. On the surface of the continent’s territorial expanse the observant viewer may find inscribed no less than thirteen references to mines and other places distinguished by their mineral wealth. Principal among these locations are the ‘Great Silver Mines of Potosi’ in Upper Peru. By means of a prominent inset illustration, the Cerro Rico (Rich Mountain) of Potosí—site of the single most productive silver mines in Spain’s empire—is presented as a potent symbol of South America and its riches. 2. In the bottom right hand corner, the image of the mountain is complemented by visual portrayals of the wealth that America’s mines yield up. A female figure, possibly an Inca princess, wears ostentatious breastplates and a heavy armband that appear to be made of precious metal. Near her feet lie heavy ingots and a basket that overflows with gold or silver coins.

An inscription that dedicates the map “To the Right Honourable Charles Earl of Sunderland and Baron Spencer of Wormleighton; One of her Majesty’s Principal Secretaries of State” complicates the cartographic image in fascinating ways. Above the inscription we see the Spencer family crest and directly below it the ingots and coins that represent America’s wealth. Moll’s juxtaposition of text and image appears to imply that, thanks to the “Newest and most Exact Observations” 3.  provided by the map, the Secretary of State and by extension the English nation may soon gain access to fabulous riches. Moll, it should be noted, was an enthusiastic promoter of English empire in the New World. 4. By the 1700s, Pagden observes, the English and French had turned away from the pursuit of mineral wealth in forging their own overseas empires and, with considerable self-satisfaction, had come to view the metallic treasures of Spain’s American empire as “a poisoned chalice.” 5. In tantalizing fashion, however, Moll’s map suggests that English preoccupations with South America’s subterranean wealth were still alive and well in the early eighteenth century.

1. Where Spanish-made maps are concerned this cartographic silence partly resulted from the crown’s efforts to prevent valuable information about mineral wealth from falling into the hands of rival European nations.

3. This phrase, included in the dedicatory text, assures the viewer of the map’s accuracy and reliability.

4. Dennis P. Reinhartz, ‘Herman Moll’ in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press,  2008). Online edition.