Durango-gold, silver, lead, iron, copper, tin. Guanajuato-gold, silver, lead, copper, tin, bismuth, mercury. Hidalgo-gold, silver, copper, antimony. Jalisco-gold, copper, silver. Mexico gold, silver. Nayarit-gold, silver, copper (slightly developed). Oaxaca―gold, silver, copper (slightly developed). Puebla-copper. Querétaro silver, gold, antimony, mercury (slightly developed). San Luis Potosi―gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, quicksilver, sulphur. Sonora-gold, silver, copper. Tabasco-none. Yucatán-none. all rights of ownership and again threw the property open to denouncement. Only war, pestilence or famine, occurring within twenty leagues of the mine, could be offered as an adequate reason for escaping the penalty. In all these laws, the purpose of the Spanish sovereign was to develop the mineral resources of Mexico through individual initiative and at the same time to protect the ore deposits from reckless or careless exploitation. Besides allowing the widest freedom for denouncement, various other privileges were held out to stimulate the industry. Proprietors were granted the use of forests and water to carry on their operations, and were permitted to expropriate either public or private land for mine or reduction works. Obstacles and Difficulties: But the lot of the Mexican mine owner was not always a happy one, even with the royal favor behind him. Taxes, both direct and indirect, were many and burdensome; and too frequently, in his desperate need for funds, the crown imposed such heavy levies that the mines fell into decay and the exports of silver greatly decreased. The most important of the direct taxes was the royal fifth, or "quinto,” a 20 per cent royalty levied upon gross output. The fifth was afterwards reduced to a tenth; but in addition there were assay fees and coinage dues which easily brought the total in direct taxes to something over 16 per cent of the gross production. Under the law, gold and silver bullion could not be used in trade until coined at the mint in Mexico City, but this regulation was impossible of enforcement, and in the northern districts, especially, unstamped silver was the chief medium of exchange. The use of this, however, was carried on at a serious loss to the miners, since goods given in exchange for bullion commanded double price, and a marc of silver, worth eight dollars at the mint, brought only four dollars and a half in Chihuahua or Sonora. Indirect taxes in the form of import duties on supplies, and the royal monopoly on gunpowder and quicksilver were a more serious handicap than the direct levies. So that all told, the colonial miner paid pretty heavily to his sovereign for the privilege of doing business. Another very serious difficulty that retarded colonial mining was the lack of capital necessary to finance the industry in a manner at all commensurate with its needs and opportunities The joint stock company, which played such a vital part in England's commercial and industrial expansion during the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, was not known in Mexico. Partnerships were common enough, and a form of lease known as the "avio" to some degree met the needs of cooperation. Under Charles III, also, a Mining Bank, supported by a percentage of the coinage dues, was established to finance mining ventures. But while this proved a real benefit for a number of years, it came to an end with the outbreak of the French wars in Europe, when its funds were sequestrated by the Spanish government and so lost forever to the mining business. The commonest method of obtaining operating capital in colonial days was a sort of tripartite affair, in which mine proprietor, ore buyer or rescatador, and wealthy merchant took part. The rescatador, securing an advance of funds from the merchant, supplied the miner with capital by buying the ore at the mine's mouth. He then reduced the ore and sold the silver to the merchant in whose debt he stood, at a price much below the market. Under such an arrangement operating mines could obtain funds to meet current needs, but the interest rates were oppressive, and the supply of capital too limited for large scale operations. Colonial Labor: Other difficulties, such as scarcity of fuel, primitive transportation facilities, banditry, and Indian depredations, greatly retarded the industry. But one of the most serious problems faced by the mine proprietor was the labor question. The lack of machinery in Mexico made necessary the use of man power or mule power almost exclusively. The difficulty of securing labor was at first partially solved by a form of Indian slavery known as the mita system. Negroes and condemned criminals. were also freely used; but even with such sources to draw upon, there was continual complaint of labor shortage. Conditions in the earlier years, from the laborer's standpoint, were terrible beyond description. Abuse, privation, accident, and disease carried off thousands of the poor wretches, whom the Spanish conquerors forced into an occupation that bore the reputation of being "attended with every pain which hell itself could inflict." But gradually the mita system died out, and slave labor, except here and there, gave place to a semi-free, semipeonage system under which negroes, Indians, and mestizos furnished the great bulk of the labor supply and passed the occupation down from father to son. Conditions, however, were still far from satisfactory. There were plenty of laws, it is true, to protect the laborer from unnecessary danger-for instance, there was an ordinance of Charles III requiring the installation of proper steps and ladders, and the keeping of these in sound. repair-but the enforcement of such laws was seldom taken seriously, unless the safety of the mine itself was involved; and even then, inspectors were not always either conscientious or competent, so that disaster and accidents were of appalling frequency, even at the close of the colonial period. The labor itself, even debarring accident, was extremely oppressive and ruinous to health. The tenateros, or packers, who carried ore and water in rawhide bags suspended on their backs by straps across the forehead, "remained continuously loaded with a weight of from two hundred and twenty-five to three hundred and fifty pounds, and constantly exposed to a very high temperature, ascending eight or ten times successively, without intermission, stairs of eighteen hundred steps." Severe as this labor might be, however, it was not so unhealthful as that of the barenadores, or powder men, whose life span seldom exceeded thirtyfive years. Above ground conditions were equally conducive to disease The dust and glare of the patios brought blindness to many of the women and children who broke up the ore for amalA large part of those engaged in carrying on the actual process of amalgamation spent their lives in walking barefooted over heaps of brayed metal, moistened and mixed with muriate of soda, sulphate of iron and oxide of mercury." In the smelting operations the laborer was compelled to breathe the poisonous fume and vapor which arose for nearly an hour after water had been poured on the hot slag. The men drank unlimited quantities of water, became bloated, suffered acutely from fluxes and stomach cramps, and lost the use of hands and feet. In the matter of wages, however, the mine employee fared better than any other laborer in Mexico. At the close of the colonial period he received from five dollars to five dollars and a half a week of six days, while ordinary labor on the haciendas was paid about a dollar and a half. These high wages, however, were somewhat offset by the common practice of paying in goods instead of in money. Prices were exorbitant, and not infrequently the laborer was compelled to accept articles for which he had no use. So serious had become the abuses under this system that the code of Charles III (1783) made the practice illegal and forbade the payment of wages in "merchandise, effects, fruits or provisions." The same ordinance required the proprietor to pay his men each week in ore, coin, or bullion and imposed a severe fine if any reduction was made in the rate of wages “established by long usage and adopted in all the mine districts." Accounts were kept by the rayador, or paymaster, who was required to see that each man had a sort of tally sheet upon which the amount of his wages was indicated by circles, lines, and half lines, to represent the dollar and its various fractions. The vices of the colonial laborer were of no mild sort. He was improvident, careless of his own life and the lives of his companions, much given to gambling, drunkenness and bloodshed, and an inveterate thief. Saint's days and church festivals were continually calling him off to celebrate. And thus, between his carousals and his religion, he had little time for work. Machinery and Methods: As already mentioned, Mexican miners made but scant use of machinery. Ore was generally carried in rawhide sacks on the backs of tenateros, three of whom, it was estimated, were commonly required in large mines for each powder man employed. These packers ascended from the lowest levels of the mine by crude steps cut in the rock wall, or more commonly by means of "chicken ladders" or poles, notched deep enough to allow a precarious hold for their bare feet. When water became a serious problem, as it did in most mines, an adit (socabon) was driven into the hillside to drain the workings. Some of these showed great engineering skill. At Tasco there was said to be one over a third of a mile long in which a man might ride a considerable distance on horseback. In the mines of Rayas at Guanajuato there was one equally large; and the great adit which unwatered the famous Viscaiña lode was seven feet wide by eight and one-half feet high and over a mile long. It required more than twelve years for its construction. Where an adit was not feasible, the mines were unwatered by tenateros with the ever present rawhide bags, or by crude horse whims known as malacates. These were also used to bring ore to the surface, and under favorable conditions served both purposes reasonably well. In most instances, however, they were both inadequate and costly. The rawhide bags constantly rubbing against the rough walls of the shaft, wore out rapidly, and as they cost from one to two dollars each, the continuous replace |