In estimating a gradual increase in the production of silver, we have some data for our supposition. In 1843, there was scarcely [148]16,000,000 piastres from Mexico; in 1849, the silver coined at the Mexican Mint amounted to [149]20,000,000 dollars, without reckoning that portion which escaped duty, and which probably amounted to [150]3,000,000 or 4,000,000 more; [151]we are certainly quite within the mark, it is even more probable that the production this year may again reach the sum of [152]27,000,000 dollars, to which it had attained in 1805, under the Spanish Government. In Chili the progress has been still more rapid, the mines which in 1841 produced [153]821,000 piastres, and in 1845, [154]1,534,000, having in 1849 given [155]3,343,000, and in 1850 [156]4,070,000 piastres. One cause of a purely local nature has contributed to this result. It is known that the process of amalgamation is almost the only one employed by the miners in extracting the ores of Chili, Peru, and Mexico. To obtain 1 cwt. of silver it is necessary to employ 1½ cwt. of quicksilver; it is evident, therefore, that the price of quicksilver must have a great influence on the cost of extraction. When it has become too dear, the working has been confined to the richest mines; when it has fallen the increase in the working of the poorer ores has soon followed. Before the war of independence, the Crown of Spain, preserving the monopoly of the sale of quicksilver, gave it out at all their depots in Mexico at [157]35 to 40 piastres the cwt.; thence arose the immense increase in the workings of the silver mines, notwithstanding the coarseness of the ores. Since the Spanish Government, however, has, pressed by the miserable position of its finances, farmed out the produce of the Almaden mines, the lessees who had agreed to pay a very heavy rent, and who had no competition to fear for a long period of time, raised the price of the quicksilver beyond all bounds. A few years since the price at Guanaxuato rose to [158]150 piastres the cwt. In 1850 the agent of Messrs. Rothschild fixed the price at [159]103 piastres in Vera Cruz, and at [160]105 at the depot in Mexico. At the same date the price was [161]120 at Mazatlan. The cost price of the quicksilver at Almaden is [162]18 dollars the cwt., and it is sold at the rate of [163]45 dollars for extraction of the ores in Spain.