On the basis of an examination of the colonial mercury and silverproduction processes and related labor systems, Mercury, Mining, and Empire exploresthe effects of mercury pollution in colonial Huancavelica, Peru, and Potos, inpresent-day Bolivia. The book presents a multifaceted and interwoven tale of whatcolonial exploitation of indigenous peoples and resources left in its wake. It is asocio-ecological history that explores the toxic interrelationships between mercuryand silver production, urban environments, and the people who lived and worked inthem. Nicholas A. Robins tells the story of how native peoples in the region wereconscripted into the noxious ranks of foot soldiers of proto-globalism, and howtheir fate, and that of their communities, was -- and still is -- chained toit.