MINING SYSTEM. 



59 



had lowered the profits to the usual standard. 

 This being inevitably the case, now that all 

 things are left to find their natural place, it fol- 

 lows, whatever view we take, that a miner, who 

 borrows the capital of others to enable him to pro- 

 ceed with his speculations, is situated precisely as 

 a farmer or a merchant, who incurs debt to carry 

 on his business. And although there be a sort 

 of imaginary wealth attaching to the idea of a 

 mine, the proprietor will undoubtedly find just as 

 much difficulty in shaking off the incumbrance of 

 debt, as either the merchant or the farmer. In 

 practice, however, this leads to no bad effect, but 

 on the contrary, as might easily be shown, the 

 present state of the mines in Chili is, perhaps, 

 upon the whole, the most favourable for the pro- 

 duction of national wealth. This reasoning is evi- 

 dently inapplicable to former times, when every- 

 thing was regulated by monopolies. 



The English capitalist, in the case described, 

 might, of course have made a bargain apparent- 

 ly better, and agreed, for example, not to receive 

 the copper for more than nine or ten dollars, in- 

 stead of eleven ; but his principal object was to 



