Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 2.djvu/126

112 them at once into activity, instead of adopting the slow process of applying the profits of the one to the wants of the rest.

With regard to former produce, the mine of Arevalo, at Chico, is stated to have paid the King's tenth upon five millions of dollars, from 1804 to 1824; or to have averaged 250,000 dollars per annum.

The mines at Real de Arriba, in the district of Temascaltepec, produced, weekly, twelve bars, or 13,000 dollars, (yearly, about 600,000 dollars). Sta Rita, (at Zimapan,) upon the years 1791, 1792, and 1793, left a profit of 100,000 dollars: and the richness of the Gold mines at San José del Oro, led, in former times, to the appointment of a Receiver-general for the King's fifth in that district alone. The present state of the mines there, however, does not appear to warrant any immediate expectations of success.

On the whole, should the undertakings of the Company be prosecuted with vigour, the annual produce, at the lowest possible estimate, may be taken at 600,000 dollars in the year 1830; with a probability of its considerably exceeding that sum; as Ărēvălŏ alone, in the opinion of all the miners whom I have consulted, (both natives and foreigners,) is capable, at the present moment, of producing seven bars weekly, or 365,000 dollars per annum, could a sufficient number of workmen be procured for the extraction of the Ore.