The introduction of the new navigation contributed much to the regulation of shipping. Previously transportation had suffered exceedingly from irregularity. Thus we are told that in 1824 Coquimbo was a wretched and dilapidated place, the harbor being desolate save for an occasional whaler or coaster and a casual vessel to take in copper.[1] Diego de Almeido told Philippi that he made his first shipment of copper from Chafiaral las Animas by a whaleboat that chanced to put in the bay for water.[2] Freight charges had likewise been vari- able. When much shipping happened on the coast, freights went down; when little, they rose.
Another element that stimulated Chilean trade, both by carrying traffic round the Horn and by creating a new market, was the discovery of gold in California. The golden ‘‘afos de California” are still a grateful memory. Chilean wheat was carried north and sold at high profits. Mackenna relates[3] that he himself sold in 1853 a 100 kilogram sack of wheat for 150 francs in San Francisco, when its original cost in Chile had been 62 francs. Ships making the return journey carried copper, for this was the beginning of the copper period.
The Copper Period in Copianó
The following figures, representing mines worked, indicate the mid-century trend of Chilean mining, typically illustrated by the department of Copiapé to which the figures pertain:[4]
1806 1850 1853 1866 Mag: ies ie st ean abe Bb lela Ss a! 13 6 17 o DOVE othe) oe fects ees eae) 7 235 509 377 Conperds ain ds Gp atst ane et 4 I4 116 10%)
The effect of this development on the general progress of the country may be gauged by the trade figures of the time. In
