which I may inadvertently have been betrayed.[1] Convinced that publicity ought to be desired by all the Mining Companies, as the only security against those suspicions, by which their credit has been so frequently shaken, I have laid before the world, without reserve, the whole of the information now in my possession respecting them, together with my own observations upon the mode, in which their affairs have been directed. The result will, I trust, be to produce an impression that these great undertakings have been, in many instances ably, in all honestly, conducted; that if errors have been committed, they are errors which it was extremely difficult to avoid; and that although the investments are large, the magnitude of the object, (demonstrated by records of a very recent date,) bears a fair proportion to the magnitude of the stake.
- ↑ Amongst these errors I should mention that, in the First Section of the Fourth Book, I may be thought to have challenged a principle of political economy, by alleging an increase in the rate of interest in Mexico as a proof of the diminution of the circulating medium; whereas it might be an indication only of the possibility of employing capital to greater advantage. The fact, however, is correct; for the chasm in the circulation, created by the remittance of the property of the Old Spaniards to Europe, was not filled up by the investments of foreigners, or by the produce of the mines; the two together not having furnished any thing like an equivalent for the amount of the specie withdrawn.
