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398 by converting the first fruits into ready money, without waiting to ascertain the quantity of silver which the ores might contain. This led to the establishment of a class of middle-men, called Rescatadores, who bought up the ores at the mouth of the mine, and reduced them in Haciendas (Amalgamation works) of their own. The Rescatadores again, being mostly small capitalists themselves, had recourse, in their more extensive operations, to the opulent merchants established in the towns, who furnished them with funds, when required, on condition of receiving the silver produced at a rate considerably below the Mint, or market price, (for instance, at six and seven dollars per marc, when the Mint price was eight ;) and by this process, (which was called "Avio a premio de platas,") both the risk and the profits were so subdivided, as to give the poor Miner great facilities at first, while the capitalist was enabled to invest his money almost without fear of loss.

This system was carried to an enormous extent before the Revolution, and by it, almost all classes of the community were interested in the success of the mines, while a vast floating capital was employed in them, besides that which was, in some measure, withdrawn from circulation, and sunk in dead works. It gave an impulse to Mining operations alto- gether unprecedented in the history of the world ; and as discoveries were pushed on all sides by the poorer adventurers, who required but very trifling advances to search for mineral treasures, it is more than probable that, if public tranquil- lity had continued undisturbed, the Mining produce of Mexico, at the present day, would have exceeded, by at least one-third, the utmost produce of the richest years before the Revolution.

The Civil War entirely destroyed the chain of communica- tion between the highest and lowest classes of Mining specu- lators. In many Districts the Haciendas of the Rescatadores were ruined, as were the machinery and works of the mines