Page:Bolivia (1893; Bureau of the American Republics).djvu/80

58 including the reports of the minister of the treasury, are necessarily unsatisfactory, and out of abundant caution, have been placed at fully 10 per cent less than the popularly accepted estimates.

With this explanation of the difficulties attending the effort to secure reliable data upon this subject, the amount of silver produced by the Bolivian mines for the calendar year 1890 and the first six months of 1891 may be stated approximately as follows:

The report of the minister of the treasury for the first half of the calendar year 1890 places the production for that period at 595,079.11 marcs, while the production for the first six months of 1891, as here given, was 736,472.48 marcs, making a gain for the same period over last year (1890) of 141,393.37 marcs.

No allowance is made in the above table for silver used in the industrial arts and clandestinely exported, which is usually estimated here at one-fifth of the total annual production. It is per-