160 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 



return freights for vessels arriving with supplies. 

 The quicksilver mines already yield an enormous 

 profit, and -will soon be extensively worked. Respect- 

 ing the present state of the commerce of the country, 

 extent of her resources, and facilities of communica- 

 tion with the Atlantic States of the Union, and other 

 countries, Mr. King's Report furnishes the following 

 account — 



" Gold is. the product of the country, and is imme- 

 diately available, in an uncoined state, for all the 

 purposes of exchange. It is not there, as in other 

 countries, where the productions of the earth and of 

 art are sent to markets — foreign or domestic — to be 

 exchanged for the precious metals, or other articles 

 of value. There, gold not only supplies the medium 

 of domestic trade, but of foreign commerce. 



" At first view, this state of things would seem to 

 be unfavorable to an extensive intercourse with other 

 parts of the world, because of the want of return 

 freights of home 'production for the vast number of 

 vessels which will arrive with supplies. 



"These vessels, however, making no calculations 

 on return cargoes, will estimate the entire profits of 

 the voyage on their outward freights, and become, on 

 their arrival, willing carriers for a comparatively small 

 consideration. 



" This tendency in the course of trade, it would 

 seem, must make San Francisco a warehouse for the 

 supply, to a certain extent, of all the ports of the 

 Pacific, American, Asiatic, and the Islands. 



" Almost every article now exported by them finds 

 a ready market in California, and the establishment 

 of a mint will bring there also the silver bullion, 

 amounting to more than ten millions per annum, from 



