Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/486

446 MEXICO. either in causes entirely unconnected with the mines, (princi- pally of a political nature,) or in a supposition that the errors committed by the Companies on their first establishment are still persevered in, and, consequently, still occasion the lavish expenditure, with which they were necessarily attended at the outset. Upon the last of these points my visit to the Mining Dis- tricts has relieved me from all doubts. The Companies have served their apprenticeship : they have paid dearly for their experience, it is true ; but they have learned that nature is not to be forced, and that, without the strictest attention to economy, and to the details of management, no command of capital can ensure success. Their establishments have been reduced in consequence ; and it only remains, therefore, to inquire, whether the mines are sufficiently good to cover the expense already incurred, and still to hold out a reasonable prospect of advantage. This I have endeavoured to ascer- tain by a reference to the only data, upon which an estimate can possibly be formed; and by instituting a comparison between the expenditure of the Companies and the former produce of the mines worked by them, as given by official Records : the result is comprised in one table, and it cer- tainly does appear to be that the mines are able to pay off the whole outlay, in three or four years, provided the produce in 1829 be not very much below the standard of the average annual produce before 1810. This I see no reason to appre- hend ; for the mines have remained unchanged, and untouched, during the Revolution. In lieu of being exhausted by pro- pressive workings, their riches were locked up, if I may use the expression, by the accumulation of water ; and it is only now that the lower levels, from which nine-tenths of the silver raised in 1810 were extracted, are beginning to become acces- sible. What, then, is to prevent the produce from reaching its former standard, calculated as that standard has been, in this Book, not upon traditionary sayings, or vulgar report.