of a par value of 25 pesos[1] not infrequently have paid annual dividends of 20 pesos, and stock dividends of 100 to 200 per cent, are not unknown. Under such conditions it is not strange that plants costing 5,000,000 pesos or more have paid for themselves in two or three years, and that nitrate shares are quoted at many times the amounts of paid-in capital which they represent. Thus in May, 1912, some quotations in Valparaiso were as follows:
| Name of Company | Capital Paid in Per Share | Sales at | |||||
| Agua Santa | 10 | pesos | 340 | pesos | |||
| Antofagasta | 25 | " | 180 | " | |||
| Boquete | 5 | " | 130 | " | |||
| Loa | 1 | " | 67 | " | |||
Yet with all this enormous growth and prosperity, the process of production still is almost as simple as when the industry began. The first step is to make a hole about six to ten inches in diameter through the layer of caliche. Generally this is done with a chisel-edged, steel pointed crowbar, or barra, the débris being removed from the hole with a home-made spoon-like affair, the cuchara. The bottom of the hole is enlarged so that a charge of powder may be put under the caliche. Most of the powder is made locally from nitrate, charcoal or coal dust and sulphur, for here it is so dry that the nitrate can not absorb enough water to make it unfit for powder. The explosion of the charge, the tiro, heaves up the caliche, commonly in blocks which must be broken
- ↑ Unless stated otherwise all money values are expressed in Chilean pesos, paper currency, at the rate of 1 peso equals about 21 cents in United States money.
