During the Spanish colonial period Mexico was literally the silver treasure-house of the world; and most of this wealth went to Spain; and it all, whether it went to the Crown or to Spanish adventurers and capitalists, contributed to make Spain the richest country in the world, thus shaping her destiny and making of her people a nation of adventurers seeking fortune in the vast colonial possessions covering the greater part of two continents, and disdaining the industries, trade and commerce. With her vast wealth Spain purchased front the rising industrial countries of those days, the Nether lands and England, what she required at home; and the mines of the colonies paid for it all As a natural result, the national life of Spam was disrupted and the industries anguished where wealth came so easily; and she taught the colonies to view life from her own point of view. Mining and the manipulation of vast estates became almost the only occupation of a gentleman. So, from year to year, from every mining centre in Mexico and the other Spanish American colonies, buscones were sent out con stantly in increasing numbers to look for new mines. Men pawned their all to go on the safe quest. Every decade witnessed its rush from one promising mining district to another Taxco, Guerrero, was opened as a mining camp in 1522, theyear after the fall of Mexico Cm; and from there numerous mining expeditions were sent forth• to seek for new centres of wealth. One of these reached the far-distam state of Chihuahua in 1544. The discovery of Parral, Santa Barbara and other rich mines caused a rush of miners from the centre and south of the country toward the north and west In 1546 Zacatecas became the centre of this mining excitement, which began to shift, it another two years, to Guanajuato. In the same year the Bolafios mines of Jalisco began to attract attention and other centres of rich mineral deposits were discovered in Zacatecas The following year Hidalgo came into notice through the sensational discoveries of ore a: Real del Monte. All these mining districts are still producing ore with no signs of exhaustion and most of them are admittedly but partialle exploited. In 1552 Durango was invaded and three years later, the discovery of bonanza ore in the Sombrerete mines brought the state ef Zacatecas into the galaxy of shining silver stars In 1574 Charcas, San Luis Potosi, opened silver mines destined to make the state famous About the close of the 16th century, the chief mining interests of Mexico centred abom Mapimi, Durango, which promised to become a great gold and silver producer. Scores of other more or less important mines were opened a the following years, among the most noted be ing Guadalcazar, San Luis Potosi, 1622; Bata pilas, Chihuahua, 1632; Candelario, Chihuahua 1638; Santa Eulalia, Chihuahua, 1700; E Caballo and other mines in the same state, 1713: the famous Magdalena district, Sonora, 1725 Talapujahua, Midioacin, 1740; a new Real dd Monte district, 1759; the Valencia, Guanajnatc. 1760; Catorce, San Luis Potosi, 1773 and La Purisitna in the same state, 1780. All the dis tricts mentioned were wonderful producers The Mapimi mines, in Spanish times, made numerous owners wealthy, and since the esnb lisfunent of the republic German capitalists have made of them one of the greatest gold and sil ver producing centres of the republic. The Batopilas mines have made the state of Chi huahua famous and attracted foreign capid to themselves and to neighboring mines. The recorded output of the Candelario mine fer 100 years was $35,000,000, but so notorious was the avoidance of the payment of the govern ment taxes, that the amount was undoubletLi very much more. At the beginning of the 181 century El Caballo claimed to be the riche mining district in the world. In 55 years its recorded output was over $84,000,000. The Parra' district, famous in Spanish colonial days for its wonderful richness, has, in modern times, under English, American, German and other foreign management, justified its reputa tion as one of the most extensive and generally mineralized districts in Mexico. The Real del Monte, which also produced wealth in Spanish hands, its output in one year being $15,000,000, has since, under English capitalists, extended its field of operations and has made itself known wherever silver is bought and sold. But the greatest single silver mine in the world is the Valencia, which paid to the govern ment from 1766 to 1826 taxes on $226,000,000. It probably produced over $5,000,000 a year for 60 consecutive years. Vast sums of English and American capital invested in this district have done much to develop it along modern lines and to make it known. In the one year 1713 it is recorded as producing $14,000,000; and so much ore did it yield for a number of years that it made all its owners immensely wealthy. The Talpujahua mine in eight years yielded $18,000,000. The 17th century was one of development for Spanish miners in Mexico and the 18th one of wonderful production. Toward the close of this latter century the recorded yearly output of the mines of Mexico was $27,000,000.
The Revolutionary This, begin ning in 1810 and continuing till 1821, disrupted all the affairs of the colony. Mining suffered so severely that it did not recover completely for nearly half a century after the Spaniards had left the country. In 1821 the output of the mines of Mexico had dropped to less than $5,000,000 a year.
From Iturbide to Mexico, under the administration of the emperor Iturbide, through the national congress in 1823, favored the de velopment of the mining interests of the coun try. It abolished most of the exactions im posed upon miners during the 300 years of Spanish rule, and passed mining laws allowing foreigners to enter the mining business in Mexico. Notwithstanding the unsettled' state of the country, the inducements offered to forign capital were so great that vast sums of English money poured into the country for investment in mining enterprises. This was the beginning of that great English influence which remained paramount in Mexican mining affairs until the beginning of the Diaz regime in 1876. During this period the records of the mints show silver $797,055,080; gold $47,327,383 and copper $5,227,855. Since then copper has be come one of the largest and most important products of the republic. After the departure of the Spaniards from the country few people in Mexico were possessed of sufficient capital and knowledge to work the mines abandoned during the revolution, many of which had reached depths requiring powerful pumping and other machinery and exploitation on an ex tensive scale to make the business pay. The English were quick to sec the opportunity thus presented; and many companies were formed to acquire and work these old mines and to exploit new ones. In six years (1822-28) six powerful English companies, with a combina tion capital of 3,000.000 pounds sterling, en tered the Mexican field. Among these com
panies were: The United Mexican Mines Asso ciation, owning mines in many states of Mexico; the Anglo-Mexican Company, which also ac quired many mines; and the Real del Monte Company. These English companies did what the Spaniards had never been able to do. They transported powerful modern pumping and other machinery over apparently insurmount able sierras and made it possible to work the rich ore below the water level of vice-regal days. They thus practically created new mines. Among these British investments are included most of the famous mines of those days; Valencia, Mellado, Villalpando, La Luz, Char ms, Catorce, Fresnillo, San Ildefonso, San Dimas, San Francisco, Guanacevi, Parral, Santa Eulalia, Batopilas, Real del Monte, Santa Gertrudis, Blanco, El Oro, Temascaltepec, Bolaiios, Tezhuitlan (famous copper district), Taxco and Real del Castillo.
From Dfaz to From 1857 to 1883 the control of the Mexican mining laws was in the hands of the officials of the state governments. This did a great deal of harm to mining interests, created confusion and laid the door wide open for grafting. So in 1883 the Federal government was forced to assume charge of the direction of all mining affairs. At the same time a commission was appointed to consider the mining situation and to reform the mining laws, which it did in such a liberal spirit that mining again took a fresh and vigor ous start. Porfirio Diaz began his adminis tration in 1876 with a broad view of the necessi ties of his country. He extended the hand of welcome to capitalists of all nations who might help him to realize his dream of a greater and more prosperous Mexico. When Diaz returned to power in 1884 after Gonzalez' four years of office, he continued vigorously the policy of encouraging the mining interests of the country, which during his first term of the presidency (1876-80) had reached the value of $103,000,000 gold and silver, with the additional potential energy of hundreds of new mining claims registered, properties opened up and many abandoned mines put into operation once more. About this time American, German r.nd French capitalists appeared upon the scene and began to compete vigorously with English investors for a share in the Mexican mining business. By 1884 this competition had already become strong, and from then on it grew in intensity until, in 1913, when the revolution practically halted mining throughout the republic, it had assumed large proportions. Of the newcomers the Americans were the most aggressive. In 1884 Edwin Ludlow, representing American capitalists, began boring for coal in Mexico; and five years later the great coal deposits of Coahuila, at Sabinas and other points, were in full operation. In the 10 years following 1895 over 6,000,000 tons of coal were mined in Mex ico, and by 1910 the output had reached 1,500, 000 a year. The discovery and exploitation of coal in the republic gave great impetus to mining and other industries. Between 1:4:5 and 1910 Lower California, Michoacan, Coa huila, Sonora and Puebla became great copper producing states and as such attracted large sums of foreign capital, American and French; and the production of copper rose from 11,620 tons in 1895 to 55,000 tons in 1905. Owing to the slump in the price of this metal, this in crease was not kept up during the next five years. Copper and petroleum and its products were, however, the only mining interests that continued active throughout the revolution, the output of the former being valued, in 1912, at $38,500,000. Mexico ranks easily in second place among the great copper-producing coun tries of the world. In 1906 official returns showed in the republic 35,087 copper mines and mines containing copper values. After eight years of exploitation of antimony Mexico had, in 1910, become the world's greatest pro ducer of this metal, with vast deposits still untouched. Two years later her production of antimony had reached almost $2,000,000 per an num. At the beginning of the first Diaz adminis tration capitalists began to pay attention to the gold deposits of the country, with the result that, between that date and 1909, considerably over $1,000,000,000 gold was mined. Even in 1912, notwithstanding the revolution, the gold mined was valued at over $50,000,000, while the fiscal year 1908-09 had produced $62,700,000. In 1894 the introduction of the cyanide process began to replace the old patio process, thus giving an added impetus to the mining of low grade ores and this helped the mining business very materially. A few years later foreign capitalists began the utilization of water-power for the production of electrical power and elec trical plants appeared in different parts of the republic. Of these the most extensive and im portant is that of Necaxa which supplies the power to light the City of Mexico and to run the tramways and many of the factories of the Federal District. It also furnishes 30,000 horse power to El Oro and electrical energy to other neighboring mining centres, including Pachuca. Mexico, on account of its mountainous nature, possesses a real wealth of water-power, which i must soon be brought into use to develop her vast mineral riches, a very considerable part of which, owing to adverse natural conditions, still remains untouched. The most noteworthy development of the mineral wealth of the re public of recent years is to be found in the vast petroleum fields stretching down the Gulf Coast from Matamoras to Campeche, and probably farther, for the southern end seems to connect with the oil fields of Colombia. So great are these fields and so vast their wealth that Mexico must soon become the first oil-producing coun try of the world. Although oil was known to exist in Mexico for many years, it was not until 1901 that the Mexican Petroleum Company, a California corporation, began prospecting for oil in the neighborhood of Ebano, near Tam pico. About the same time W. Pearson and Son came into the field, with unlimited Eng lish capital. Then followed a rapid develop ment of the oil fields near Tampico and on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Tuxpam, Minatitlin, the Papantla district and other points in the neighborhood. By 1907 the production of oil in the republic had reached 1,000,000 barrels a year and by 1913, 16.746.000. Two years later the output was 35,000,000 of which about 75 per cent was exported and in 1918 it was over 60,000,000. The returns in the near future promise almost double that of 1915 owing to the great well of the Mexican Petroleum Com pany opened in December 1915, which is said to exceed in flow the whole oil output of the State of California. According to the report of the Mexican Secretary of Industry, Com merce and Labor (1918), there are over 600, 000 kilometers of oil lands in the rept& These extend along the Gulf Coast, the Lower California and the Pacific coast r' these only 15,000 have been exploited Si bibliography under article MAigurAc-rons