SECTION I.
Before I enter upon the enquiry which is to form the subject of this Section, viz. "A comparative statement of the produce of the Mines, during a double term of fifteen years, before and since the Revolution of 1810, with the proportion borne by the Produce to the Exports of the precious metals, during the same period;" it is necessary to premise, that it is almost impossible, from the want of authentic data, to institute any exact comparison between the quantity of Gold and Silver raised in any two years of these two periods, or to fix the proportion borne by it, in each year, to the Exports.
The utmost that can now be attempted, is, to form a reasonable estimate of the total Produce, and total Exports, of each fifteen years, without pretending to arrive at an exact analysis, the materials for which no longer exist. During the Civil War, the archives, not only of the College of Mines, (to which Humboldt had access, and by which the produce of each separate District might have been ascertained,) but of almost all the Mining Deputations,[1] were destroyed; and, after the most diligent enquiries, both in the Capital, and the Interior, I have been able to obtain but few and scattered remnants of those valuable documents, which had accumulated in the great mining provinces, during the three preceding centuries. Even the registers of the sums paid into the Cajas Provinciales, (Provincial Treasuries) as the King's
- ↑ Vide Section II. for an explanation of this term.
