Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 67.djvu/542

536 in pretending to train up a young country in the economic way it should go.

IV. Every undeveloped country presents a network of fresh problems, each of which must be studied separately; but they must also be considered as interrelated and viewed in their mutual dependence. There is a mass of experience in the past which may be drawn upon as a help; we may appropriate it, and save ourselves the expense of buying fresh experience in a costly fashion; but in order to reap the fruit of human experience in the past we must be prepared to take a great deal of trouble; it is not lying about for any one to pick up at haphazard. The teachings of history as to the rise of great nations from small beginnings, or as to the causes which have led to premature decay, do not lie on the surface. Since the days when Lord Burleigh recognized that the mineral wealth of the Spanish conquests in the new world did not really add to the strength of the monarchy at home, there has been a tendency to disparage extractive industries. "Moile not too much underground," said Lord Bacon, "for the hope of mines is very uncertain, and useth to make the planters idle in other things"; and Adam Smith does not at all dissociate himself from this view. It appears to have been thought that mining for the precious metals, however attractive it might be for a time, could never be a secure foundation for the building up of stable society. But, after all, it would be wise to discriminate a little before we adopt this conclusion, and to examine the condition of different parts of Spanish America separately. The richest mines of all, those of Peru, were situated on the arid slopes of the Andes, where cultivation was impossible, and there were insuperable obstacles to the planting of well-ordered and prosperous communities; but very different results were achieved in Mexico. These workings occurred on a plateau where cultivation and settlement were possible, and the wealth which was obtained by mining reacted on the prosperity both of agriculture and manufactures. Extractive industry served to give a stimulus to that varied life, partly urban and partly rural, which is necessary for a community that hopes to take a real and independent place in the civilized activities of the world. It is foolish to jump to the conclusion either that mining gives a feverish and unhealthy stimulus, or that the Spanish system of regulation was incurably bad; we ought to distinguish carefully, and to try to learn from Spanish experience, both in South and in Central America, what are the conditions under which mining for the precious metals can be pursued so as to be not merely of temporary, but of permanent advantage to the welfare of the community.