COMMERCE, INTERNATIONAL. 



161 





re partially under one mountain wall. You can BOO 

 on the opposite side the gradations of the verdure, 

 ri.'li Iwlow, impoverished above. And the curves 

 become more awiul as you look ahead or back. For 

 forty-five minutes the tourists uiyoyud this sight. The 

 stopped at the construction bridge, near the end 

 of the gorge. Salutes were flrod, a fifteen-minutes' 

 halt was made, and the engine started the train for 

 Canon City. There was no sun in the gorge, but it 

 slanted down the opposite mountain wall as the party 

 returned through the canon, increasing the surpassing 

 beauty of the scene. 



Leadville, which baa become the most famous 

 spot in the State, was first noticed during the 

 Pike's Peak excitement. At the same time the 

 placer mines of California Gulch, Stray Horse 

 Gulch, and Iowa Gulch were discovered. The 

 population of the region reached 10,000, and 

 in- four years about $13,000,000 in gold was 

 gathered. The miners worked only for gold, 

 and the carbonates, which have since become 

 so valuable, were then only dirt and greatly in 

 the way, getting into their sluice-boxes and 

 making a vast amount of trouble. They piled 

 them up anywhere to get them out of the way. 

 In 1874 the placer mines were practically aban- 

 doned, and, although since worked at intervals 

 to some extent, they have caused no great ex- 

 citement. In 1877 they yielded about $70,000 

 in gold, and can only be worked during the 

 warm weather of the summer. In August, 1877, 

 some twenty shanties comprised the whole 

 town of Leadville. In June, 1878, it had a 

 population of only 400. In October, 1878, it 

 numbered 6,000, and in April, 1879, it had a 

 population of 12,000 to 15,000, with an addi- 

 tional daily floating population of from 1,000 

 to 3,000, and new-comers flocking in at the 

 rate of 300 to 500 a day and seven days in the 

 week. The cause of this sudden growth was 

 the fact that the carbonates which had been 

 rejected by the gold-miners were found to be 

 very rich in silver. In October, 1878, the first 

 smelting furnace at Leadville was blown in. 

 Since that time, up to August 1, 1879, the sever- 

 al smelting establishments have smelted 48,659 

 tons of ore, from which have been produced 

 9,958 tons of bullion, containing 3,401,283 

 ounces of silver. The value of this silver is 

 stated at $3,725,000, that of lead at $197,420; 

 and there were also produced 211 ounces. of 

 gold, worth say $4,000. * A largo quantity of 

 ore was shipped from Leadville to Denver, 

 Omaha, St. Louis, and other reduction works, 

 both before and since the erection of smelters 

 at Leadville. The value of this ore shipped up 

 to August 1st was about $5,500,000; making 

 a total value of Leadville's production up to 

 August 1, 1879, $9,426,420. Since that date 

 the ore smelted has amounted to about 600 

 tons a day, yielding an average of perhaps $80 

 per ton ; and there have been shipped per day 

 ten tons, averaging $150 per ton more than 

 $1,250,000 a month. 



COMMERCE, INTERNATIONAL. The 

 intimate and vital bond of international com- 

 merce by which the nations of the world are 

 linked together for their mutual weal, but 

 VOL. xix. 11 A 



which, when it is disturbed, causes the hard- 

 est sufferings among the inhabitants of the 

 most advanced and prosperous of the sister- 

 hood, is, with its present delicate*and all-per- 

 vading ramifications, an entirely modern devel- 

 opment, dating from the close of the Napo- 

 leonic wars. From 1815 to 1872 the com- 

 mercial and industrial growth of all countries 

 advanced with an even and almost unbro- 

 ken progress. Production has everywhere in- 1 

 creased faster than the population, and con- 

 sumption in every commercial nation has mul- 

 tiplied. Wars and natural calamities have 

 temporarily and locally interfered with the 

 regular course of the advancement; and at 

 intervals, with an almost astronomical periodi- 

 city, in 1837, 1847, 1857, and 1866, general 

 commercial crises occurred, which swept away 

 many mercantile houses who had made a too 

 free use of their credit in a time of unusual 

 speculation, and entailed severe losses on mon- 

 ey-lenders. But the effect of these crises was 

 only momentary ; the arrest of productive ac- 

 tivity has been very brief and transitory in 

 each case, and in a few months at the most 

 commerce and production, purified by the win- 

 nowing process, bounded forward again with 

 renewed and heightened activity. 



The growth of the system of commercial in- 

 terdependence, and the slight and transitory 

 effects of former commercial crises, are appar- 

 ent in the history of the export trade of Great 

 Britain, the pioneer and chief representative 

 of international commerce. The volume of the 

 exports of British products from the United 

 Kingdom to all countries, for each year from 

 1836 to 1872, were, in millions of pounds ster- 

 ling, as follows: 1836, 53; '37, 42; '38,50; 

 '39, 53 ; '40, 51 ; '41, 52 ; '42, 47 ; '43, 52 ; '44, 

 69 ; '45, 60; '46, 58 ; '47, 59; '48, 53 ; '49, 64; 

 '50, 71 ; '51, 74 ; '52, 78 ; '53, 99 ; '54, 97 ; '55, 

 96; '56, 116; '57, 122; '58, 117; '59, 130; '60, 

 186; '61, 125; '62, 123; '63, 146; '64, 160; 

 '65, 166 ; '66, 189 ; '67, 181 ; '68, 179 ; '69, 190; 

 '70, 200; '71, 223; '72, 256. The exportation 

 from France, which amounted to 376 million 

 francs in 1810, and had grown to 515 millions 

 in 1837, in the period from 1867 to 1876 aver- 

 aged 3,407 million francs a year, the single 

 article of silk goods amounting to 437 millions 

 in 1872, and that of woolens to 814 millions. 

 The exports from the United States increased 

 in the same ratio, the domestic exports of mer- 

 chandise summing up to the following amounts, 

 given in millions of dollars, in the successive 

 years from 1835 to 1872: 1835, 100; '36, 106; 

 '87, 94; '38, 95; '39, 101; '40, 111; '41, 103; 

 '42, 91 ; '48 (9 months), 77 ; '44, 99 ; '45, 98 ; '46, 

 101; '47, 150; '48, 130; '49, 131; '50, 184; 

 '51, 178; '52, 154; '53, 189; '54, 213; '55, 

 192; '56, 266; '57, 278; '58, 251; '59, 278; 

 '60, 316; '61, 204; '62, 179; '63, 186; '64, 

 143; '65, 136; '66, 837; '67, 279; '68, 269; 

 '69, 275; '70, 876; '71, 428; '72, 428. This 

 gigantic development has been the result of va- 

 rious combined and reciprocally acting causes 



