Le cas Ambrosio de Silva ou les investissements « hasardeux » d’un mulâtre à Zacatecas au milieu du xviiie siècle

Abstract

To study the urban popular classes is an uphill task. Sources are largely silent, making it difficult to identify them, or even to make more than a passing mention of them. The case of the mulatto Ambrosio de Silva is especially interesting in this respect. Not only does his name come up on several occasions in judicial and notarial sources in the mid-18th century, but the traces he left make it possible to follow step by step the investments—sometimes risky but always bold—of a man who was essentially excluded from the economic workings of the mines but who knew how to take advantage of difficult times to realise a miner’s dream. This very well-documented example allows us to gain an idea of the individual opportunities afforded to the urban popular classes by the particular conditions prevailing in the Zacatecas region in the first half of the 18th century. Paradoxically, these very crisis conditions provided the chance for some adventurers to dream, albeit such dreams were often doomed to failure.

Keywords

• castes
• micro-history
• mines
• New Spain
• Zacatecas
• 18th century