makes a greater part of the price of tin at the
must fertile tin mines than it does of silver at
the most fertile silver mines in the world.
After replacing the stock employed in working
those different mines, together with its ordinary
profits, the residue which remains to
the proprietor is greater, it seems, in the
coarse, than in the precious metal.
Neither are the profits of the undertakers
of silver mines commonly very great in Peru.
The same most respectable and well-informed
authors acquaint us, that when any person undertakes
to work a new mine in Peru, he is
universally looked upon as a man destined to
bankruptcy and ruin, and is upon that account
shunned and avoided by every body.—Mining,
it seems, is considered there in the
same light as here, as a lottery, in which the
prizes do not compensate the blanks, though
the greatness of some tempts many adventurers
to throw away their fortunes in such unprosperous
projects.
As the sovereign, however, derives a considerable
part of his revenue from the produce
of silver mines, the law in Peru gives every
possible encouragement to the discovery and
working of new ones. Whoever discovers a
new mine, is entitled to measure off two
hundred and forty-six feet in length, according
to what he supposes to be the direction of
the vein, and half as much in breadth. He
becomes proprietor of this portion of the mine,
and can work it without paying any acknowledgment
to the landlord. The interest of
the duke of Cornwall has given occasion to a
regulation nearly of the same kind in that ancient
dutchy. In waste and uninclosed lands,
any person who discovers a tin mine may
mark out its limits to a certain extent, which
is called bounding a mine. The bounder becomes
the real proprietor of the mine, and
may either work it himself, or give it in lease
to another, without the consent of the owner
of the land, to whom, however, a very small
acknowledgment must be paid upon working
it. In both regulations, the sacred rights of
private property are sacrificed to the supposed
interests of public revenue.
The same encouragement is given in Peru
to the discovery and working of new gold
mines; and in gold the king's tax amounts
only to a twentieth part of the standard rental.
It was once a fifth, and afterwards a tenth, as
in silver; but it was found that the work
could not bear even the lowest of these two
taxes. If it is rare, however, say the same
authors, Frezier and Ulloa, to find a person
who has made his fortune by a silver, it is
still much rarer to find one who has done so
by a gold mine. This twentieth part seems
to be the whole rent which is paid by the
greater part of the gold mines of Chili and
Peru. Gold, too, is much more liable to be
smuggled than even silver; not only on account
of the superior value of the metal in
proportion to its bulk, but on account of the
peculiar way in which nature produces it.
Silver is very seldom found virgin, but, like
most other metals, is generally mineralized
with some other body, from which it is impossible
to separate it in such quantities as
will pay for the expense, but by a very laborious
and tedious operation, which cannot well
be carried on but in work-houses erected for
the purpose, and, therefore, exposed to the inspection
of the king's officers. Gold, on the
contrary, is almost always found virgin. It
is sometimes found in pieces of some bulk;
and, even when mixed, in small and almost
insensible particles, with sand, earth, and
other extraneous bodies, it can be separated
from them by a very short and simple operation,
which can be carried on in any private
house by any body who is possessed of a small
quantity of mercury. If the king's tax, therefore,
is but ill paid upon silver, it is likely to
be much worse paid upon gold; and rent
must make a much smaller part of the price
of gold than that of silver.
The lowest price at which the precious
metals can be sold, or the smallest quantity of
other goods for which they can be exchanged,
during any considerable time, is regulated by
the same principles which fix the lowest
ordinary price of all other goods. The stock
which must commonly be employed, the food,
clothes, and lodging, which must commonly
be consumed in bringing them from the mine
to the market, determine it. It must at least
be sufficient to replace that stock, with the
ordinary profits.
Their highest price, however, seems not to
be necessarily determined by any thing but
the actual scarcity or plenty of these metals
themselves. It is not determined by that of
any other commodity, in the same manner as
the price of coals is by that of wood, beyond
which no scarcity can ever raise it. Increase
the scarcity of gold to a certain degree, and
the smallest bit of it may become more precious
than a diamond, and exchange for a
greater quantity of other goods.
The demand for those metals arises partly
from their utility, and partly from their beauty.
If you except iron, they are more useful
than, perhaps, any other metal. As they are
less liable to rust and impurity, they can
more easily be kept clean; and the utensils,
either of the table or the kitchen, are often,
upon that account, more agreeable when made
of them. A silver boiler is more cleanly than
a lead, copper, or tin one; and the same quality
would render a gold boiler still better than
a silver one. Their principal merit, however,
arises from their beauty, which renders them
peculiarly fit for the ornaments of dress and
furniture. No paint or dye can give so splendid
a colour as gilding. The merit of their
beauty is greatly enhanced by their scarcity.
With the greater part of rich people, the