The Spaniards, in the early days of conquest in South America, began by abandoning all other pursuits than the search of gold and silver; they ended however, by building cities, forming harbours, constructing churches, planting the land, and rearing flocks. After the soldiers came the miners, after the miners came the colonists: swords were turned into plough-shares. That which occurred in the 17th century will recur in the 19th. Australia, California, and the colder regions of the Altai, will be covered with people. It may readily be believed that Providence, in the accumulation of treasures like loadstones in the hearts of the mountains and in the depths of the valleys, has contemplated the attraction of a superabundant population, and of the genius of colonization throughout the civilized world.
Thus much for the producing country itself. Let us now consider the effect of this superabundance of gold on the importing countries. The first and most important question is, whether the relative proportions in value between gold and silver is likely to be materially disturbed. We have been considering the present production of gold, let us now see how the case stands as regards silver.
Mons. de Humboldt estimates the amount of silver annually produced at the commencement of this century at 870,000 kilogrammes (about [139]193,000,000 francs). In 1847, M. Michel Chevalier, considered the annual production to be 775,000 kilogrammes, (about [140]172,000,000 francs), but there is reason to suppose that this writer under-estimated the returns of the Mexican mines, which he placed at [141]18,500,000 piastres, and in a later work, the same authority states the production at [142]900,000 kilogrammes. The English paper, The Economist, estimated the return of 1850 at [143]191,772,000 francs; the actual production, however, appears to have been much larger. It cannot be placed at a lower figure than 1,000,000 of kilogrammes for 1851, or at about [144]230,000,000 francs. The following is the table of details:
| Mexico | 133,000,000 | francs = | £5,320,000 |
| Chili | 22,000,000 | ” | 880,000 |
| Peru | 25,000,000 | ” | 1,000,000 |
| Bolivia and New Granada | 12,000,000 | ” | 480,000 |
| Russia and Norway | 5,000,000 | ” | 200,000 |
| Saxony, Bohemia, Hungary, &c., | 12,000,000 | ” | 480,000 |
| Spain | 16,000,000 | ” | 640,000 |
| The rest of Europe | 5,000,000 | ” | 200,000 |
| Total | 230,000,000 | ” | £9,200,000 |
We do not think we shall be exaggerating in supposing that the production will have reached [145]250,000,000 francs in 1852, and that it will consequently have exceeded [146]1,100,000 kilogrammes. At this rate the accumulated value of the precious metals produced in 1852 will have reached the figure of [147]850,000,000 fr., of which silver will represent the proportion of about 30 per cent; the weight of gold will then be in the proportion of 1 to 6³⁄₁₀ to silver.
In estimating a gradual increase in the production of silver, we have some data for our supposition. In 1843, there was scarcely [148]16,000,000 piastres from Mexico; in 1849, the silver coined at the Mexican Mint amounted to [149]20,000,000 dollars, without reckoning that portion which escaped duty, and which probably amounted to [150]3,000,000 or 4,000,000 more; [151]we are certainly quite within the mark, it is even more probable that the production this year may again reach the sum of [152]27,000,000 dollars, to which it had attained in 1805, under the Spanish Government. In Chili the progress has been still more rapid, the mines which in 1841 produced [153]821,000 piastres, and in 1845, [154]1,534,000, having in 1849 given [155]3,343,000, and in 1850 [156]4,070,000 piastres.
One cause of a purely local nature has contributed to this result. It is known that the process of amalgamation is almost the only one employed by the miners in extracting the ores of Chili, Peru, and Mexico. To obtain 1 cwt. of silver it is necessary to employ 1½ cwt. of quicksilver; it is evident, therefore, that the price of quicksilver must have a great influence on the cost of extraction. When it has become too dear, the working has been confined to the richest mines; when it has fallen the increase in the working of the poorer ores has soon followed. Before the war of independence, the Crown of Spain, preserving the monopoly of the sale of quicksilver, gave it out at all their depots in Mexico at [157]35 to 40 piastres the cwt.; thence arose the immense increase in the workings of the silver mines, notwithstanding the coarseness of the ores. Since the Spanish Government, however, has, pressed by the miserable position of its finances, farmed out the produce of the Almaden mines, the lessees who had agreed to pay a very heavy rent, and who had no competition to fear for a long period of time, raised the price of the quicksilver beyond all bounds. A few years since the price at Guanaxuato rose to [158]150 piastres the cwt. In 1850 the agent of Messrs. Rothschild fixed the price at [159]103 piastres in Vera Cruz, and at [160]105 at the depot in Mexico. At the same date the price was [161]120 at Mazatlan. The cost price of the quicksilver at Almaden is [162]18 dollars the cwt., and it is sold at the rate of [163]45 dollars for extraction of the ores in Spain.
The high price will cease with the monopoly. Spain has no longer the exclusive privilege of furnishing quicksilver for the mines in the New World. California possesses mines of cinnabar in abundance, and they are now in full work. Those of New-Almaden, situated at some leagues from San Francisco, are now producing [164]400 kilogrammes a day. At 300 day’s work this could give a provision of [165]120,000 kilogrammes, sufficient to work at least [166]80,000 kilogrammes of silver. At the mine itself this quicksilver is worth [167]25 piastres the cwt.; brought to Fresnillo, near the rich veins of Sombrerete, and on the backs of mules from the port of Mazatlan, it has been sold at [168]93 piastres in 1850. The proprietors of New-Almaden undertake to reduce the price whenever the price of Spanish quicksilver shall be lowered. They have sent some of it to Chili, where silver-mine working has taken a fresh start. They can sell it advantageously in Peru, for the quicksilver of Huancavelica cost at Pasco in August, 1850, [169]104 piastres the cwt. The mine of New Almaden is not the only one being worked in California; cinnabar is met with in several directions, and hereafter it is probable that California may be looked to as a country producing quicksilver as well as gold.
The news of the discovery of quicksilver mines in Mexico, in the neighbourhood of San Luis de Potosi, was confirmed by accounts received in London in March last. Are they old mines formerly abandoned on account of their poverty, or have they really discovered an ore which, as at New Almaden, yields a produce of 50 per cent. of quicksilver? This is a point yet to be cleared up. In the meantime the price of silver has fallen in the district of Guanaxuato to [170]40 piastres the hundred weight, and it is now varying between a price of [171]55 and 56 piastres. In short, one of the conditions connected with silver mining has materially changed. An economy of [172]60 or 70 piastres per hundred weight in the cost of amalgamation can hardly fail to kindle a fresh spirit of enterprize.