444 MEXICO. I have supposed the progress of the German Company to be slow, from the uncertainty of any addition being made to its present capital. In all, I have given produce, not profits; for these, of course, depend upon the manner in which the operations of the Companies are conducted, every shilhng injudiciously expended, being, in fact, so much deducted from them.* The sum total gives an addition of thirteen millions of dol- lars to the present produce of the country in, or before, the year 1830. It remains, therefore, to inquire into the Second part of the question now under review, viz. : — " The probability of the general produce of the country being so increased by these returns, (or by any other causes,) as to equal, or ultimately to exceed, the annual average produce before the year 1810." The Coinage of Mexico, although its average amount, from 1811 to 1825, was something more than ten millions of dollars per annum, as stated in the first Section of this Book, rather decreased, than increased, towards the latter part of this period, and did not amount in the year 1826, to more than seven millions and a half of dollars : (Vide Table of Coinage marked No. 12, Section I.) The causes of this di- minution I have endeavoured to develope in the preceding Section. It does not arise from any deterioration of the mines them- selves : they are what they were in 1810, and, consequently, are equally capable of producing what they then produced : but the capital which gave, at that time, so great an impulse
- It often happens that mineS;, though producing silver to a very con-
siderable amount, yield no profit at all to the proprietors, the whole pro- duce being absorbed by the expenses. This was the case at Bolanos in 1795, when five thousand mules were employed in the drainage; and more recently, in the mines of Veta Grande at Zacatecas, which, when taken by the Bolanos Company, though producing ten thousand dollars weekly, barely covered the expenses of working.
