INCREASE IN PRODUCTION OF GOLD. 635 



other southern Slavs. The Bulgarians especially are correspondingly- 

 stocky, heavily boned and built. We may also affirm a real difference 

 in temperament between the two nationalities, built up, as we assert, 

 from the same foundation. The Wallachians are said to be more emo- 

 tional and responsive; the Bulgarians inclined to heaviness and stolid- 

 ity. Both are pre-eminently industrious and contented cultivators 

 of the soil, with little aptitude for commerce, so it is said. We hesi- 

 tate to pass judgment upon either in respect of their further aptitudes 

 until fuller data can be provided than are available at the present time. 



MARVELOUS INCREASE IN PRODUCTION OF GOLD. 



By ALEXANDEK E. OUTERBRIDGE, Je. 



THE increasing annual production of gold in the world is a matter 

 of such far-reaching economic importance, not only in the finan- 

 cial affairs of nations, but also in their industrial progress and in their 

 civilization, that a vast amount of patient study has been given by 

 eminent statisticians to the subject, and much time expended in com- 

 piling, from various historical records and other sources of informa- 

 tion, statistical data which can be confidently accepted as approxi- 

 mately correct, showing the annual production of the precious metal 

 from the time of the discovery of America down to the present day. 



A publication of the United States Treasury Department, issued 

 in 1897, containing information respecting the production of precious 

 metals, etc., gives statistical tables showing the annual production of 

 gold in the world, commencing with the year 1493. The earlier 

 records are taken from a table of averages for certain periods com- 

 piled by Dr. Adolph Soetbeer, and the later figures (from 1885 to 

 1896) are the annual estimates of the Bureau of the Mint. Other 

 tables show the annual production of gold from the mines of 

 the United States alone from 1845 to 1896, and it is from these 

 official sources mainly that the information has been gathered for this 

 article, supplemented, however, by a full and very interesting com- 

 munication to the author from the Director of the Mint, giving the 

 latest figures, not yet published, and containing the estimates and de- 

 ductions of the director respecting the production of gold in the world 

 in 1898. This information is so timely and valuable that the author 

 is of the opinion that the courteous letter of the Director of the Mint 

 in response to his inquiries, if appended to this article, may prove to 

 be — like the postscript of a lady's correspondence — its most important 

 feature. 



Students of political economy are well aware of the fact that 



