Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 2.djvu/88

74 of former times; and by what they have expended, some estimate may be formed of what must have been expended before them.

This fact, (the difference between the Capital now invested, and that which it was intended to replace,) is one cause of the disappointment of those, who imagine that, because a very large sum has been laid out upon the Mines of Mexico by British Capitalists, the produce of those Mines ought, at once, to equal that of the best years before the Revolution.

But a still simpler solution of this disappointment may be found in the total ignorance of every thing connected with the New World, under the influence of which most of the Capital, now employed in Mining speculations there, was invested.

In every other commercial enterprise, some previous acquaintance with the subject might have been thought necessary; but the Mines were to be an exception to all ordinary rules; and, on the principle, I suppose, of taking omne ignotum pro magnifico, vast sums were embarked in schemes, of which the very persons, who staked their all upon the result, knew literally nothing, except the name.

I am far from wishing to lay unnecessary stress upon this circumstance, but it is essential to a right understanding of the delays that have occurred in the realization of the hopes of those, who sought a profitable investment in the Mines, to state, that the only knowledge which the British Public possessed, three years ago, of Mexico, was derived from a