MINING SYSTEM. 



57 



The moment the bargain was concluded, the 

 new farm was bought and entered upon ; the 

 smelting went on ; the miner soon paid back the 

 thousand quintals he had borrowed ; the miners 

 were set to work to raise more metal to the sur- 

 face : so that, at the end of five months, enough 

 of copper had been delivered to discharge two- 

 thirds of the original debt, including the purchase 

 money of the farm. On balancing accounts, how- 

 ever, it appeared that the farmer was still nine 

 thousand dollars in debt to the English merchant, 

 owing to fresh advances made to the mine. At 

 the time I visited the spot, he was still consider- 

 ably in arrears, but was nevertheless perfectly con- 

 tented ; and so also was the capitalist. The mi- 

 ner received what he considered a fair price for 

 his labour, and the merchant was satisfied with 

 the profit which he realized ; for although he pur- 

 chased copper at eleven dollars, and sold it for 

 twelve or thirteen, he felt also certain of having 

 a complete command of all the copper of the mine 

 in question, as long as he pleased, since it was 

 highly improbable that the miner could ever clear 

 off his debt. 



