Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/452

 412 M EXICO. particular Districts; and capital, if invested without judg- ment, might then, as now, be lost. But the general produce of the country was the same, during a long series of years ; or, if it varied, the variation originated not in the Mines, but in causes totally unconnected with them, which rendered the supply of quicksilver, and other indispensable articles, more or less precarious. England, even while unconnected with Mexico, always exercised a direct influence upon the produce of her Mines. A war with Great Britain generally caused a reduction of nearly one-third in the Mint returns ; but then the first years of peace brought with them a corresponding increase, so that the average was never materially affected. A similar con- nexion may be traced between the Mining and Agricultural interests. From the enormous quantity of mules, and horses, employed in Mining operations, (14,000 were in daily use in Guanajuato alone,) a rise in the price of maize occasioned an immediate reduction in all the Mining establishments. The poorer ores were suffered to accumulate in years of scarcity, nor did they become objects of attention, until a succession of plentiful crops again afforded the Mining proprietors the means of keeping up a sufficiency of live-stock to reduce them with profit. But, notwithstanding these unavoidable draw- backs, a surprising uniformity will be found in the general produce of the country. The failure of one Mine Avas com- pensated by the success of others; and thus, a sort of stan- dard was established for the year, which rendered Min- ing in Mexico almost as sure a mode of investing capital as any other. The average Produce, (as we have seen,) on a term of Fifteen years, was Twenty-four millions of dollars. What the exact amount of the capital was, by the investment of which, in Mining operations, this vast sum was produced, it is impossible now to ascertain. I should be in- clined, however, to estimate it, at least, at Thirty-six millions of dollars, or nearly three times the amount of the capital