154) AMERICAN MINES. 



CHAP. XXII. 



ing a profit of near twenty-live per cent., it was ena- 

 bled to reduce the price to the miners in Mexico 1 . 

 The following is the statement of the produce 

 of the mines of Mexico in gold and in silver 

 delivered to be coined at the several mints, in 

 periods of ten years, reduced into sterling money 

 at the rate of four shillings and two-pence the 

 piastre, as extracted from Humboldt and Ward. 



In the ten years from 1 700 to 1 709 10,777,298 



1710 to 171 9 13,697,297 



1720 to 1729 ] 7,131,921 



1730 to 1739 18,860,355 



1740 to 1749 23,302,633 



1750 to 1759 26,197,936 



1760 to 1769 23,506,012 



1770 to 1779 34,912,858 



1780 to 1789 40,318,948 



1790 to 1799 48,191,711 



1800 to 1809 47,142,814 



304,039,783 



It is estimated by Humboldt that the gold and 

 silver of Mexico which did not pay the duty to 

 the king was equal to one-fifth of that which 

 did; and considering the circumstances favourable 

 to contraband transactions, there is no reason to 

 suspect any exaggeration. 



Taking it at that amount, there may be added 60,807,956 



364,847,739 



Thus there appears, during the whole period 

 of 110 years, an annual product averaging 3,316,706 



1 Humboldt, from whose work the foregoing observations 

 on the great increase of the product of the mines in the middle 

 of the last century are chiefly extracted, expresses his wishes 

 that the attention of Mexico could be directed to China to ob- 

 tain a supply of mercury ; and he has lived to see the experiment 

 made of obtaining some from thence, and with hopes of greater 

 future success. 



