Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/491

 MEXICO. 451 sure, upon the time at which the attention of the Adventurers in the Mines of Mexico is directed towards the North. It seems, at first sight, a singular fact, in the history of a country so celebrated for a spirit of mining enterprise as Mexico, that, during three centuries, this spirit should have been confined to a comparatively small circle ; and that, with some few exceptions, the richer ores of the Internal Pro- vinces, should have been neglected for the poorer districts in the vicinity of the Capital. But this fact admits of one simple explanation. As long as the monopoly of the Mint of Mexico continued, it was absolutely impossible, in the Interior of the country, to obtain a sufficiency of the circulating medium to carry on any great mining enterprise ; and, even to commence one, a triple capital was required, as six months elapsed before silver, sent in bars from the North, could be brought back converted into specie. Dollars were often at a premium in Guanajuato itself ; but in the North, they became an article of trade, the price of which, like that of all other articles, increased in proportion to the scarcity of the supply ; so that both the Mine-owner, and the Rescatador, (amalgamator on his own account,) were obliged to convert their silver into specie at a loss of one- third of its legal value ; while, for every article consumed in the mines, for which they exchanged Plata Pasta, or silver in a raw state, they paid at least double the market price. It will hardly be believed that silver of the finest quahty has been sold, (and currently sold) in the Northern provinces, at four dollars two reals, and four dollars four reals per marc, the Mint price being eight dollars.* Few mines, however rich, could be worked under these disadvantages, and they sufficiently account for the preference given by the old miners to ores, that yielded seven and eight 2 G 2
 * Vide Reports of Tribunal de Mineria.