Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 69, No. 423, January 1851Various
History
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 69, No. 423, January 1851
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
"Some estimates have lately been formed of the shipments of
gold received in Europe from California to the present time,
which, we believe, may be regarded as tolerably accurate,
and according to which the amount is about £3,300,000. On
the other side, up to the end of September, the receipts at
the two mints of the United States had been about 31,000,000
dols., or £6,200,000. Since that time we have had advices
of farther arrivals at New York and New Orleans amounting
to £500,000. An aggregate is consequently formed of exactly
£10,000,000. To this must be added, in order to estimate the
total production, not only the amounts which have found their
way to China, Manilla, Australia, Oregon, the Sandwich Islands,
the States of Spanish America, &c., but also the total which
has been retained in California for the purposes of currency.
The population in that country now ranges somewhere between
200,000 and 300,000, and although a considerable amount of
silver dollars have been imported, the bulk of the circulation
is believed still to be in the form of gold-dust or of gold
tokens. If the 250,000 persons possess, on an average, £10
a-piece, we have a sum of £2,500,000; and, looking at the
expense of a week's maintenance in the country, as well as
the large quantities constantly in transit, as well as the
reserves, which, as was shown by the last advices, the various
deposit-houses are compelled to retain to meet sudden runs,
it is probable that this is under the real total. Taking all
points into consideration, it may, therefore, be assumed
that the whole which has been raised is equal to at least
£13,000,000 sterling. Of this production, according to recent
official returns from the United States, nearly four-fifths
have taken place during the present year. Of 25,966,817 dols.
received in the United States Mint at Philadelphia, up to the
end of September last, only 44,177 dols. had arrived in 1848,
and 5,481,430 dols. in 1849, while the quantity in 1850 had
been 20,441,210 dols. The same proportions would probably
prevail with regard to the sums distributed to other places;
and we are, therefore, led to the supposition that the export
this year has already actually reached upwards of £10,000,000,
although the results of two additional months have yet to be
known. It will be observed, consequently, that the unexpected
feature which has hitherto attended the progress of this new
region--namely, that almost all the accounts from it, although
deemed exaggerations at first, have proved ultimately to have
been understatements--is still presented. At the commencement
of 1850 the most sanguine expectations that were formed in any
direction fixed its probable yield at £10,000,000; and not only
has this been exceeded, but each quarter of the year has thus
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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