however resumed near Moran by Bustamante and Terreros, and with many difficulties concluded in 1762 by the latter. The result was a great success, one vein alone covering all the expenses, whilst others were so productive that within fourteen years a net profit of about five million pesos had been derived by Terreros who afterward figured as Conde de Regla.[1] Work was conducted with alternating success till 1801,[2] when it declined under the increasing expenditure, and never resumed its former dimensions.
It has been stated that soon after the fall of Mexico Spaniards engaged in mining speculations in Michoacan. The attraction centred after 1562 at Tlalpujagua, and down to the beginning of the eighteenth century the result proved satisfactory. Work was then suspended till 1743, when again a brief period of successful development began, yielding, within eight years, about ten million pesos. The excessive cost of drainage then caused the mines to be abandoned.[3]
Thus we see that the greatest development of mining took place in the second half of the eighteenth century, when certain important discoveries gave fresh impulse to this industry, fostered at the same time by a beneficial policy. Miners then awoke to the necessity of organizing for mutual aid, notably by framing a new code of laws with which to replace the cumbrous and faulty regulations in force. Consequently, in February 1774, a petition was directed to the king, for constituting as the Cuerpo dc la Minería de Nueva España, a corporation which was to embrace all own-
- ↑ He presented king Cárlos III. with two war vessels, one of them carrying 112 guns, and made also a loan to the crown of 1,000,000 pesos, which it seems was never repaid. He acquired immense territorities, and left at his death to descendants a fortune equalled only by that of Conde de Valenciana. Humboldt, Essai Pol., ii. 540-1, 514, 538-43. For details about the Vizcaina mine the reader is referred to Castelazo, Manifestacion de. . . la Veta Vizcaina, 1-63; Lassága, Representacion, 10 et seq.; Durkart, Reisen, i. 127-32.
- ↑ From 1794 till 1801 the yield still amounted to $6,000,000. Ward's Mex., ii. 21; Burkart, Reisen, i. 130-1; but Humboldt asserts that this was not sufficient to cover the expenses. Essai Pol., ii. 541.
- ↑ Full particulars about this district are given in Burkart, Reisen, i. 73-97.
