CHAP. XXV.

OF VARIOUS MINES.

231

country, which is exhibited between that periodand the preceding one of the same number ofyears.

The greatest contrast was between the years1809 and 1812. In the first of these, the moneycoined at the mint of Mexico was twenty-sixmillion one hundred and seventy-two thousandnine hundred and eighty-two dollars in gold andsilver; and in the second only four million fourhundred and nine thousand two hundred andsixty-six. In the latter years, indeed, othermints were established—one in Durango, whichcoined eight hundred and eight thousand sevenhundred and ninety-two; and another in Zacea-tecas, which furnished nearly one million fivehundred thousand.

Besides the destruction of the works, whichwas considerable, the withdrawment of the capitalemployed in mining had a most injurious effect.The capitalists, whether engaged in mining, incommerce, or in agriculture upon a large scale,were disposed to fly from a country liable to theplunder and oppression of riotous and destroyingmobs. We learn from Mr. Ward’s work, thatthough, after the suppression of the insurgents inJ815, some small Spanish capitalists prosecutedsuccessfully some works at Catorce, Zaccatecas,and Sombrerete, yet, on the declaration of in-dependence in 1821, most of them withdrewtheir capitals and returned to Spain or France ,