assistance, in Oaxaca, was the more necessary from the inexperience of the native miners of that state.
The expectations of the Catorce Company cannot be realised so early as 1830, as their works are now suspended: I therefore take the probable produce, in that year, much under the estimate formed in the preceding part of this Section.
For the United Mexican Company I have assigned a sum, which is small, if a calculation of the probabilities in favour of the Association be formed upon the same basis as that which has been adopted for all the rest. But Mr. Alaman's refusal to give an opinion, renders caution in a mere observer doubly necessary.
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 shilling injudiciously expended, being, in fact, so much deducted from them.[1]
- ↑ It often happens that mines which are producing silver to a very considerable amount, yield no profit at all to the proprietors, the whole produce being absorbed by the expences. This was the case at Bolaños 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 Bolaños Company, though producing ten thousand dollars weekly, barely covered the expences of working.
