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THE NATURE AND CAUSES OK

may be bis proportion, it would naturally too belong to theproprietor of the mine, if tin was duty free. But if you addone-twentieth to one-sixth, you will find that the wholeaverage rent of the tin-mines of Cornwall , was to the wholeaverage rent of the silver-mines of Peru , as thirteen to twelve.But the silver-mines of Peru are not now able to pay eventhis low rent, and the tax upon silver was, in 173G, reducedfrom one-fifth to one-tenth. Even this tax upon silver toogives more temptation to smuggling than the tax of one-twentieth upon tin ; and smuggling must be much easier inthe precious than in the bulky commodity. The tax of theking of Spain accordingly is said to be very ill paid, and thatof the duke of Cornwall very well. Rent, therefore, it is pro-bable, makes a greater part of the price of tin at the mostfertile tin-mines, than it does of silver at the most fertile sil-ver-mines in the world. After replacing the stock employedin working those different mines, together with its ordinaryprofits, the residue which remains to the proprietor is greater,it seems, in the coarse than in the precious metal.

Neither are the profits of the undertakers of silver-minescommonly very great in Peru . The same most respectableand well informed authors acquaint us, that when any personundertakes to work a new mine in Peru , he is universallylooked upon as a man destined to bankruptcy and ruin, andis upon that account shunned and avoided by every body.Mining, it seems, is considered there in the same light ashere, as a lottery, in which the prizes do not compensate theblanks, though the greatness of some tempts may adventurersto throw away their fortunes in such unprosperous projects.

As the sovereign, however, derives a considerable part ofhis revenue from the produce of silver-mines, the law in Peru gives every possible encouragement to the discovery andworking of new ones. Whoever discovers a new mine is en-titled to measure off'two hundred and forty-six feet in length,according to what he supposes to be the direction of thevein, and half as much in breadth, lie becomes proprietorof this portion of the mine, and can work it without payingany acknowledgment to the landlord. The interest of theduke of Cornwall has given occasion to a regulation nearlyof the same kind in that ancient duchy. In waste and un-incloscd lands any person who discovers a tin-mine, maymark out its limits to a certain extent, which is called bound-ing a mine. The bounder becomes the real proprietor of the