ceeded $35,000,000. Of this the silver mines contributed nearly $30,000,000. During the last three hundred years the silver mines of Zacateca alone are credited with having produced ore to the value of one thousand million dollars.[1] The one thousand mines in active operation now employed over 200,000 men. Recent exploration disclosed the fact that the metaliferous deposit at Durango consisted of an enormous hill of magnetic iron estimated to contain 60,000,000 cubic yards of ore. The great opal beds on the hacienda La Esperanza later yielded gems of the annual value of $100,000. The mines of Guanajuato though worked for years showed no signs of exhaustion while the very surface of the earth in the state of Guerrero was pronounced to be an extensive crust of gold and silver of incalculable value. The volcano of Popocatapetl proved to be a vast pyramid of sulphur; Puebla revealed the importance of its famous quarries of white and colored marbles, and creek and cañon surrendered their quota of turquoise, garnet, topaz and amethyst. Of the total of all exports which amounted to $41,807,595, one-fifth was shipped to the United States from which country Mexico received in return merchandise to the value of $16,587,000. The trade between the two countries had quadrupled within the decade.
[A. D. 1884.] Notwithstanding the commercial fact that the resources of the country were proving to be of inestimable value, and that nothing could check the natural expansion of trade, stagnation in ordinary
- ↑ The value of the total output of the precious minerals from 1821 to 1884 is placed at $3,847,340,420; of this sum the gold product has been placed at 276,970,173, and that of silver at $3,570,370,247. Up to 1888 the national mints had coined $3,332,271,447 including copper.
