According to historian Linda Newson, Bicol did not bow down easily to the Spanish occupation. For their resistance, they paid a dear price. Population showed Camarines lost almost half of its population from 1591 to 1649. With no major plagues or Moro raids recorded, Newson could only conclude that it must have been because of brutal conflict with the Spaniards. Either the Bicolanos were killed, or they fled so far inland that they escaped the census takers.
One of the things the Spaniards were looking for in Camarines were the gold mines of Paracale. By the time of the occupation, this town was already known far and wide for its gold deposits. What riches would it yield in the centuries to come?
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Thumbnail image is of Potosí, from Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas, Historia general (Antwerp: Juan Bautista Verdussen, 1728). John Carter Brown Library at Brown University
References:
Newson, Linda A. (2011). Conquest & Pestilence in the Early Spanish Philippines. Ateneo de Manila University Press.
Soltes, Jonas Cabiles (11 July 2012). “Paracale mining: A way of life, death.” Inquirer Southern Luzon. https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/227467/paracale-mining-a-way-of-life-death
Santos, Paz Verdades M. (2024). “Maria Timbang Palo: Pabirik na Kuwento ng Camarines Norte.” Malay, 36(2), pp. 18-25
Estrella, Victor (29 November 2016). “Ancient Tagalog Goldworking Technology from Fray San Buenaventura’s Vocabulario de Lengua Tagala: Integrating Archaeological, Linguistic, and Ethnohistoric Data.” Hukay, 20, p. 47-78.
Bennett, Anna T. N. (2009). “Gold in early Southeast Asia.” ArcheoSciences, 33, pp. 99-107.
Fox, Robert B. (1970). The Tabon Caves: Archaeological Explorations and Excavations on Palawan Island, Philippines. National Museum.
Habana, Olivia M. (2000). “Gold Mining in Benguet to 1898.” Philippine Studies, 48(4), p. 455-487.
Newson, Linda A. (2011). Conquest and Pestilence in the Early Spanish Philippines. Ateneo de Manila University Press.
Lane, Kris (30 July 2019). “The first global city.” Aeon. https://aeon.co/essays/potosi-the-mountain-of-silver-that-was-the-first-global-city
Casa, Louis John (1966). Potosi, Its Mines and Its Indians [masteral thesis]. Loyola University Chicago. https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_theses/2116
Barr, H.L. (1937) “San Mauricio Mining Company.” The Marsman Magazine, 2(5), pp. 10, 14, 16.
https://repository.mainlib.upd.edu.ph/omekas/s/rare-periodicals/media/22641
“Gold Market.” (6 January 1937). The Tribune. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/249847758
International Labour Organization (2020). Artisanal and small-scale gold mining baseline report: Camarines Norte and South Cotabato. https://www.ilo.org/publications/artisanal-and-small-scale-gold-mining-baseline-report-camarines-norte-and
