MEXICO. 369 ^ery great falling off took place in the early part of the Civil War, the Mines of Veta Grande, (now worked by the Bolanos Company,) having yielded, from I796 to 1810, 1,171,328 marcs of Silver, and from 1811 to 1825, 917?097 marcs. (Table IX.) The difference, therefore, on the whole term, was only 254,231 marcs, or 2,160,963 dollars. But Zaca- tecas, even in the years of its greatest abundance, never pro- duced more than two millions of dollars annually ;* and, not- withstanding the little change which occurred at Veta Grande, from the number of other mines, (not comprehended in that Negotiation^,) which were unworked in 1823, it may fairly be assumed that these two millions were, latterly, reduced to one. The Mint returns, indeed, appear to contradict the as- sumption, as they give something more than two millions of dollars, as the average Coinage of each year. But the Coin- age of Zacatecas did not consist of the produce of Zacatecas alone : it comprehended a part of the produce of Sombrerete, and Catorce, with that of Pinos, and Ramos, and other small Districts of San Luis Potosi, the whole of which was brought to the Mint of Zacatecas, in preference to that of the Capital, with the exception of that portion of the Silver raised, which was conveyed to the coast in bars, without being converted into dollars at all, the general amount of which I shall have occasion, subsequently, to examine. The average annual produce of Sombrerete, during this period, is stated, (though not upon the authority of registered returns,) to have been 300,000 dollars, or about 200,000 dollars less than the ordinary produce, from the time of the
- Humboldt gives the total produce in five years (from 1785 to 1789,)
at 1,264,991 marcs, which give an average of 2,048,484 dollars on each year. ■f- Negotiation is a Mexican Mining term, and signifies a number of Mines, worked as one undertaking, by an individual, or association of in- dividuals, whose quota of expenses and profits is divided into twenty-four Barrs, as they would be in working a single Mine. VOL. I. 2 B
