of almost all the Mining Deputations,[1] were destroyed; and, after the most diligent enquiries, both in the Capital, and the Interior, I have been able to obtain but few, and scattered remnants of those valuable documents, which had accumulated in the great mining Provinces, during the three preceding centuries. Even the registers of the sums paid into the Cajas Provinciales, (Provincial Treasuries) as the King's Fifth, have disappeared; and their loss is the more to be regretted as they would have furnished data, upon which the total Produce might have been easily, and correctly computed.
The Coinage, therefore, is the only standard that can now be adopted; and although this, from its nature, cannot comprehend the whole amount of the precious metals raised, (some portion of which, in each year, was not converted into dollars,) yet, if about One million of dollars be added to the average of the Mint Returns, for Silver not registered at all, and registered Silver worked up into plate, (the abundance of which, in Mexico, was, at one time, proverbial,) there will not, I believe, be any reason to suppose that the actual Produce of the country, during the fifteen years which preceded the Revolution, much exceeded the estimate thus formed.
With regard to the Second Period, which commences with the Civil War, the difficulty of forming
- ↑ Vide Section II. for an explanation of this term.
