Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/399

 MEXICO. 359 atlantic Mining adventures ; while, to others, it may be in- teresting to learn in how far those denunciations of fraudulent schemes, and Stock Exchange speculations, with which the Press has abounded during the last two years, and to which property to such an extent has been sacrificed, are, or are not, founded, in as far as regards New Spain. It will be necessary, in order at once to satisfy curiosity, and to remove all reasonable causes of doubt, to enter into this subject at considerable length. I shall therefore divide what I have to communicate, into four Sections, which will embrace the following points : — First Section. A Comparative Statement of the Produce of the Mines of Mexico during a double term of fifteen years, before, and since, the Revolution of 1810 ; with an account of the expor- tation of Specie, during the same Period. Second Section. The Mining System of Mexico before 1810 : the changes which occurred from that time till 1823, when the idea of Foreign Companies was first suggested : the number of these Companies now established in Mexico ; their outlay ; the ex- tent of the undertakings in which ,they are engaged ; the dif- ficulties with which they have had to contend ; their progress and state in 1827- Third Section. Whether the large Capitals which have been remitted to Mexico, and invested in the Mines, by British subjects, and on British account, are likely to be productive of adequate returns to the Adventurers ; and, within what period it may reasonably be expected, that those returns will become sufii- ciently considerable to make the general produce of the Country equal, or even exceed, the annual average amount derived from the Mines before the year 1810