The general metallic production of the country,—which was of course impeded by the revolutionary state of New Spain between 1809 and 1826,—has arisen refreshed from its slumber, so that, according to the best accounts it has ascended to perhaps twenty millions annually in total production, in consequence of the prolific yield of the workings at Fresnillo, Chihuahua, and Sonora, independent of the abundant production at Zacatecas.
The Mexican mines were eagerly and even madly seized by the English, and even by the people of the United States, as objects of splendid speculation, as soon as the country became settled; but, in consequence of bad management, or the wild spirit of gambling which assumed the place of prudent commercial enterprise, the holders of stock were either disappointed or sometimes ruined. Subsequently, however, the proprietors have learned that prudence and the experience of old Mexican miners was better than the theoretical principles upon which they designed producing larger revenues than had ever been obtained by the original Spanish workmen. Their imported modern machinery and engines for voiding water from the shafts and galleries is the chief beneficial improvement introduced since the revolution; but the enormous cost of transporting the heavy materials, in a country where there are no navigable rivers extending into the heart of the land, and where the usual mode of carriage is on the backs of mules, by wretched roads over mountains and through ravines, has often absorbed large portions of the original capital before the proprietors even began to employ laborers to set up their foreign engines. Many of the first British and American adventurers or speculators have, thus, been ruined by unskilful enterprises in Mexican mines. Their successors, however, are beginning to reap the beneficial results of this expenditure, and, throughout the republic steam engines, together with the best kinds of hydraulic apparatus, have superseded the Spanish malacates.
"Whenever these superb countries which are so greatly favored by nature," says Humboldt, in his essay on gold and silver, in the Journal des Economistes, "shall enjoy perfect peace after their deep and prolonged internal agitations, new metallic deposites will necessarily be opened and developed. In what region of the globe, except America, can be cited such abundant examples of wealth, in silver? Let it not be forgotten that near Sombrerete, where mines were opened as far back as 1555, the family of Fagoaga,—Marquesses de Apartado,—derived, in the short space of five months, from a front of one hundred and two feet in the outcropping of a silver mine, a net profit of $4,000,000; while, in the mining district of Catorce, in the space of two years and a half, between 1781 and the end of 1783, an ecclesiastic, named Juan Flores, gained $3,500,000, on ground full of chloride of silver and of colorados!"
One of the most flourishing establishments in 1842, was the Zacatecano-Mejicano Mining Company of Fresnillo. Its 120 shares, which originally cost $22,800, were still held by Spaniards and Mexicans. These mines were originally wrought by the state of Zacatecas; but, in 1836, Santa Anna took possession, by an alleged right of conquest, and rented them for twelve years, to the successful company. In the first half year of 1841, they produced $1,025,113, at a cost of $761,800, or a clear profit of $263,313.
Mexico, under the colonial system with the immense product of her mines, and notwithstanding the richness of her soil for agricultural purposes, became almost entirely a silver producing country. The policy of Spain was, as we have already often stated, to be the workshop of the New World, while Mexico and Peru were the treasures of the Old. The consequence of this was natural. Mexico, one of the finest agricultural and grazing lands in the world, but with no temptations to export her natural products, as she had no markets for them elsewhere, and no roads, canals, or rivers to convey her products to seaports for shipment even if she had possessed consumers in Europe, at once devoted herself to her mines which were to be both wealth and the representatives of wealth. Her agriculture, accordingly, assumed the standard of the mere national home consumption, while the pastoral and horticultural interests followed the same line, except perhaps, within late years in California, where a profitable trade was carried on by the missions in hides and tallow. From this restrictive law of exportation we of course except vainilla, cochineal and a few other minor articles.
The sources of the wealth of the principal families of Mexico will consequently be found in her mines, and an interesting summary of this aristocracy is given by Mr. Ward in his "Mexico in 1827," to prove the fact. The family of Regla, which possessed large estates in various parts of the country, purchased the whole of them with the proceeds of the mines of Real del Monte. The wealth of the Fagoagas was derived from the great Bonanza of the Pavellon at Sombrerete. The mines of Balaños founded the Vibancos. Valenciana, Ruhl, Perez-Galvez, and Otero, are all indebted for their possessions to the mines of Valenciana and Villalpando, at Guanajuato. The family of Sardaneta,—formerly Marqueses de Rayas,—took its rise from the mine of that name. Cata and Mellado enriched their original proprietor, Don Francisco Matias de Busto, Marquis of San Clemente. The three successive fortunes of the celebrated Laborde, of whom we shall speak hereafter when we describe Cuernavaca, were derived from the mines of Quebradilla, and San Acasio at Zacatecas, and from the Cañada which bore his name at Tlalpujahua. The beautiful estates of the Obregones, near Leon, were purchased with the revenues of the mines of La Purisima and Concepcion, at Catorce; as was also the estate of Malpasso acquired by the Gordoas from the products of La Luz. The Zambranos,—discoverers of Guarisamey,—owned many of the finest properties in Durango; while Batopillas gave the Bustamantes the opportunity to purchase a title and to enjoy an immense unencumbered income.[19]
Nevertheless, some of the large fortunes of Mexico were made either by trade or the possession of vast agricultural and cattle estates in sections of the country where there were either no mines, or where mining was unprofitable. The Agredas were enriched by commerce, while the descendants of Cortéz who received a royal grant of the valley of Oajaca, together with some Spanish merchants in Jalapa and Vera Cruz, derived the chief part of their fortunes from landed estates, cultivated carefully during the period when the Indians were under better agricultural subjection than at present.
Thus the mines, and the mining districts, by aggregating a large laboring population, in a country in which there were, until recently, but few manufactures, and in which the main body of the people engaged either in trades or in tending cattle, became the centre of some of the most active agricultural districts. "The most fertile portions of the table land are the Baxio, which is immediately contiguous to Guanajuato, and comprises a portion of Valladolid, Guadalajara, Queretaro, and Guanajuato. The valley of Toluca, and the southern part of the state of Valladolid, both supply the capital and the mining districts of Tlalpujahua, El Oro, Temascaltepec and Angangeo;—the plains of Pachuca and Appam, which extend on either side to the foot of the mountains upon which the mines of Real del Monte Chico are situated;—Itzmiquilpan, which owes its existence to Zimapan;—Aguas Calientes, by which the great mining town of Zacatecas is supplied;—a considerable circle in the vicinity of Sombrerete and Fresnillo;—the valley of Jarral and the plains about San Luis Potosi, which town again derives its name from the mines of the Cerro de San Pedro, about four leagues from the gates, the supposed superiority of which to the celebrated mines of Potosi in Peru gave rise to the appellation of Potosi. A little farther north we find the district of Matehuala, now a thriving town with more than seven thousand inhabitants, created by the discovery of Catorce, while about the same time, in the latter part of the last century, Durango rose into importance from the impulse given to the surrounding country by the labors of Zambrano at San Dimas and Guarisamey. Its population increased in twelve years from eight to twenty thousand; while whole streets and squares were added to its extent by the munificence of that fortunate miner. To the extreme north, Santa Eulalia gave rise to the town of Chihuahua; Batopilas and El Parral became each the centre of a little circle of cultivation; Jesus Maria produced a similar effect; Mapimi, Cuencame, and Inde, a little more to the southward, served to develope the natural fertility of the banks of the river Nazas; while in the low hot regions of Sonora and Sinaloa, on the western coast, almost every place designated on the map as a town, was originally and generally is still a Real, or district for mines."[20]
Such is the case with a multitude of other mines which have formed the nucleii of population in Mexico. They created a market. The men who were at work in the vein, required the labor of men on the surface, for their support and maintenance. Nor was it food alone, that these laborers demanded. All kinds of artizans were wanted, and consequently, towns as well as farms grew upon every side. When these mining dependencies are once formed, as Baron Humboldt justly says, they often survive the mines that gave them birth; and turn to agricultural labors for the supply of other districts that industry which was formerly devoted solely to their own region.
Such are some of the internal advantages to be derived from mining in Mexico, especially when the mines are well and scientifically wrought, and when the miners are kept in proper order, well paid, and consequently enabled to purchase the best supplies in the neighboring markets. The mines are, in fact, to Mexico, what the manufacturing districts are to England and the United States; and they must be considered the great support of the national agricultural interests until Mexico becomes a commercial power, and sends abroad other articles besides silver, cochineal and vainilla,—the two last of which may be regarded as her monopolies. The operation of this tempting character of mines or of the money they create as well as circulate, is exhibited very remarkably in the rapidity with which the shores of California have been covered with towns and filled with industrious population.