TOTAL PRODUCT OF MEXICAN MINES. 37 



The English minister, Ward, in writing of the mines of the table-land, said: — 

 . . " Fortunately there is no reason whatever to apprehend the approach of that 

 scarcity of mineral productions with which many think Mexico is menaced. Hith- 

 erto, at least (1S27), every step that has been taken in exploring the country, has led 

 to fresh indications of wealth, which in the north appears to be really inexhaustible." 

 (This was written twenty years before the discovery of gold in California, and when 

 the territory comprising Arizona, Nevada, etc., was a howling wilderness.) 



" Mining in Mexico has hitherto (true yet) been confined to a comparatively 

 narrow circle; the immense mass of silver which the country has yielded since the 

 conquest has proceeded from a few central spots ; yet, if one examine these spots 

 we shall find that three centuries of constant productiveness have not sufficed to 

 exhaust the principal mines originally worked, while by far the largest proportion 

 of the great veins remain un worked in each." 



At Sombrerete, the vein of the Pavellon has been worked from the time of the 

 conquest, though it was only in the year 1792 that it produced the famous bonanza. 

 . . . . The mines of Santa Eulalia, in Chihuahua, continued to be equally 

 productive during a period of eighty years, and were only abandoned at last in 

 consequence of the incursions of the Indian tribes. The riches of Real del Monte 

 can hardly be said to have diminished in a. term of sixty years, although the 

 difficulty of drainage caused the works there to be suspended. An account of the 

 miners, on oath, in 1801, of the state of the lower levels, when abandoned, shows 

 the richness of the vein to have been unimpaired. 



TOTAL PRODUCT OF THE MEXICAN MINES- 



A very clear estimate of the precious metals sent from the New to the Old 

 World in the early years of its conquest is given by Humboldt, as follows: From 

 1492 to 1500, $15,000, gold of Cibao (Hayti), coast of Paria, etc. From 1500 to 

 154c;, annual product $3,000,000: Mexican mines of Tasco, Zultepeque, Pachuca; 

 Peruvian mines of Caxamarca and Cuzco, and the spoils of Tenochtitlan, Choco 

 and Antioquia. From 1545 to 1600, $11,000,000 : Zacatecas, Guanajuato, Cerro 

 del Potosi, Peru, etc. From 1600 to 1700, $16,000,000: mines of Potosi getting 

 exhausted, but new ones discovered. From 1700 to 1750, $22,500,000 alluvial 

 deposits of Brazil, Mexican mines of La Biscaina, Sombrerete, and Batopilas. 

 From 1750 to 1800, $35,500,000; last period of splendor of Tasco mine; the Valen- 

 ciana wrought. The same great authority estimates the total gold and silver sent 

 from America to Europe, — between years 1492 and 1S03, — three centuries, — at 

 ;^ [,166,77 5,322 ; say in round numbers, $8,250,000,000. 



Taking as a basis the estimates of the great Humboldt, the annual average of the 

 Mexican mines between 1690 and 1803 was $12,000,000; and the total product up to 

 18S4 will foot up nearly $4,000,000,000, as follows : — 



Between 1521 — 1803 (inclusive) $2,027,952,000 



" 1804 — 1847 " 768,188,420 



" 1S48 — 1875 " 702,000,000 



Product for 1876 (Cubas) . . . ' , . . . 20,000,000 



" " 1877-' 78- '79 (estimated) .... 75,000,000 



" " iS8o(Busto: Estadisticd) -9'7I3>j55 



" " iSSi — 18S4 (inclusive: estimated) . . . 100,000,000 



$3,722,853,775 



304824 



