ver.

CHAPTER XI,

State of the Mines of New Spain.-Produce of Gold and Sil-Mean value of the produce of the Mines.-Annual consumption of Mercury in the process of Amalgamation.— Quantity of the Precious Metals which have, since the conquest of Mexico, flowed from the one Continent into the other.

AFTER a careful examination of the Mexican agriculture as the first source of the natural wealth and prosperity of the inhabitants, it remains, for us to exhibit a view of the mineral productions which for two centuries and a half have been the object of working the mines of New Spain. This view is exceedingly brilliant to the eyes of those who calculate merely according to the nominal value of things, but is much less so to those who consider the intrinsic worth of the metals, their relative utility, and the influence which they possess on manufacturing industry. The mountains of the New Continent, like the mountains of the old, contain iron, copper, lead, and a great number of other mineral substances, îndispensible to agriculture and the arts. If the labour of man has in America been almost exclusively directed to the extraction of gold and silver, it is because the members of a society

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act from very different considerations from those which ought to influence the whole society Wherever the soil can produce both indigo and maize, the former prevails over the latter, although the general interest requires a preference to be given to those vegetables which supply nourishment to man, over those which are merely objects of exchange with strangers. In the same manner, the mines of iron or lead on the ridge of the Cordilleras, notwithstanding their richness, continue to be neglected, because almost the whole attention of the colonists is directed to veins of gold and silver, even when they exhibit on trial but small indications of abundance. Such is the attraction of those precious metals which by a general convention have become the representatives of labour and subsistence.

No doubt the Mexican nation can procure, by means of foreign commerce, all the articles which are supplied to them by their own country; but in the midst of great wealth in gold and silver, want is severely felt whenever the commerce with the mother country, or other parts of Europe or Asia, has suffered any interruption, whenever a war throws obstacles in the way of maritime communication. From 25 to 30 millions of piastres are sometimes heaped up in Mexico, while the manufacturers and miners are suffering from the want of steel, iron, and mercury. A few years before my arrival in

New Spain, the price of iron rose from 20 francs the quintal to 240, and steel from 80 francs to 1300. In those times, when there is a total stagnation of foreign commerce, the Mexican industry is awakened for a time, and they then begin to manufacture steel, and to make use of the iron and mercury of the mountains of America. The nation is then alive to its true interest, and feels that true wealth consists in the abundance of objects of consumption, in that of things, and not in the accumulation of the sign by which they are represented. During the last war but one between Spain and America, they began to work the iron mines of Tecalitan, near Colima, in the intendancy of Guadalaxara. The tribunal de mineria expended more than 150,000 francs in extracting mercury from the veins of San Juan de la Chica; but the effects of so praise-worthy a zeal were only of short duration; and the peace of Amiens put an end to undertakings which promised to give to the labours of miners a more useful direction for the public prosperity. The maritime communication was scarcely well opened, when they again preferred to purchase steel, iron, and mercury in the markets of Europe.

In proportion as the Mexican population shall increase, and from being less dependent on Europe, shall begin to turn their attention to the great variety of useful productions contained in

the bowels of the earth, the system of mining will undergo a change. An enlightened administration will give encouragement to those labors which are directed to the extraction of mineral substances of an intrinsic value; individuals will no longer sacrifice their own interests and those of the public to inveterate prejudices; and they will feel that the working of a mine of coal, iron, or lead may become as profitable as that of a vein of silver. In the present state of Mexico, the precious metals occupy almost exclusively the industry of the colonists; and when, in the subsequent part of this chapter, we shall employ the word mine (real, real de minas), unless the contrary is expressly stated, a gold or silver mine is to be uniformly understood.

Having been engaged from my earliest youth. in the study of mining, and having myself had the direction for several years of subterraneous operations, in a part of Germany which contains a great variety of minerals, I was doubly interested in examining with care the state of the mines and their management in New Spain. I had occasion to visit the celebrated mines of Tasco, Pachuca, and Guanaxuato, in which last place, where the veins exceed in richness all that has hitherto been discovered in other parts of the world, I resided for more than a month ; and I had it in my power to compare the dif ferent methods of mining practised in Mexico,

with those which I had observed in the former year in Peru; but the immensity of materials collected by me relative to these subjects, being only of utility when joined with the geological description of the country, I must reserve the detail of them for the historical account of my travels in the interior of the New Continent. Thus, without entering into discussions of a minute and purely technical nature, I shall confine myself in this work to the examination of what is conducive to general results.

What is the geographical position of the mines which supply this enormous mass of silver which flows annually from the commerce of Vera Cruz into Europe? Is this enormous mass of silver the produce of a great number of scattered undertakings, or is it to be considered as almost exclusively furnished by three or four metallic veins of extraordinary wealth and extent? What is the quantity of precious metals annually extracted from the mines of Mexico? And what proportion does this quantity bear to the produce of the mines of the whole of Spanish America? At how many ounces per quintal may we estimate the mean richness of the silver ore of Mexico? What proportion is there between the quantity of ore which undergoes melting, and that from which the gold and silver are extracted by the process of amalgamation? What influence has the price of mercury