Listen Before You Preach! A Lesson from Silver Refining
Near the end of the 18th century, Spain watched the silver production of their mines in Mexico falter, and assumed the cause must be foolish criollo miners. They decided to send a mining mission to teach the Mexican miners. After all, enlightened Europeans were busy developing better mining and refining practices, so surely they would be able to help out their backwards brethren. Clement Motten documents the results in Mexican Silver and the Enlightenment:
“The Born process represented the very latest European scientific research on the problem of refining silver ores. It was introduced to the New World by men who were experts in its use, and although they at first experienced technical difficulties, were able eventually to get the results they wanted. Why then did it fail? … the Born profess performed as well as it was supposed to, but it was not as good for New Spain as the patio process. In Europe, where speed was important and labor was expensive, the much faster, actually more wasteful Born process was preferable. In Mexico, where time was not important and labor was cheap, it was more profitable to use the slower, less wasteful patio process.”
Another example of the importance of listening before you try to solve someone else’s problems.