2. MINERALS AND MINERAL PRO DUCTION. For three centuries Mexico was the greatest of silver producing countries; from the single camp of Guanajuato came one-fifth of the silver mined during that period; and for one straight century the same camp gave to the world two-fifths of its silver. Yet to day, after almost 400 years of exploitation, Guanajuato has still uncounted unexploited wealth. Yet Guanajuato is but one of many great Mexican mining camps, known to the world for centuries. Whether the natives of Mexico prior to the Conquest formally worked gold, silver and copper mines is an open ques tion; but that they did exploit the placer de posits of the rivers of the country there is no doubt. Placer gold in quills passed as currency in Mexico at the time of the discovery and for years afterward. Gold, silver and copper orna ments, idols and other figures beautifully and often elaborately worked, existed in vast quantities at the time of the fall of the capital of the Aztecs. Since then, throughout four centuries, examples of the metal work of the natives of Mexico and Central America have frequently come to light; and still to-day ex plorers find these eloquent witnesses of the cul ture of the Indian empires of America in the graves of their nobles and princes and the ruins of their great cities.
Spanish Colonial the fall of the capital of the Aztecs in 1521 there began a period of wonderful mining activity throughout the vast extent of the empire of the Mon e zumas. From the time of their landing on the shores of Mexico near the side of modern Vera Cruz in 1519, until the conquest of the city of Tenochtitlan two years later, Cortes and his followers were inspired by a dream of great wealth to be amassed from the treasure of the emperor of the Aztecs. This dream was made more vivid by the presents in gold with which the unfortunate Indian ruler sought to bribe his unwelcome guests to leave the country. After the fall of the city the Spanish adventurers awoke to find their dream of sudden wealth un realized in so far as the capital of the Aztecs was concerned. But they lived in an age when strange fantasy colored the lives of men. If the much-desired El Dorado was not in Mexico City, then it was somewhere else; and the hunt for the golden treasure was continued. Thou sands of buscones (prospectors) radiated in all directions from the capital in search of the hidden treasure. In this hunt mines of fabulous richness were discovered and towns sprang up like mushrooms in the almost inaccessible fast nesses of the mountains. By 1537, when the first official report of the vice-regal govern ment was made, the mining industry had be come firmly established in many parts of the colony and was already paying Important con tributions into the treasury of the Spanish court. From the establishment, in 1535, of a
settled government under the direct representa tive of the Crown, this mining activity increased with great rapidity and continued to extend it self farther and farther from the capital, the centre of colonial life in New Spain; and the dream of finding El Dorado was never alto gether dissipated during the 300 years of Span ish rule in New Spain. While the glitter of gold was always before the eyes of every bus con the soft, white gleam of silver brought un expected wealth to thousands who often squan dered their newly-acquired fortunes in the search for the elusive yellow metal. How great was this treasure of silver wealth that Spain extracted from the rugged sierras of Mexico may be gleaned from a study of the report of the government mint. From 1537, when the newly-established royal mint issued its first statement of mining activity, to 1821, when Spain withdrew from the colony, the recorded silver production of the mines of Mexico amounted to $2,082,260,657. During the same period the gold output was only $68,778, 411, or less than one-thirtieth of the silver re turns. Large as these returns are, it must be remembered that probably not more than half the ore mined was ever reported to the govern ment because of the excessively heavy taxes exacted by the Crown, which claimed as its right the royal one-fifth, and frequently, under one pretext or another, succeeded in extorting more from the mine owners. Quicksilver and powder, the most important aids of the miner in Spanish colonial days, were royal monopolies and conse quently were sold in Mexico at from three to five times their market values. These and cer tain local, city and port exactions mulcted the miner of at least another fifth of the output of his mines. Transportation of ore from remote interior points, over almost impassable moun tain trails, occupied from weeks to months in transit between the mines and the capital or the nearest port. Provisions and mining supplies had to be brought to the camp in the same slow and costly manner. All these extraordinary expenses made it possible for the miner to work only the richest ore and forced him to leave untouched veins which, in modern times, have become sensational ore-producers. It forced him also to sort out the richest of his rich ores and to leave the poorer on the dump heap. These dump heaps,, worked over by modern mining methods, have produced millions to foreign investors.