Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/88

80 of gold in the graves of the aborigines point to the existence of productive mines in Chinqui, the localities of which are not now known. The gold is very generally alloyed with copper; some of it indeed is only 8-carat gold while in other samples the proportion is 23 carats. The gold of Mexico has been rather a secondary product of its argentiferous veins; but in Oajaca are true gold veins in the micaceous slates and gneiss. The silver ores which contain the gold are often argentiferous galena, the lead being the prevailing metal. A small quantity of gold is annually obtained from Central America, and gold placers are known to exist in Cuba and Santo Domingo. Although gold has been found in many places in Brazil, the most productive mines have been worked in the province of Minas Geraes in the vicinity of Ouro Preto, and in the district of Turyassu, in the province of Maranhão. The large production of Brazilian gold in the 18th century was obtained almost exclusively from the alluvial washings of Minas Geraes; but these became exhausted, and the metal is now obtained from the veins or beds worked by English capital. The gold found in Brazil, instead of being enclosed in regular veins, is disseminated in metalliferous beds. The rock formations are supposed to belong to the palæozoic period.—The total production of gold in the world has never been determined with more than an approximate degree of accuracy. There are no statistics showing the exact annual yield of the different gold-producing countries, and the amount produced has been subject to computations by different authorities, whose results have presented no little variance. It is true that in each country an accurate record is kept of the amount coined, and of the exports and imports, but these results only indicate approximately the extent of the production. In 1830 it was estimated that for the preceding 19 years the average annual production of the precious metals had fallen off about $31,000,000 from what it had been before that time, the estimated product being as follows:

By the estimate of M. Chevalier, in his work on money, the total amount of gold and silver existing in various forms in 1848 appears to have been £1,727,000,000, or $8,500,000,000, of which one third was supposed to be gold. The annual product of this metal from 1800 to 1850 had been £3,258,000. By other authorities the whole amount of gold coin and bullion in Europe in 1847 was estimated to be about £250,000,000, and in the world in 1850 £600,000,000. According to Phillips, the annual production at the beginning of the century was

about 53,940 lbs. troy, of which New Granada furnished 23 per cent., Brazil and southern Asia 18 per cent. each, Chili 13, Mexico 8, Austria 6, and Peru 4 per cent. In 1860 the production had increased to 585,370 lbs. troy, of which the chief countries contributed in the following ratio per cent.: Australia, 37; California and neighboring states and territories, 31.9; Russia, 11.3. In 1865 the yield amounted to 559,587 lbs. troy, of which 37.5 per cent, was the product of California and the neighboring states and territories, 27.9 of Australia, and 12.4 of Russia. The following approximate statement of the value of the gold produced in the principal gold-producing countries in 1867 is given by Blake in his “Production of the Precious Metals:”

The production of Australia above given is thus distributed by Blake: Victoria, $26,510,000; New South Wales, $4,500,000; Queensland, $400,000; South Australia, $140,000. Since about 1850, by far the greater portion of all the gold obtained in the world has been the product of the Australian mines and those on the Pacific coast of the United States. The extent of the Australian production is indicated by the following table, from the official “Statistical Abstract of the several Colonial and other Possessions of the United Kingdom,” giving the value of the exports of bullion and coin from New South Wales and Victoria, from the opening of the mines. It should be observed, however, that it docs not represent the exact production of each colony. The coin was issued from the branch of the royal mint at Sydney, New South Wales. A branch mint was established at Melbourne, Victoria, in 1872.