business of washing the sands, and, indeed, of mining for both metals, is pursued to a great extent by the Indians, frequently with much secrecy, without capital or machinery, and the product smuggled out of the country, to avoid the payment of the government duties levied at the mints, which some years ago amounted to 7 per cent. on the value of all silver returned. The wide distribution of the precious metals throughout the sierras of Peru, the deposits of silver oftentimes lying very near the surface, together with the wild and sparsely settled character of the country, and the want of a wholesome administration of the laws, facilitate an irregular system of mining and a contraband traffic in the proceeds. Perhaps not one-half of the gold obtained, and not more than two-thirds of the silver, are returned to the mint. The actual proceeds of the mines are to some extent, therefore, a matter of conjecture, the value of any estimate depending very much upon a familiar knowledge of the country and of the character and habits of its population. In the five years from 1797 to 1801 the coinage of the mint at Lima amounted to $26,032,653, of which $2,322,667 were gold and $23,709,986 silver, being about $5,300,000 per annum. In the five preceding years it had amounted to an annual average of $6,000,000. In 1800 the mint coined $378,596 in gold and $4,399,409 in silver; or $4,778,005 in both metals. The total product for that year, including contraband, has generally been estimated at 400,000 pounds of silver and 2,400 pounds of gold, worth, at $16 a pound for silver and $225 for gold, $6,940,000. Between the commencement and the middle of the century the coinage of the mint varied considerably, the smallest returns being from 1820 to 1830, since which last-named date an improvement has been manifest, which, with occasional interruptions, has been continued, it is believed, to the present time. In estimating the produce of the mines for the forty-four years commencing with 1804 and ending with 1847, the average adopted by Humboldt at the beginning of the century, of $6,240,000 per annum, would appear to be too high. The British consul at Lima, Mr. Belford Wilson, reported to his government that the quantity of silver smelted under official inspection for the thirty-six years from • 1804 to 1839 amounted to the value of $119,853,494, or an annual average of $3,329,264. As this represents the quantity of the metal passing under official notice, and upon which the government duty was paid, the necessity of adding a proportionate amount for contraband, in order to obtain the actual product, is as obvious as in the case of the coinage returns, and the ratio of Duport in reference to the silver product of Mexico would seem to be equally proper in the case of Peru. Adding one-fourth to the amount returned would make the yearly product $4,161,580 for the districts included in the reports of the British consul. For the districts not so included, he estimated an annual yield of 100,000 marcs. We will, however, for greater safety, assume a product of 60,000 marcs at nine dollars per marc, and call the annual yield of silver throughout the whole of Peru, from 1804 to 1839, $1,700,000. In 1845 Chevalier estimated the product of Peru in silver at 300,000 pounds, troy, worth at $9 40 per marc, of Castile, about $4,600,000, or $100,000 less, it will be seen, than the above average for the thirty-six years. As mining operations in that country have for a long time been subject to continual fluctuations, but upon the whole varying but little in long periods of fifteen or twenty years, we will adopt the estimate of $4,700,000 as the average silver product for the whole period of sixty-four years from 1804 to the end of 1867. The product then, for the 44 years ending with 1847, would be $206,800,000, and for the 20 subsequent years $94,000,000, and for the 64 years $300,000,000. The average here assumed is about $1,000,000 less than the estimated silver product at the time of Humboldt's visit, in 1802, but since that period many of the old Spanish families, by whose enterprise and capital mining operations had been mainly conducted, have left the country. Many of the most productive ! mines have become filled with water, while comparatively few new ones have been opened. Perhaps at no time during the last fifty years has the same amount of capital been invested, nor the business of the mines conducted upon as enlarged a scale as at the beginning of the century. That there should be some sixty or sixty-five millions less in the aggregate product up to the present time than if these changes had not taken place would seem to be a very probable result. From 1804 to 1823, the gold coinage, according to the British consul's returns, amounted to $8,987,000, being an annual average for the 20 years of nearly $450,000. From 1824 to 1839, it amounted to $1,735,133, or a yearly average for the 16 years of $108,446. The whole amount coined for the 36 years was $10,722,165, and the yearly average for the whole period about $298,000, or, in round numbers, say $300,000. This sum would be to the registered silver, for the same period, in nearly the same proportion as the gold coinage at the beginning of the century was to that of silver. In reality, it would be something less, and from all that can be ascertained of the operations of the Peruvian mints since that date, it appears that the coinage of gold has declined somewhat more than silver. In weight, the $300,000 of gold will hold the relation to the $3,329,204 of smelted silver, as returned by the British consuls, of 1 to 173; and Chevalier, from an examination of the mint returns, has calculated that the amount of gold produced by the Andes of Peru and Bolivia from the earliest times is to the quantity of silver as 1 to 170. It may therefore be adopted as the annual coinage of the country for the period from 1804 to 1867, both inclusive. Mr. Bedford Wilson, who seems to have taken much pains to communicate to his government all the information attainable, states that "the greater portion of the gold produced in the country is smuggled out of it in the shape of bullion, its exportation in that state being altogether prohibited;" and this appears to be the general opinion of those who have given the matter much attention. We will assume, therefore, as we have heretofore done in reference to the gold of Mexico, that the mint returns represent one-half the entire yield. Mr. Danson, adopting the opinion of Duport, treats the coinage returns as representing three-eighths of the gold product both as to Mexico and Peru. An annual yield of $600,000 would produce for the 44 years ending with 1847 $26,400,000, and for the 20 subsequent years $12,000.000, making a total gold product for the 64 years of $38,400,000. The product of Peru in the precious metals will then stand thus: The total for both metals for the 44 years is $233,200,000, and for the 20 following years $106,000,000, and for the 64 years $339,200,000. Mr. Jacob, who wrote in 1831, figured up for Peru during the 20 years commencing with 1810 a product of gold and silver amounting to $64,688,429, equal to an annual average of $3,234,422, or more than $2,000,000 less than the average adopted here for the whole period since the commencement of 1804. On the other hand, Mr. Danson has estimated for the 45 years subsequent to 1804 a product of about sixteen millions more than is here computed for the corresponding period of 44 years. The republic of Bolivia joins Peru on the east and south. During Spanish ascendency it was known as Upper Peru, and prior to 1778 formed a part of that vice-royalty. It contains the celebrated mines of Potosi, discovered in 1545, in the eastern ridge of the Andes, at an elevation of from 13,000 to 14,000 feet, which, according to Humboldt, had furnished up to 1803 an amount of registered silver valued at $1,096,000,000, and an unregistered or contraband quantity of the value of $274,000,000, making an aggregate of $1,370,000,000. The mines included within the present limits of Bolivia supplied nearly the entire product of the precious metals furnished by the vice-royalty of Buenos Ayres. Besides those of Potosi there are mines at Porco, Oruro, La Paz, Chucuito, and other places in Bolivia. Those of Porco had been worked by the Indians long before the arrival of the Spaniards, and had furnished large portions of the treasure plundered from the Incas by Pizarro and his followers. Most of the rivers descending from the eastern declivity of the eastern Cordillera carry golden sands to the valleys below, and in some of the streams forming the head waters of the Amazon the metal is still obtained in very considerable quantities by the aborigines. At the beginning of the century the vice-royalty of Buenos Ayres contributed of gold 2,200, and of silver 481,830 marcs of Castile; the former worth $320,760, and the latter $4,499,200. After the commencement of the revolutionary troubles the produce of the mines declined in this as in other South American states. Since 1840 or 1845 the annual supply of both metals has been increasing, and a relatively greater im provement is being made in the Bolivian mines than in those of Peru. The reports of the British consuls show that the quantity of silver passing through the royal mint at Potosi in the five years from 1804 to 1808 amounted to $16,573,795, and the quantity of gold for the same period to $2,960,958, being an annual average of silver coinage of $3,316,959, and of gold coinage $592,191, the yearly gold coinage being about $270,000 in excess of the amount reported for the year 1800, and that of silver about $70,000 less than it was for the corresponding period. In 1812, Potosi, in which was located the royal mint, was taken possession of by the revolutionary army, and, for a number of years after, the territory now forming the republic of Bolivia was devastated by contending factions. Although no returns of the coinage have been seen for the period between 1808 and 1830, there can be no doubt that it suffered a very considerable decline. The English consul at Buenos Ayres sent home to his government in 1830 an account of the silver bought by the Rescate Bank of Potosi from 1807 to 1826. This bank had for the twenty years previous to 1807 very regularly received about five-sixths of the silver passing through the mint of Potosi. For the eighteen years from 1809 to 1826 the quantity of silver purchased by this bank amounted to $29,073,868, or an annual average of $1,615,215. This last sum is five-sixths of $1,938,258, which, if the bank continued to receive about the same proportion of the amount passing through the mint, would represent the amount of silver coined annually. The returns for the eight years from 1830 to 1837 show, a silver coinage at the mint of Potosi amounting to $15,559,646, or $1,944,956 annually, which it will be seen corresponds very nearly with the annual purchase made by the Rescate Bank, increased one-fifth. It would appear, therefore, that the purchases of the bank for the eighteen years commencing with 1809 were about five-sixths of the quantity annually brought to the mint, as had been the case for the twenty years ending with 1809, and that the coinage for the eighteen years amounted to $34,888,641. The average for the three years from 1827 to 1829 is supposed to have been about the same, amounting to $5,814,774; the sum coined during the eight years from 1830 to 1837, as we have already seen, was $15,559,646; and if we suppose that no great change took place in the eleven succeeding years, there would be for that period an amount of coined silver equal to $21,394,516, ma ing an aggregate of $94,231,372, which it is supposed passed through the p from 1804 to 1848. We see no sufficient reason to depart from the rule tofore adopted in reference to Mexico and Peru, that the amount of reg or coined silver represents about four-fifths of the whole product, and that addition in this case we have for the whole period of forty $117,789,215 as the value of the silver product of Bolivia. The annual average for the period is $2,677,000, and by increasing it to $2,800,000, it may be taken as the average for the subsequent twenty years, and $56,000,000 as the product for that period, making a total for silver of '$173,789,000 for the sixty-four years. The gold brought to the royal mint of Potosi from 1804 to 1808 amounted to $2,960,958. After this no returns appear until 1835, and the amount coined in that and the two following years was $453,250, showing a yearly average of $151,083, which may perhaps apply to the whole period from 1809 to 1837, producing in that time $4,381,40%. An authority before us states the quantity of gold coined in 1840, at the mint of Potosi, at $222,970, and in 1845 it appears to have been $270,000. Assuming the first sum as the yearly average for the five years from 1838 to 1842, and the last as the average for the five years from 1843 to 1847, we have for the ten years the sum of $2,464,850, and for the forty-four years $9,807,215, showing a yearly gold coinage of $223,000. Assuming as heretofore that the mint returns represent one-half of the gold product, we have for the actual yield $19,614,430. Adopting the same average for the succeeding period, we obtain $8,920,000 as the gold product for the twenty years ending with 1867, and for the sixty-four years $28,535,430, and the treasure product of Bolivia will stand thus: The estimates of Humboldt as to the produce of South America, in silver, from the discovery to 1803, applied only to what was then called Upper and Lower Peru, covering the same territory as is now embraced in Peru and Bolivia. No estimate was made of the amount of gold produced in this territory, nor of the amount of silver yielded in the mining districts outside of Peru and Bolivia. New Granada, Chili, and Brazil produced gold; Upper and Lower Peru yielded silver, and no attempt is made to estimate the silver product of the first nor the gold of the second, for the period which elapsed from 1492 to 1803. This seems the more singular from the fact that at the time of his visit the mines of Peru and Bolivia were yielding an annual supply of 5,600 mares of gold, worth, by his estimate, $816,480; while Chili was producing 29,700 marcs of silver, equal in value to $279,180. The value of the silver yielded by the Peruvian mines from 1545 to 1803 was estimated by him, as correctly footed up by Danson, at $2,203,698,000, being $250,000,000 more valuable than the product of the whole of Mexico for a period of 282 years. Adding the sum of $324,589,000 to the above product gives the amount of $2,528,287,000, and adding $150,000,000 more, we have $2,678,287,000 as the value of the silver product of the Andes of Peru and Bolivia from the earliest times to 1848 and 1868 respectively. The addition of $66,934,430 more for the gold product of these districts from 1804 to 1868 gives for the total product the sum of $2,744,421,000. Chevalier has calculated the amount of silver produced by the mines of Peru and Bolivia, from their opening by the Spaniards to 1846, at 155,839,180 pounds troy, worth about $2,376,500,000, and that the amount of gold produced by the same districts is, by weight, to the amount of silver as 1 to 170, which would give a gold product for the same period of 916,700 pounds, worth $215,000,000, which added to the silver product gives a total value for both metals of $2,591,547,495, or, with the additional product for 1846 and 1847, $2.608,000,000 as the total value of the precious metals yielded by these districts from 1545 to 1848. If the value of the gold and silver taken from these mines from 1804 to 1848 be added to Humboldt's estimates to 1803, the amount produced is $2,674,300,000, or about $68,000,000 more than the total gold and silver estimates of Chevalier for the same period. Recapitulating what has been stated, the united products of Peru and Bolivia, in gold and silver, may be presented as follows: Periods. 1804 to 1848 1848 to 1868 1492 to 1803 Both metals. Silver. Gold. 150,000,000 20,920,000 1 The celebrated mines of Potosi, Oruro, Pasco, and Hualgayoc, which for sev eral centuries have poured forth a mass of metal amounting in value to thousands of millions of dollars, are, in the opinion of competent judges, far from being exhausted; and might, under the protection of an enlightened and stable government, in a great measure be brought back to their former state of prosperity. According to Whitney, there were in the district of Potosi in 1852 more than eighteen hundred abandoned silver mines, and only twentysix at work; and in the remaining mining district of Bolivia, 2,365 abandoned, and forty working mines. The chief drawback to working them is their great height and the impossibility of transporting machinery to them on the backs of mules, the only present means of conveyance to these mines. Those of Potosi, like those of Pasco, are situated at an elevation of more than 13,000 feet above the level of the ocean. Yet, at this elevation, they were profitably worked under Spanish rule for several centuries; and in 1810 the city of Potosi had a population numbering 130,000, whose prosperity was entirely dependent upon the product of the mines. At present it numbers about 25,000 inhabitants. Quicksilver is abundant at Huancavelica; good coal has been found on the Cerro de Pasco, at an elevation of 14,700 feet. Improved methods of draining the mines, and greater enterprise in their management, would, in the opinion of all travellers, vastly increase their annual product. The English consuls at Buenos Ayres and Montevideo reported shipments of gold and silver from these ports amounting to a million and a half. of dollars annually from the first for the five years from 1822 to 1826, and to $9,982,496 from the last named port for the years 1803 and 1804; and thereupon Mr. Danson, assuming that this treasure was necessarily produced in what constituted at the beginning of the century the southern provinces of the viceroyalty of Buenos Ayres, and at present the several States of the Argentine republic, the republics of Paraguay and Uruguay, and the territory ceded to Brazil under the treaty of 1828, figures up an aggregate product for this part of South America of $312,800,000 for the forty-five years ending with 1848, being an annual average of $7,000,000 for the whole period. Bolivia in 1802 produced gold and silver to the value of $4,200,000. It then constituted a part of Buenos Ayres, and it is stated by the author of New Spain that "the great mass of the precious metals supplied by the vice-royalty of Buenos Ayres, is entirely derived from the most western part, the provincias de la Sierra, which in 1778 were separated from Peru." He then proceeds to designate the districts supplying the principal part of the metals, and they are all included within the present limits of Bolivia, which in 1778 was separated from Peru and attached to Buenos Ayres. That such a statement could be made by such a man as Humboldt, while at the same time the southern provinces were supplying twice the quantities of gold and silver that were furnished by Bolivia, that the mines |