1. Quantity of Registered Gold and Silver extracted from the mines of America between the years of 1492 and 1803.

A. SPANISH COLONIES.

Piastres.

- 1,353,452,000

The kingdom of New Spain has
furnished the mint of Mexico,
between 1690 and 1803, ac-
cording to the register al-✔
ready given, with
The mines of Tasco, Zultepec,
Pachuca, and Tlapujahua,
are almost the only ones
which were worked immedi-
ately after the destruction of the
city of Tenochtilan in 1521,
and from that memorable period
till 1548. As the quantity of
gold and silver coined in the
beginning of the 18th century
did not exceed five millions of
piastres per annum, I reckon
from the conquest by Hernan
Cortez till 1548 for the
total produce of Mexico

Carried over

40,500,000

1,393,952,000

Piastres.

Brought over 2,863,710,500

The mines of Pasco or Yauri-
cocha, discovered in 1630,
yielded up to 1803 nearly
300 millions of piastres, or
35,300,000 marcs; namely, from
1630 to 1792, at 200,000 marcs
per annum
From 1792 to 1801, according

to the registers

Produce of the Cerro de Yauricocha, from 1801 till 1803 The mines of Gualgayoc, discovered in 1771, yielded up to 1773 nearly 170,000 marcs of

silver per annum

From 1774 till 1802, for the

mines of Gualgayoc, Guamachuco and Couchucos

Add for 1808

I estimate the produce of the mines of Huantajaya, Porco, and other less considerable Peruvian mines, from the 16th century till 1803, at 150,000 or 200,000 marcs of silver per

274,400,000

21,501,600

3,400,000

4,300,000

185,339,900

504,000

annum

350,000,000

Carried over 3,703,156,000

416

POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE

[BOOK IV.

Piastres.

Brought over 3,703,156,000

Choco was peopled in 1539; the province of Antioquia, then inhabited by cannibals, was conquered in 1541. The alluvial mining tracts of Sonora and Chili began only very late to be worked. If we reckon 12,000 marcs of gold for the total produce of the Spanish Colonies, not including the kingdom of New Spain, we may add

Registered Gold and Silver of

332,000,000

the Spanish Colonies, from 4,035,156,000 1492 to 1803

B. PORTUGUESE COLONIES.

Raynal supposes, for the first sixty years, a produce the double of the present. He admits, that according to the registers of the fleets, since the discovery of the mines of Brazil till 1555, there has come into Europe, in gold, the value of .

480,000,000

II. Gold and Silver not registered, extracted from the mines of the New Continent, from 1492 to 1803.

A.

SPANISH COLONIES.

I reckon for New Spain, where
the furtive extraction was very
considerable till the middle
of the eighteenth century, a
seventh
For Potosi, the fourth of the
total produce, on account of
the enormous contraband at
the beginning of working the

260,000,000

274,000,000

200,000,000

Carried over 734,000,000

VOL. III.

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