Page:Bolivia (1893; Bureau of the American Republics).djvu/70

48 ped under the sanction of the Government for its greater security in transportation, which is the commonly accepted estimate, and that the amount so passing for 1890, as shown by the annual report of the chief custom-house officer, was 27,540 bolivianos, we have 100,160 bolivianos as the total production for 1890, which, at the average exchange of 30d. is equivalent in round numbers to $67,582 in United States currency, being an increase of $7,782 over the amount reported for 1888 and 1889, as shown by the report of the minister of the treasury for those years.

The weight and coining value of the gold product for the years 1886—'90, as determined from the most trustworthy data obtainable, including the annual reports of the Minister of the Treasury, were approximately as follows:

As this annual production is out of all proportion to the reputed richness and extent of the gold-bearing quartz veins and gravel beds of Bolivia, it may well be asked what are the evidences of the actual existence of these alleged rich deposits, and why this limited production? These questions can only be properly answered by tracing the history and explaining the present condition of gold-mining in this country.

Prior to the Spanish conquest in 1532, when Peru and Bolivia were under the imperial sway of the Incas, gold was regarded as a sacred metal and was used almost exclusively by the Incas in the adornment of their royal palaces, temples, and the sacred vestments