“The operations of the mints concur in proving the necessity of banks: for, granting the mint of Lima has stamped in the last three years 4,902,762 dollars, and the mint at Cuzco, in the years 1829 and 1831, 969,939 dollars, the augmentation of coinage does not correspond to that which should result from the abolition of the duties of cobos and tithes since the 26th February 1830, and the increase in the coinage at Cuzco proceeds from other causes. When these duties” (viz. cobos and tithes) “were yet exacted, in the Lima mint alone, in the year 1827, more than 2,700,000 dollars were coined; but in that year, in addition to the beneficial drainage of the Pasco mines, the contraband trade had not extended itself as afterwards it did. To diminish the evils produced by contraband trade in mining places or in their immediate environs, funds, in addition to banks of ‘Rescate,’ are necessary in the houses of coinage; with which being provided, neither the holders of bullion shall be deterred from presenting it because of the delay they experience in being paid its value, nor, if this delay be shortened, shall the treasury suffer the severe losses to which it is actually subjected. One hundred thousand dollars in the Lima mint, and fifty thousand in the mint of Cuzco, should prove sufficient to meet all difficulties.”
We may remark, that the want of such mint deposits as are alluded to by Mr. Tudela is one of the principal sources of mistrust in revolutionary times; as the possessor of bullion will rather run the risk of smuggling, than the chance either of losing all his capital, or of being long deprived of its value in hard dollars, if he carries it in the regular channel to the Lima mint. The banks of Rescate to which Mr. Tudela refers, now so much desired in Peru, are only funds deposited in certain situations, and under proper superintendence, for the miner to be thereby enabled to exchange his piña at a fixed and just value in current money, by which he is put in possession of dollars as soon as his piña is ready for the market. And this, we may venture to say, is the only sort of bank calculated to be of real service to the dissolute miner; as it encourages his industry, without putting it in his power to outrun his credit with the bank, or of ruining himself and family, and kindling the worst of passions in consequence of forfeiting his mines, which would frequently be the case if these were accepted in security for cash advances, to be spent probably in feasts, frolics, cards, and dicing, instead of being applied to the professed purpose of working his mines or improving his property.
The number of marcs[6] of silver reduced to bars, in the foundery at Cerro Pasco, from the year 1825 to 1836 inclusive, is, according to the best information, as follows:—
| Years. | Marcs. |
|---|---|
| 1825 | 56,971 |
| 1826 | 163,852 |
| 1827 | 221,707 |
| 1828 | 201,330 |
| 1829 | 82,031 |
| 1830 | 95,265 |
| 1831 | 135,134 |
| 1832 | 219,378 |
| 1833 | 257,669 |
| 1834 | 272,558 |
| 1835 | 246,820 |
| 1836 | 237,840 |
| 2,190,555 |
CHAPTER II.
Descent from Pasco to Huanuco.—Succession of works for grinding and amalgamating silver ore.—Quinoa.—Cajamarquilla.—Huariaca.—San Rafael.—Ambo.—Vale of Huanuco; its beauties and advantages.—State of agriculture in this vale, and traffic with Pasco.—The College named La Virtud Peruana.—Steam navigation on the river Huallaga, and civilization of the wild Indians of the Montaña.—Natural productions of the Montaña.
Some of the valleys in Peru, like that by Obrajillo and Canta, extend from the coast to the Cordillera: some are only a few leagues of rapid descent from the puna or lofty table-land, as Tarma, for example, from the heights of Junin; but others sink deeply into the bosom of the central Andes, or dip under the brow of the Montaña, as, for example, Guarrigancha and Huanuco, of the latter of which we purpose to offer a more particular account.