ten dol-
lars, on the l7th of August, paraded the streets in a body, and refused to work for less than twelve dollars a day.
During the first five years subsequent to the dis- covery of gold, the gold-dust trade underwent many changes. Prior to 1849 the ruling price at San Fran- cisco was fourteen dollars an ounce, and in the mines much less. It was once sold at auction for twelve dollars. Afterward the rate was fixed and maintained at sixteen dollars an ounce. Due attention was not paid by merchants to the quality or cleanliness of the dust, and many miners were not careful to remove all the black sand. The scales used were also not always the nicest, nor the weitrhts most correct. The trold from central California was mostly virgin gold; but that which was later thrown upon the market from the mines of Mariposa, Kern river and Fresno, was of inferior quality. This gave rise to a system of adulteration, which could not be easily detected by purchasers. In time assay offices were established to reduce the mass of the precious dust to a determined value before shipment ; this, together with the stimu- lating traffic by large competing banking-houses, ad- vanced the price of clean dust first to $17, and after- wards to $17 50 an ounce, this being the average. The proceeds of some mines were, however, sold as low as $14, and those of others as high as $20. The gold-dust trade finally fell into the hands of four large houses, which a little later shipped only bars with the true value stamped on them.
In April, 1851, bankers agreed to receive on deposit no California coin other than that issued by Moffat and Company, who were the only ones faithful in their valuation, and had, moreover, made provision to re- deem tJie coin issued. Until the establishment of the mint at San Francisco, merchants suffered because of the exclusion of California coin from circulation. They could not refuse to receive it without injury to their
