Brought over For the gold of Chili, New Grenada, and the kingdom of Buenos Ayres 1 Piastres. 734,000,000 82,000,000 RECAPITULATION. Value of Gold and Silver extracted from the mines of America, from 1499 to 1803. Registered No. I. 4,035,156,000 684,544,000 From the Portuguese From the Spa nish Colonies 816,000,000 Not Registered From the Por No. II. This sum, which I believe myself warranted in fixing on, differs more than sixteen thousand millions of francs from the sum stated by Robertson. It is not surprising that it approximates the estimates of several other writers; for it is with numbers in political economy, as with the positions fixed by astronomers; when we first observe the longitude of a place amid the great number of maps in which all the points are placed at random, we are sure to find one which indicates the true position. It appears then that, of the 5,706,700,000 piastres, or 29,960,175,000 livres tournois furnished in gold and silver from 1492 till 1803, or in the space of 311 years, we owe : As the Cerro del Potosi belongs from its position to the Cordilleras of Peru, I have brought together in this table, the mines situated on the ridge of the chain of the Andes, from the 6° to the 21° of south latitude, for a length of 500 leagues. The metalliferous part of Mexico, comprehended between the 16° and 31° of north latitude, at present supplies twice as much silver, as the two viceroyalties of Peru and Buenos Ayres; and this part is only 450 leagues in length. The following table specifies the proportion between the gold and silver drawn from the mines of the New Continent from their discovery, till 1803, According to this estimate which is merely an approximate, the mass of silver furnished by the Cordilleras of America for three centuries, amounts to 117,864,210 kilogrammes* in weight. * 316, 023,883 lb. troy. It would form a solid sphere of a diameter of 27.8 metres, or 85 Paris feet. When we collect that the iron extracted from the mines of France alone, amounts to 225 mitlions of kilogrammes per annum, we see that with respect to the relative abundance, or distribution of the substances in the exterior crust of the globe, silver is to iron merely in the relation of magnesia to silice, or baryte to alumine. We must not however confound the quantity of precious metals extracted from the mines of the New Continent, with what has really flowed into Europe since the year 1492. To judge of this last sum, it is indispensable to estimate, 1st. The gold and silver found at the period of the conquest among the natives of America, and which became the spoil of the conquerors; 2dly. What has remained in circulation in the New Continent; and 3dly. What has passed directly to the coasts of Africa and Asia, without touching Europe. The conquerors found gold not only in the regions where it is still produced, as in Mexico, Peru, and New Grenada, but also in countries of which the rivers actually appear to us very poor in auriferous sands. The natives of Florida, Saint Domingo, and the Island of * 91.206 feet English. Trans. |
