Grande, (now worked by the Bolaños Company,) having yielded, from 1796 to 1810, 1,171,328 marcs of Silver, and from 1811 to 1825, 917,097 marcs. (Table IX.) The difference, therefore, on the whole term, was only 254,231 marcs, or 2,160,963 dollars. But Zacatecas, even in the years of its greatest abundance, never produced more than Two millions of dollars annually;[1] and, notwithstanding the little change which occurred at Veta Grande, from the number of other Mines, (not comprehended in that Negotiation[2],) which were unworked in 1823, it may fairly be assumed that these Two millions were, latterly, reduced to One.
The Mint Returns, indeed, appear to contradict the assumption, as they give something more than Two millions of dollars, as the average Coinage of each year. But the Coinage of Zacatecas did not consist of the produce of Zacatecas alone: it comprehended a part of the produce of Sŏmbrĕrētĕ, and Cătōrcĕ, with that of Pīnŏs, and Rāmŏs, and other small Districts of San Luis Pŏtŏsī, the whole of which was brought to the Mint of Zacatecas, in preference to that of the Capital, with the exception
- ↑ Humboldt gives the total produce in five years (from 1785 to 1789, at 1,264,991 marcs, which give an average of 2,048,484 dollars on each year.
- ↑ Negotiation is a Mexican Mining term, and signifies a number of Mines, worked as one undertaking, by an individual, or association of individuals, whose quota of expences and profits is divided into twenty-four Barrs, as they would be in working a single Mine.
