. The earth and its inhabitants ... Geography. ECONOMIC CONDITION OF MEXICO. 179 even taking into account the vast sums whicli were smuggled out of the country, and of which no returns coukl be made. There are numerous auriferous deposits in Mexico, but her chief treasures are the silver mines, which since the discovery of America have yielded fabulous sums to the trade of the world. According to the researches of Humboldt, the total value of the gold and silver furnished by the metalliferous veins of New Spain amounted to £425,000,000 from the conquest to the year 1803. This figure is regarde
. The earth and its inhabitants ... Geography. ECONOMIC CONDITION OF MEXICO. 179 even taking into account the vast sums whicli were smuggled out of the country, and of which no returns coukl be made. There are numerous auriferous deposits in Mexico, but her chief treasures are the silver mines, which since the discovery of America have yielded fabulous sums to the trade of the world. According to the researches of Humboldt, the total value of the gold and silver furnished by the metalliferous veins of New Spain amounted to £425,000,000 from the conquest to the year 1803. This figure is regarded as somewhat too high by Soetbeer, Del Mar, Neumann, and other economists, who, however, estimate the value down to the year 1890 at no less than £800,000,000, or over one-fifth of the total production of the world during the four centuries since the first voyage of Columbus. In 1850, before mining oper- ations had begun in California, ^^S- 76.—The World's Yield of the Pbecious Metals. Arizona and Xew Mexico, regions formerly belonging to New Spain, the proportion yielded by Mexico since the conquest had been much higher, or about one third. This country has contributed more than any other to the spread of a metal currency as representative of value ; yet till recently cacao beans, squares of soap, and simi- lar objects of daily iise were em- ployed in Mexico itself for petty dealings. The j'ield of the Mexi- can mines, so far from falling off during the present century, his considerably increased, despite wars and revolutions, and flooded mines. The improvement in the highways of communication, combined with the introduction of better mining processes, has more than compensated for the advantages enjoyed by Mexico at a time when the precious metals possessed a greater relative value than at present. An oscillation in international trade favourable to the develop- ment of the mining industries would have the result of increasing to an enormous extent the production of silv
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