Real del Monte 1766 Strike

The 1766 Real del Monte strike occurred when silver miners in the province of New Spain went on strike for better working conditions. Real del Monte was a prosperous mining city under the Spanish crown, located in east-central Mexico—-today a municipality in the state of Hidalgo. The mines were owned and controlled by the Count de Regla, Pedro Romero de Terreros from 1735 until Mexican independence from Spain in 1821. He is considered by many to be one of the richest and most powerful Spaniards in the colonies at the time of the strike, and is noted for his incredible business skill in restoring his bankrupt uncle’s estate to one of the most prosperous silver producing regions in the whole of Spanish America (Ladd). The strike in 1766 though, in which miners protested changes in labor and wage practices under Terreros, is considered by many to be the first real labor strike in North American history, as it was not only a work stoppage, which had occurred in many places before, but an organized attempt at renegotiating labor contracts and conditions.

The viceroyalty of New Spain was created after Cortés’s defeat of the Aztec Empire in 1521. From the end of the 17th century through the beginning of the 19th, over fifty thousand tons of silver were exported from Spanish mines in the Americas to Europe and beyond (Garner, 899). The mining town of Real del Monte was settled in the late 16th century, but did not become a hub until de Torreros’s arrival. Real del Monte mines are estimated to have produced more than one billion troy ounces of silver since the 16th century, the majority of which was produced under the direction of the Spanish crown (Garner 901).

Due in large part to the prosperous silver mines, the viceroyalty of New Spain generated the most income for the Spanish crown of all the colonial holdings. Mines in Mexico were the most profitable in large part because government expenditures were less compared to that of the mines in Peru and other colonies. This was for two reasons: one, that higher-grade mercury was accessible and therefore implemented in Mexican mines and not Peruvian ones, and two, the Spanish Crown granted Mexican mines a special concession in 1548, lowering the royalty percentage they were required to pay (Richard Garner, 906). Because of this, mine owners and overseers in Mexico, such as the Count de Regla, became much more independently wealthy, and more politically powerful, than their Peruvian counterparts.

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