Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 2.djvu/117

Rh the Company, (400,000l.,) would be repaid in 1830; after which period, they would, as long as the mines continued to yield ores in the same ratio, after dividing the profits with the proprietor, receive an interest of 750,000 dollars, (or about thirty-four per cent.) upon a nominal capital, of the use of which they would have been deprived for only five years.

Reduce these profits to twenty-five, or twenty per cent., during the term for which the mines are contracted, and they will still be enormous; although not at all equal to those which Captain Vetch expects to derive from Bolaños, where, by the investment of 150,000l., (or 750,000 dollars,) commencing in the year 1826, he looks for a produce of Two millions of dollars in the year 1829.

This estimate is a fair one, as it does not exceed one half of the produce of some former years, before the expence of the drainage compelled the proprietors to abandon the deepest levels.

Half the sum, (supposing the other half to be absorbed by the expences,) would repay the whole capital invested, in the year 1829; and leave one million of dollars annually, to be divided by the proprietors in every subsequent year; so that the profits of the Company, as long as the mines continued to be productive, would be equivalent to two-thirds of their whole original expenditure, or something more than sixty-six per cent.