244

MINES IN

CHAP. XXV.

therefore it must be the natural tendency of eachto convert gold dust into doubloons, or the half,quarter, or eighth parts of doubloons, as fast as themints can coin them.

It is, then, on the produce of these mints thatreliance must be placed in calculating the goldand silver which the different modes of goldwashing yield. As the coining apparatus is bad,and the work performed is slow, there is, or was,for we have heard that great improvements havebeen lately introduced, a delay in the operationwhich, when interest was so high as we havestated, led to the introduction at the mints ofsome gold collected by private persons in theform of dust. The directors of the mint at Bo-gota purchased such gold dust of those who hadcollected it, and coined it into doubloons andtheir subdivisions. By this operation a gain wasmade, between 1810 and 1823, of six hundredand seventy-seven thousand seven hundred andforty-six dollars, or one hundred and forty, onethousand one hundred and eighty-five poundssterling. This gain, however, did not far exceedthe current rate of high interest then paid intransactions between private individuals.

There are two mints in the Republic of Co-lumbia, at Bogota and Popayan . No exact ac-counts have been procured later than the end ofthe year 1825, but there is no reason to suppose