Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican/Volume 2/Book 4/Chapter 6
CHAPTER VI.
Mexican Mines, Mineral Wealth and Coinage.
It is generally supposed that the mineral wealth of America was one of the most powerful stimulants of the Spanish conquest and subsequent emigration; nor is the idea erroneous if we recollect the manner in which the Castilian power was founded on this continent and the colonial policy it originated. It will be seen by the tables annexed to this section, that the results have largely fulfilled the hopes of the European adventurers, and that the wealth of the world has been immensely augmented and sustained, by the discovery of our Continent, In the order of the earth's gradual development, under the intellectual enterprise or bodily labor of man, we find the most beautiful system of accommodation to the growing wants or capacities of our race. Space is required for the crowded population of the Old World, and a new continent is suddenly opened, into which the cramped and burdened millions may find room for industry and independent existence. The political institutions of Europe decay in consequence of the encroachments of power, the social degradation of large masses by unjust or unwise systems, or the enforced operation of oppressive laws, and a virgin country is forthwith assigned to man in which the principle of self government may be tried without the necessity of casting off by violence the old fetters of feudalism. The increasing industry or invention of the largely augmented populations of the earth, exacts either a larger amount or a new standard of value for the precious metals, and regions are discovered among the frosts and forests of a far old continent, in which the fable of the golden sands of Pactolus is realized. The labor of men and the flight of time strip commercial countries of their trees, yet, in order to support the required supply of fuel, not only for the comfort and preservation but also for the industry of the race, the heart of the earth beneath the soil which is required for cultivation, is found to be veined with inexhaustible supplies of mineral coal.
The bounty and the protective forethought of God for his creatures is not only intimated but proved by these benevolent storehouses of treasure, comfort and freedom; and whilst we acknowledge them with proper gratitude, we should not forget that their acquirement and enduring possession are only to be paid for by labor, economy, and social as well as political forbearance.
We do not think these observations out of place in a chapter devoted to the mineral wealth of Mexico. The subject of property and its representative metals, should be approached in a reflective and christian spirit, in an age in which the political and personal misery of the overcrowded masses of Europe, is forcing them to regard all who are better provided for, or more fortunate by thrift or the accident of birth, as enemies of the poor. The demagogue leaders of these wretched classes, pushing the principle of just equalization to a ridiculous and hideous extreme, have not hesitated to declare in France, since the revolution of February, 1848, that "property is robbery."[1] We shall not pause to examine or refute the false dogma of a dangerous incendiary. The common sense as well as the common feeling of mankind revolts at it. Property, as the world is constituted by God, is the source of new industry, because it is, under the laws of all civilized nations, the original result of industry. "It makes the meat it feeds on." Without it there would be no duty of labor, no exercise of human ingenuity or talent, no responsibility, no reward. The mind and body would stagnate under such a monstrous contradiction of all our physical and intellectual laws. The race would degenerate into its former savage condition; and force, instead of its antagonists, industry and honest competition, would usurp the dominion of the world and end this vicious circle of bastard civilization.
And yet it is the duty of an American,—who, from his superior position, both in regard to space in which he can find employment and equal political laws by which that employment is protected, stands on a vantage ground above the confined and badly governed masses of Europe,—to regard the present position of the European masses not only with humane compassion, but to sympathize with that natural feeling that revolts against a state of society which it seems impossible to ameliorate, and yet whose wants or luxuries do not afford them support. It is hard to suffer hunger and to see our dependants die of starvation, when we are both able and willing to work for wages but can obtain no work upon which to exercise our ingenuity or our hands. It is frightful to reflect, says Mr. Carlyle, in one of his admirable essays, that there is hardly an English horse, in a condition to labor for his owner, that is deprived of food and lodging, whilst thousands of human beings rise daily from their obscure and comfortless dens in the British isles, who do not know how they shall obtain employment for the day by which they may purchase a meal.
To this dismal account of European suffering, the condition of the American continent affords the best reply. The answer and the remedy are both displayed in the social and political institutions, as well as in the boundless unoccupied and prolific tracts of our country. Labor cries out for work and recompense from the Old World, whilst the New displays her soil, her mines, her commerce and her trades, as the best alms that one nation can bestow on another, because they come direct from God and are the reward of meritorious industry. Before such a tribunal the modern demagogue of continental Europe shrinks into insignificance, and the laws of labor are effectually vindicated.
The Mines of Mexico have been wrought from the earliest periods. Long before the advent of the Spaniards, the natives of Mexico, like those of Peru, were acquainted with the use of metals. Nor were they contented with such specimens as they found scattered at random on the surface of the earth or in the ravines of mountain torrents, but had already learned to dig shafts, pierce galleries, form needful implements, and trace the metallic veins in the hearts of mountains. We know that they possessed gold, silver, lead, tin, copper and cinnabar. Beautiful samples of jewelry were wrought by them, and gold and silver vases, constructed in Mexico, were sent to Spain by the conquerors, as testimonials of the mineral wealth of the country. The dependant tribes paid their tributes to the sovereign in a species of metallic currency, which though not stamped by royal order, was yet the representative of a standard value. The exact position of all the mines from which these treasures were derived by the Aztecs is not certainly known at the present day, but as the natives were often compelled to indicate some of the sources of their riches to the conquerors there is little doubt that the present mineral district of the republic is that from which they procured their chief supplies.
The mines of Mexico may be classed in eight groups, nearly all of which are placed on the top or on the western slope of the great Cordillera.
The first of these groups has been the most productive, and embraces the districts contiguous to Guanajuato, San Luis Potosi, Charcas, Catorce, Zacatecas, Asientos de Ybarra, Fresnillo and Sombrerete.
The second comprises the mines situated west of the city of Durango as well as those in Sinaloa, for the labors of engineers have brought them so close to each other by their works that they may be united in the same geological division.
The third group is the northernmost in Mexico, and is that which embraces the mines of Chihuahua and Cosiguiriachi. It extends from the 27th° to the 29th° of north latitude.
The fourth and fifth clusters are found north-east of Mexico, and are formed by the mines of Real del Monte or Pachuca, and Zimapan, or, El Doctor.
Bolaños, in Guadalajara, and Tasco in Oajaca, are the central points of the sixth, seventh and eighth.[2]
The reader who will cast his eye over the map of Mexico, will at once perceive that the geographical space covered by this metalliferous region, is small when compared with the great extent of the whole country. The eight groups into which the mining districts are divided occupy a space of twelve thousand square leagues, or one tenth only of the whole extent of the Mexican republic as it existed previous to the treaty of 1848 and before the mineral wealth of California and probably of New Mexico was known to the world. But as that treaty confirmed and ceded to the United States more than one half of the ancient territory of Mexico, we may estimate the mining region as covering fully one fifth of the remainder.
Before the discovery and conquest of the West Indies and the American continent, Europe had looked to the east for her chief supplies of treasure. America was discovered by Columbus, not as was so long imagined, because he foresaw the existence of another continent, but because he sought a shorter route to the rich and golden Zipangou, and to the spice regions of eastern Asia. Columbus and Vespuccius both died believing that they had reached eastern Asia, and thus a geographical mistake led to the greatest discovery that has ever been made. In proof of these assertions we may state that Columbus designed delivering at Cuba, the missives of the Spanish king to the great Kahn of the Mongols, and that he imagined himself in Mangi the capital of the southern region of Cathay or China! "The Island of Hispaniola," (Hayti) he declares to Pope Alexander VI., in a letter found in the archives of the Duke of Varaguas,—"is Tarshish, Ophir, and Zipangou. In my second voyage, I have discovered fourteen hundred islands, and a shore of three hundred and thirty-three miles, belonging to the continent of Asia. "This West Indian Zipangou produced golden fragments or spangles, weighing eight, ten and even twenty pounds. [3]
Before the discovery of the silver mines of Tasco, on the western slope of the Mexican Cordillera, in the year 1522, America supplied only gold to the Old World, and consequently, Isabella of Castile was obliged, already in 1497, to modify greatly, the relative value of the two precious metals used for currency. This was doubtless the origin of the Medina edict—which changes the old legal ratio of 1:10.7. Yet Humboldt has shown that, from 1492 to 1500, the quantity of gold drawn from the parts of the New World then known, did not amount, annually, to more than about one thousand pounds avoirdupois;—and the Pope Alexander VI., who, by his famous Bull, bestowed one half the earth upon the Spanish kings, only received in return, from Ferdinand the Catholic, some small fragments of gold from Hayti, to gild a portion of the dome of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore;—a gift that was suitably acknowledged in a Latin inscription in which the offering is set forth as the first that had been received by the Catholic sovereigns from India.
Although the income of treasure must have increased somewhat, yet the working of the American mines did not yield three millions of dollars yearly until 1545. The ransom of Atahualpa amounted, according to Gomara, to about four hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars of our standard, or fifty-two thousand marks of silver, whilst, the pillage of the Temples at Cuzco, if Herrera is to be credited, did not produce more than twenty-five thousand seven hundred marks, or a little more than a quarter of a million of our currency.[4]
It has been generally imagined that the wealth of the New World immediately and largely enriched the Spanish kings or their people; and that the sovereigns, under whose auspices the discovery was made, participated, at once, in the treasures that were found in the possession of the Indian rulers. Such, however, was not the case. The historian Ranke, in his essay on the Spanish finances, has shown, by new documents and official vouchers, the small quantity of the precious metals which the American mines, and the supposed treasures of the Incas yielded.[5] It is probable that the conquerors did not make exact returns to the court of their acquisitions, or that the revenue officers, appointed at an early period of American history, were not remarkable for the fidelity with which they transmitted the sums that came into their possession as servants of the crown; and thus it happened that neither the king of Spain nor his kingdom, was speedily enriched by the New World. Baron Humboldt, in one of his late publications, gives an interesting extract from a letter written by a friend of Ferdinand the Catholic a few days after his death, which exhibits the finances of that king in a different light from that in which they have been hitherto viewed. In an epistle to the bishop of Tuy, Peter Martyr says, that this "Lord of many realms,—this wearer of so many laurels,—this diffuser of the Christian faith and vanquisher of its enemies,—died poor, in a rustic hut. Whilst he lived no one imagined that after his death it would be discovered that he possessed scarcely money enough either to defray the ceremony of his sepulture, or to furnish his few retainers with suitable mourning!"[6] The adventurers in America were doubtless enriched, and duly reported their gains to friends at home; but Spain itself was not speedily improved by their acquisitions.
The rise in the prices of grain and other products of agriculture or human industry, about the middle of the sixteenth century, and especially from 1570 to 1595, indicates the true beginning of the plentiful flow of the precious metals to the Old World, in consequence of which their value diminished and the results of European industry increased in price. This is accounted for by the commencement of the beneficial working of the American mines about that period. The real opening of the mines of Potosi, by the Spanish conquerors, dates from the year 1545; and it was between this epoch and 1595, that the splendid masses of silver from Tasco, Zacatecas, and Pachuca, in New Spain; and from Potosi, Porco and Oruro, in the chain of Peruvian Andes, began to be distributed more uniformly over Europe, and to affect the price of its productions. From the period of the administration of Cortéz to the year 1552, when the celebrated mines of Zacatecas were just opened, the export from Mexico, rarely reached in value, annually, 100,000 pesos de oro, or nearly $1,165,000. But from that date it rose rapidly, and in the years 1569, 1578 and 1587, it was already, respectively—
| 931,564 | Pesos de oro. | The Peso de oro, is rated by Prescott, at $11.65 cents, and by Ramirez, at $2.93 cents.[7] | |
| 1,111,202 | "" | ||
| 1,812,051 | "" |
During the last peaceful epoch of the Spanish domination. Baron Humboldt calculates the annual yield of the mines of Mexico at not more than $23,000,000, or nearly 1,184,000 pounds, avoirdupois, of silver, and 3,500 pounds, avoirdupois, of gold. From 1690 to 1803—$1,330,772,093 were coined in the only mint of Mexico; while, from the discovery of New Spain until its independence, about $2,028,000,000, or two-fifths of all the precious metals which the whole of the New World has supplied during the same period, were furnished by Mexico alone. [8]
It appears from these data that the exhaustion of the mines of Mexico is contradicted by the geognostic facts of the country, and as we shall hereafter show, by the recent issues of Mexican mints. The mint of Zacatecas, alone, during the revolutionary epoch, from 1811 to 1833, struck more than $66,332,766, and, in the eleven last years of this period, from four to five millions of dollars were coined by it every year uninterruptedly.
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 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.[9]
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."[10]
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.
The tabular statement on the next page manifests the relative production, and improving or decreasing productiveness, of the several silver districts of Mexico, during the comparatively pacific period of ten years antecedent to the war with the United States which commenced in 1846. Whilst that contest lasted the agricultural and mineral interests and industry of the country of course suffered, and, consequently, it would be unfair to calculate the metallic yield of Mexico upon the basis of that epoch or of the years immediately succeeding.
From the table it will be seen—omitting the fractions of dollars and of marks of silver—that the whole tax collected during these ten years from 1835 to 1844, amounted to $1,988,799, imposed on 15,911,194 marks of silver, the value of which was $131,267,354;—the mean yield of tax being $198,889, and of the silver, 1,591,119, in marks, which, estimated at the rate of eight dollars and a quarter, per mark, amounts to $13,126,735 annually.
Comparing the first and second periods of five years, we find a difference in the tax in favor of the latter, of $113,130, on 905,042 marks of silver; showing that in the latter period $7,466,596 more were extracted from the Mexican mines than during the former.
If we adopt the decimal basis of calculation the returns show, approximately, the following results for relative productiveness:
| In | Zacatecas | 33232 | per ct. | In | Rosario, Cosala and Mazatlan | 22632 | per ct. | ||
| Guanajuato, | 211232 | "" | |||||||
| San Luis Potosi, | 72232 | "" | Sombrerete, | 22232 | "" | ||||
| Pachuca, | 62432 | "" | Parral, | 1632 | "" | ||||
| Guadalajara, | 5432 | "" | Zimapan, | 2832 | "" | ||||
| Mexico, | 42632 | "" | Alamos, | 2732 | "" | ||||
| Durango, | 41832 | "" | Hermosillo, | 2632 | "" | ||||
| Guadalupe y Calvo, | 32432 | "" | Oajaca, | 232 | "" | ||||
| Chihuahua y Jesus Maria, | 41832 | "" | Tasco | 132 | "" | ||||
MINT OF MEXICO
Comprised in four sections: 1st, coinage of gold and silver from 1690 to 1821; 2d, from 1822 to 1829; 3d, from 1830 to 1844; and 4th, coinage of copper only.
| 1690 to 1822, | or, in 132 years, | in silver, | $1.574,031,650..1..10 |
| 1732 to 1822, | gold, | 60,018,880..0..00 | |
| 1822 to 1829, | silver, | 23,179,384..3..03 | |
| "" | gold, | 4,392,502..0..00 | |
| 1830 to 1844, | silver, | 18,829,250..4..02 | |
| "" | gold, | 1,430,258..0..00 | |
| 1814 to 1844, | copper, | 5,232,765..0..09 | |
| ————————— | |||
| Total | $1,675,909..2.00 |
| From this must be deducted on account of recoinage, &c. &c., according to statement of the mint, | 12,195,941..0..00 |
| —————————— | |
| 1,675,909,749..1..08 | |
| And to this last sum must be added for gold coinage from 1609 to 1732, not included in the previous statement, | 24,237,766..0..00 |
| ————————— | |
| Total coinage of mint in the city of Mexico to 1844, | 1,700,147,515..1..08 |
| From 1535 to 1690—it is estimated that there were coined in the mint of Mexico alone: | |
| Gold, | $ 31,000,000 |
| Silver, | 620,000,000 |
| ————————— | |
| Total | 651,000,000 |
| Add the preceding result from 1690 to 1844, | 1,700,147,515 |
| —————————— | |
| Total coinage in mint of city of Mexico from 1535 to 1844, | $ 2,351,147,515 |
MINT OF CHIHUAHUA
| 1811 to 1814, | silver, | $3,603,660..0..00 | |
| 1832 to 1844, | " | 3,026,215..3..08 | |
| "" | gold, | 368,248..0..00 | |
| 1833 to 1835 | copper, | 50,428..5..00 | |
| ————————— | |||
| Total | [12]$7,048,552..0..08 |
MINT OF DURANGO
Comprised in two sections: 1st, coinage, from 1811 to 1829; and 2d, 1830 to 1844.
| 1811 to 1829, | silver, | $10,046,503..4..00 |
| 1830 to 1844, | " | 11,769,410..3..09 |
| 1830 to 1844, | gold, | 1,986,069..3..06 |
| ———————— | ||
| Total, | $23,801,983..3..03 |
MINT OF GUADALAJARA
| 1812 to 1821, | silver, | $2,058,388..2..03 |
| "" | gold, | 61,581..1..03 |
| 1822 to 1829, | silver, | 5,619,384..4..00 |
| "" | gold, | 182,242..4..00 |
| 1830 to 1844, | silver, | 10,162,947..4..06 |
| "" | gold, | 120,805..5..06 |
| 1831 to 1836, | copper, | 61,217..4..06 |
| ———————— | ||
| Total, | $18,266,567..1..07 |
MINT OF GUADALUPE Y CALVO
| 1844, | silver, | $338,124 |
| " | gold, | 95,004 |
| —————— | ||
| Total, | $433,128 |
MINT OF GUANAJUATO
| 1812 to 1821, | silver, | $602,575..0..00 |
| 1822 to 1829, | " | 7,652,816..5..00 |
| "" | gold, | 142,520..0..00 |
| 1830 to 1844, | silver, | 42,742,850..0..00 |
| "" | gold, | 4,228,180..0..00 |
| ———————— | ||
| Total, | $55,368,941..5..00 |
MINT OF SOMBRERETE.
| 1810 to 1812, inclusive, | coined in silver, | $1,561,249..2..00 |
MINT OF SAN LUIS POTOSI
| 1827 to 1829, | silver, | $2,951,418..0..00 | |
| 1830 to 1844, | ” | 15,580,010..2..00 | |
| 1827 to 1835, | copper, | 23,517..3..00 | |
| ———————— | |||
| Total, | $18,554,945..5..00 |
MINT OF TLALPAM.
| 1828, 1829, and | part of, 1830, | coined in silver, | $959,116..7..00 |
| "" | " | gold, | 203,544..0..00 |
| ———————— | |||
| Total, | $1,162,660..7..00 |
MINT OF ZACATECAS
| 1810 to 1820, | silver, | $14,450,943..6..00 | |
| 1821 to 1829, | " | 31,838,470..4..00 | |
| 1830 to 1844, | " | 74,085,951..7..00 | |
| 1821 to 1829 | copper, | 107,949..4..00 | |
| ————————— | |||
| Total, | $120,483,315..5..00 |
| mints. | gold. | silver. | total. |
| Chihuahua | $61,632..0..0 | $290,000.0..0 | $351,632..0..0 |
| Durango | 27,508..0..0 | 213,362..3..0 | 240,870..3..0 |
| Guadalajara | 5,282..5..1 | 950,035..6..3 | 955,315..3..4 |
| Guadalupe y Calvo | 95,004..0..0 | 338,124..0..0 | 433,128..0..0 |
| Guanajuato | 441,808..0..0 | 4,219,900..0..0 | 4,661,708..0..0 |
| Mexico | 36,172..0..0 | 1,688,165..4..8 | 1,172,328..0..0 |
| San Luis Potosi. | 936,252..5..0 | 936,252..5..0 | |
| Zacatécas | 4,429,353..4..0 | 4,429,353..4..0 | |
| Totals, | $667,406..5..1 | 13,065,454..6..11 | $13,732,861..4..0 |
COINAGE of Mexico from 1535 to 1849, inclusive, omitting the
fractions of a dollar.
| mints. | silver. | gold. | copper. | total. |
| 1535 to 1690 | ||||
| City of Mexico | $620,000,000 | $31,000,000 | $651,000,000 | |
| 1690 to 1844 | ||||
| City of Mexico | 1,606,225,922 | 88,597,827 | 5,323,765 | 1,700,147,514 |
| 1811 to 1884 | ||||
| Chihuahua | 6,629,875 | 368,248 | 50,428 | 7,048,551 |
| 1811 to 1884 | ||||
| Durango | 21,815,913 | 1,986,069 | 23,801,982 | |
| 1812 to 1844 | ||||
| Guadalajara | 17,840,720 | 364,629 | 61,217 | 18,266,566 |
| 1844 | ||||
| Guadalupe y Calvo | 338,124 | 95,004 | 433,128 | |
| 1812 to 1844 | ||||
| Guanajuato | 50,998,241 | 4,370,700 | 55,368,941 | |
| 1827 to 1844 | ||||
| San Luis Potosi. | 18,531,428 | 23,517 | 18,554,945 | |
| 1828, 1829, and 1830 | ||||
| Tlalpam | 959,116 | 203,544 | 1,162,660 | |
| 1810 to 1844. | ||||
| Zacatecas | 120,375,366 | 107,949 | 120,483,315 | |
| All the Mexican mints, from the end of 1844 to the end of 1849, at the rate of $14,000,000 per annum, which was the approximate total coinage in 1844 [13] | 70,000,000 | |||
| Totals, | $2,465,275,954 | $126,986,021 | $5,566,879 | $2,667,828,851 |
RESUME.
| Silver coinage from | 1535 to 1844, | inclusive | $2,465,275,954 |
| Gold do | 1535 to 1844, | do | 126,986,021 |
| copper do | 1811 to 1844, | do | 5,566,876 |
| copper do | 1811 to 1844, | do | 5,566,876 |
| General coinage, from | 1845 to 1849, | both inclusive | 70,000,000 |
| —————— | |||
| Total coinage of Mexico to present time,or in 314 years | $2,667,828,851 | ||
| ══════════ | |||
Or, avoiding fractions, nearly $8,500,000 yearly.
- ↑ ”La propriete c'est le vol," Prudhon.
- ↑ Humboldt, Essai Politique, Book iv., chap. ii. - Paris, 1811.
- ↑ See Humboldt's essay on the production of gold and silver in the Journal des Economistes for March, April and May, 1838.
- ↑ See Humboldt's Essay on Precious Metals, ut antea-in note-in the American translation, given in vol. iii., of the Banker's Magazine, p. 509.
- ↑ See Ranke: Fursten and Volker, vol. i., pp. 347, 355.
- ↑ Pet. Mart, Epist. lib. xxix., No. 556, 23d January, 1516.
- ↑ See M. Ternaux-Compans' Original Memoirs of the discovery of America—(Conquest of Mexico, p. 451)—Compans publishes in this, for the first time, an official list sent between 1522 and 1587 by the viceroys of New Spain to the mother country. The pesos of gold, must be multiplied by a mean of eleven dollars and sixty-five cents in order to give their value in dollars. See Banker's Magazine, ut antea, p. 594, in note. See Prescott's History of the Conquest of Mexico, vol. i., 320. Raminez, in his notes on the Spanish translation of Prescott's History of the Conquest rates the peso de oro at two dollars and ninety-three cents. This result is reached by a long financial calculation and course of reasoning. See La Conquista de Mejico,vol. ii., at p. 89 of the notes at the end of the volume.
- ↑ This is Humboldt's estimate in the essay cited in this section. We think it rather too large, yet give it upon such high authority. See our general table of Mexican coinage.
- ↑ Ward's Mexico in 1827, vol. ii, p. 151.
- ↑ Ward, ut antea.
- ↑ See report of the Mexican Minister of Foreign Relations for 1846, at page 139, of Documentos Justifcativos.
- ↑ These calculations are made in dollars, reales, or pieces of the value of 12 ½ cents, and medios, or pieces of the value of 6½ cents.
- ↑ The actual coinage of all the mints in the republic in 1844 amounted, in fact, to the sum of $13,732,861; but we assume $14,000,000 as a fair annual average for a period of several years.