536 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



fled in pretending to train up a young country in the economic way it 

 should go. 



IV. Every undeveloped country presents a network of fresh prob- 

 lems, each of which must be studied separately; but they must also be 

 considered as interrelated and viewed in their mutual dependence. 

 There is a mass of experience in the past which may be drawn upon as 

 a help ; we may appropriate it, and save ourselves the expense of buying 

 fresh experience in a costly fashion; but in order to reap the fruit of 

 human experience in the past we must be prepared to take a great deal 

 of trouble; it is not lying about for any one to pick up at haphazard. 

 The teachings of history as to the rise of great nations from small 

 beginnings, or as to the causes which have led to premature decay, do 

 not lie on the surface. Since the days when Lord Burleigh recognized 

 that the mineral wealth of the Spanish conquests in the new world did 

 not really add to the strength of the monarchy at home, there has been 

 a tendency to disparage extractive industries. " Moile not too much 

 underground," said Lord Bacon, " for the hope of mines is very uncer- 

 tain, and useth to make the planters idle in other things " ;* and Adam 

 Smith does not at all dissociate himself from this view.f It appears 

 to have been thought that mining for the precious metals, however 

 attractive it might be for a time, could never be a secure foundation 

 for the building up of stable society. But, after all, it would be wise 

 to discriminate a little before we adopt this conclusion, and to examine 

 the condition of different parts of Spanish America separately.^ The 

 richest mines of all, those of Peru, were situated on the arid slopes of 

 the Andes, where cultivation was impossible, and there were insuperable 

 obstacles to the planting of well-ordered and prosperous communities; 

 but very different results were achieved in Mexico. These workings 

 occurred on a plateau where cultivation and settlement were possible, 

 and the wealth which was obtained by mining reacted on the prosperity 

 both of agriculture and manufactures. Extractive industry served to 

 give a stimulus to that varied life, partly urban and partly rural, which 

 is necessary for a community that hopes to take a real and independent 

 place in the civilized activities of the world. It is foolish to jump to 

 the conclusion either that mining gives a feverish and unhealthy stim- 

 ulus, or that the Spanish system of regulation was incurably bad; we 

 ought to distinguish carefully, and to try to learn from Spanish experi- 

 ence, both in South and in Central America, what are the conditions 

 under which mining for the precious metals can be pursued so as to 

 be not merely of temporary, but of permanent advantage to the welfare 

 of the community. 



* ' Essay on Plantations.' 



f 'Wealth of Nations' (Nicholson's Edition), pp. 71, 73. 



t Merivale, 'Colonization and Colonies' (1861), pp. 25, 27. 



