154

AMERICAN B1INES.

CHAP. XXII.

ing a profit of near twenty-five per cent., it was ena-bled to reduce tbe price to the miners in Mexico 1 .

The following is the statement of the produceof the mines of Mexico in gold and in silverdelivered to be coined at the several mints, inperiods of ten years, reduced into sterling moneyat the rate of four shillings and two-pence thepiastre, as extracted from Humboldt and Ward.

In the ten years from 1700 to 1709

£10,777,298

1710 to 1719

13,697,297

1720 to 1729

17,131,921

1730 to 1739

18,860,355

1740 to 1749

23,302,633

1750 to 1759

26,197,936

1760 to 1769

23,506,012

1770 to 1779

34,912,858

1780 to 1789

40,318,948

1790 to 1799

48,191,711

1800 to 1809

47,142,814

304,039,783

It is estimated by Humboldt that the gold andsilver of Mexico which did not pay the duty tothe king was equal to one-fifth of that whichdid; and considering the circumstances favourableto contraband transactions, there is no reason tosuspect any exaggeration.

Taking it at that amount, there may be added 60,807,956

£364,847,739

Thus there appears, during the whole periodof 110 years, an annual product averaging 3,316,706

1 Humboldt , from whose work the foregoing observationson the great increase of the product of the mines in the middleof the last century are chiefly extracted, expresses his wishesthat the attention of Mexico could be directed to China to ob-tain a supply of mercury; and he has lived to see the experimentmade of obtaining some from thence, and with hopes of greaterfuture success.