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Respeatiag the quantity of silver which ha beet in teacted front the mines of Potoai, varies. aCcoettl have bent Inhibited. But these have generaly been hunted on bopmfact materials, and their sc reasay h timehre liable to doubt. Oa Ws poi'', liwinhoidt's imitable work on the kipiphap of New Spain, aware the mem ceaqiete and fatipfoot9ry information. This celebrated traveller was enabled to procure, from racial papers, an account of the value of the royal duties paid into the provincial treasury of Potosi. on ell the silver brought to the Mist betwese the years 1556 and 1789; sod the roPrirtiou of those duties to the whole. produce *Seg. knew.. the eanual amount of the silver ex tracted from the mines, during this period, with the exception of whet was carried away by the contra • hand traders, cent be easily arcertaieed from these aecceinta. From the year 1545 to 1556, there are no records of the royal duty, and Humboldt has &applied this defect from smelt imperfect sod aocip adeatal infamstiert 4s he could wilco in the works •f the earlier writers at South Apiaries. Ulloa, -who proceeds upon the authority of a writer in the 17dt century, estimates the silver produced, der. jag those eleven years, sibs the o loial records are wanting, to 71,000,000 of Millais equal to about L.1411,000,000 Sterling. But, according to the more • accurate reokonmes of Humboldt, this estimate must be greedy above the truth ; and he collectors that the whole produce dewing this period, cattuot have seceded 15,000,000 of mess or 167,500,000 pi, sues, equal, valuing the piastre at 4o. Red. to
Sterling. He states, however; that lade relines au be placed en the carreetnes of this *Situate.
1578, a duty of onerfigh was paid on all the silver brought .to the mint of Potosi. These duties emoateed, duriag this period ef twentpdhsee yearn, to 9.801,906 piastres, which gip' es a total produce Bar these twenty-three yaws, of 49,009,510 patent, et 5063,897 nano of Rises, equal to L.11014461.
Front the year 1679 to the year 1756, including a ' period of Lag yews, a ditty of 1-i per mat. was paid, esrrl aftoewarde the fifth of thermostat.* 94 *Wert which. eructed to seedy 6j. par seat. Depredate of this duty for 15i yesalsateuated to 189,417,178 piastres, which glees a total produce of about 619,438,96i•pintos, or 71,011@,616. manes, aid as sepal average psodtwe of 8,666,171 piastre*, or of 455,191. mares, is. value equal to. something more than L. a,oao,poo &wimp Yom the year 1766 to 1789, leper on*. of duty, and the half of the fifth were peid,,aed. during this period of fifty-three yam the duties amouuted to S4,541,664 piastres. Tice whole poodle* aroounted consequently to 198,189,374 piastres, or 15,074,044 Wet of silver, end the annual average produce to shod 885,768 await equal to about L. 490,000.
1606, there is on account of the real- duties. Bet, accord* to the records of the mixt, the pralines amottated to 46,009,000 of pi astre', or to S415,710 piastres per sums, Helms, who Sidled Potosi is 1768. Sett* that there were annually coined in the repel mint from 550,000 to 6A9,000mermefaiivew, and elm/ 6101marea Total produce, . 1,513,872,1731318,543,935 From this estimate of the produce of these mines, it will be found that they were never more flourish ing during the whole period of 5138 years, from 1656 to 1789, than from 1585 to 1606. For seve ral successive years, the royal fifth amounted to one tied, a half million of piastres, which supposes an annual produce of 1,490,000, or 882,000 mares, ac cording as the piastre of silver is estimated at 18.11 .er 8 rests. • This is the more surprising, as at this period more than a third of the silver was never re gistered. Adding this one-third to the annual pro dtwe calculated from the royal fifth, the quantity of silver produced at this time, will amount to 10,000,000' of piastres, equal to L. 2,104,166. After the year 1606, the produce began gradually to diminish, although from this time to 1688, it ne ver was below 340,000 mares per annum. From the commencement of the subsequent century, the pro duce continued decreasing, and from the year 1786, when the royal fifth only amounted to 85,410 pi. mires till about the year 1748, the annual amount of the duties was never equal to 200,000 piastres. After this period, the produce began to increase, and gradually rose to between 800,000 or 400,000 mares. This quantity, however, Helms, who had the,best opportunities of information; assures his 'readers could be doubled; if the mines were drained of the water with which they are overflowed, and- if some other simple improvements, which he suggests, were carried into effect. • In 1545, it is mentioned that ores containing from 80 to 90 marca, per quintal of 1600 ounces, were common. The mare is nearly equal to about eight ounces ; so that, according to this account, .1600 ounces of ore were found to yield about 600 or 700 ounces of silver. The average produce was, at this period, from eight to nme ounces per, quintal, which was nearly in the proportion of one ounce in twenty-two or twenty-five. Since the commencement of the eighteenth century, it is stated by Humboldt, that they reckon only on extracting from three to four mares of silver from the caxon of ore, equal to 5000 lbs. which is only ounce of silver out of every 2000 or 2500 ounces of mineral. According to experiments made by Helms on 300 specimens of ores, they were found to produce from six to eight ounces of silver for every caxon of 5000 lbs.; although in some ores the silver was in the proportion of 20 mares to each caxon, which is about one in 384.