FLUCTUATIONS in the PRODUCTION of GOLD.

The Deutsche Vierteljahrschrift, a new Stuttgard periodical, contains a dissertation which, like all the writings of Alexander de Humboldt, is replete with deep research and general and exalted views.

The history of gold, the most precious of metals, was worthy of the pen of the illustrious author of the “Voyage to the Equinoxial Regions.”

In ancient times gold was sought for in Asia: it was next drawn from the New World, the persuasion still prevailing as among the ancients that this metal existed only in the warmest climates.

In compliance with this notion the celebrated geographer (Toscanelli) wrote to Columbus that he should find no gold as long as he should meet with negroes.

Recent discoveries have, however, confuted the opinion predominating in antiquity and the middle-ages.

Gold mines and quarries are now wrought in Siberia, and there is no longer any adhering to the old doctrine, which held that heat was necessary for preparing gold in the bosom of the earth.

It would be interesting to compare the production of gold, such as it was in former times, with that now existing, but authentic data are wanting for such inquiry.

The ancients speak of enormous masses of gold left by conquering Kings, and of treasures equally immense found by conquerors in the countries subjected to their arms.

According to Appianus, who writes upon documents, the treasure of Ptolemy-Philadelph amounted to 740,000 talents.

It remains to be known what talents history means, whether they were Egyptian talents or little talents of Ptolemy.

Even in the last case, the treasure would be splendid enough, for it would exceed 40,000,000l. However fabulous the assertion appears, Bœckh, the author of the learned work upon the political economy of the Athenians, dares not dispute it, seeing the rapacity of the ancient despots of Asia, who scrupled not to employ the most odious and violent means in order to obtain possession of the gold in circulation.

If the great talents be admitted in the statement of Appianus, Ptolemy- Philadelph’s treasure would be equivalent to all the gold now circulating in France and in Belgium; and if little talents be reckoned, it would still be the mass of specie circulating in Great Britain.

According to Strabo, Alexander the Great had eighteen myriads collected at Ecbatana, “Whereupon,” says M. de Humboldt.

“it must not be forgotten that in those times the precious metals were concentrated upon some points of the globe, and in the treasuries of conquerors; whereas, now-a-days, they are more uniformly spread over large extents of countries, and among large populations.”

But whence came, in ancient times, those quantities of gold which flowed into the hands of rapacious despots?

That it came from the interior of Asia, from the Upper Oxus, Bactriana, and the Oriental parts of the empire of the Persians is certain; but when the source of this Pactolus is sought for, fabulous accounts are all that assist the inquirer.

The ancients mention ants that found gold among the mountainous people of the Derds, and of griffons that guarded the treasures among the Arimasps.

It would seem to be the plateau of Cashgar and Acsoa, between the parallel chains of the Himalaya and Kuenlon mountains, that fable considered the source of gold.

In Thibet, indeed, all the rivers yield gold.

The Greeks considered as gold countries Lydia, or the banks of the streams issuing from the Imolus, Phrygia, and Colchid.

Those countries may have had gold sands; those sands may have been exhausted, as have been those of the streams of Cuba and St. Domingo. M. de Humboldt observes that in general the gold mixed with sand is more easily removed than that which must be extracted from mines; such is the reason for which of forty places where, according to Strabo, gold sands were to be found, scarcely a few can now be recognised; the others have been exhausted.

In Greece itself precious metals originally existed.

Laurio was renowned for its silver mines.

Gold was found in Thessalia near the borders of Macedonia and Thrace, as well as in the island of Thases, situated facing Thessalia.

Iberia also furnished gold to the Phenicians and Carthagenians.

There were years when 20,000lbs. weight were drawn from Gallicia, Lusitania, and, above all, the Asturias.

This, M. de Humboldt observes, is almost as much as the Brazils have supplied at their most flourishing period.

As for silver, it abounded in Bahia and the neighbourhood of New Carthage (Carthagena).

There is no doubting (continues the author) that the earth formerly contained near its surface layers of gold sand or strata filled with wrecks of gold ore.

Nevertheless the production of gold in Europe was greatly inferior to what it was in Asia; it was towards that quarter that the eyes of conquerors were turned; it was to reach the immense treasures supposed to exist in Zipango that Columbus sought a shorter way by the Atlantic Ocean.

Having landed in the island of Haiti, he believed himself at Tarsis, Ophir, Zipango , and on seeing some particles of gold fancied he had got possession of the richest mines of the Old World.

It was others who supplied so much gold that, as early as the year 1497, the Spanish Government was obliged to alter the relative prices of the two precious metals.

This ratio between the prices of gold and silver again underwent a change when, towards the middle of the sixteenth century, the rich silver mines of Potosi and Zacatecas, in Peru, and in northern Mexico, were discovered.

“According to researches carefully made by me.” says M. de Humboldt, the importation of American gold was to that of silver from the same country, as regards weight, in the ratio of 1 to 65, until the opening of the gold washing in Brazils, at the beginning of the eighteenth century.

At present, if we consider the general trade in metals carried on by Europe with other parts of the world, the ratio between the two metals is no longer but as 1 to 47.

In the first century after the discovery of the new Continent the relative value of the two metals among commercial nations fluctuated between 1:10 7-10ths and 1:12; in the two last centuries between 1:14 and 1:16. This ratio, adds the author, does not depend only on the quantity of those metals annually extracted from the bosom of the earth; it is also determined by the expense of working the mines, by the demand and wants of the public, by the unequal deterioration; and, lastly, by the more or less expensive employment of either metal in jewellery and other articles.

As a very considerable mass of the two metals already circulates, and as they are by degrees put into circulation, they easily and promptly spread in commerce, there can be no more large and permanent fluctuations in the ratio between those values.

Instances of this occurred after the great commercial commotion caused by the American revolution, as well as after the coining of a considerable quantity of money of one of the two metals.

Thus, in London, though from 1817 to 1827 gold money was coined there to the amount of 1,294,000 mares, the ratio between gold and silver rose but from 1:11,97 to 1:15.60.

From that period it has scarcely fallen, for, at the end of 1837, one still had in London one pound of gold against fifteen pounds 65-100 of silver.

The mass of precious metals which, from the discovery of America to the period of the Mexican revolution, flowed into Europe amounted to 2,381,600 kilogrammes of gold, and 122,217,300 kilogrammes of silver (110,362,222 kilogrammes of fine silver.)

This last metal, if melted into a mass, would form a ball of the diameter of 83 7-10ths feet.

It is known that all the gold and silver procured for the Spaniards did not pass through Spain.

Ferdinand the Catholic retained so little of it that at his death scarcely enough was found for the expenses of his funeral.

According to common opinion the mines of America now yield but little.

This is an erroneous notion.

In 1837 the mines of Mexico still furnished the value of twenty to twentytwo millions of piastres.

Those of Zacatecas alone yielded in each of the years elapsed, between 1822 and 1833, the sum of between four and five million of piastres.

Guanaxuato, it is true, yields now but a half of what that province formerly furnished.

In 1833, 1,144 marcs of gold and 316,021 marcs of silver were drawn from those mines.

At the beginning of this century the production of silver was still of 755,000 marcs.

The production of gold has diminished in the New World much more than that of silver, but this diminution is not to be traced further than the revolution of the Spanish colonies.

On the other hand, new mines have been opened in the Oural; the following is, according to the statement communicated to M. de Humboldt by the Russian Minister of Finances, what the gold mines of Siberia have supplied, during the seven years they have been wrought, to the Mint of St.

Petersburgh:—

In 1828.............. 290 Poods 39 Pounds of Gold.

1829.................. 289 .. 25 ..

1830.................. 347 .. 27 ..

1831.................. 352 .. 2 ..

1832.................. 380 .. 31 ..

1833.................. 568 .. 27 ..

1834.................. 363 .. 10 ..

The working had been at first confined to the Oural, which had been found to yield gold upon an extent of near seventeen degrees of latitude; but, since 1834, the Altai, which the Mongols call the Gold Mountain, has been found rich in gold sands similar to those of the Oural; in 1836, 293 poods 26 pounds were exracted from the Oural, and 104 poods 15 pounds from the Altai, altogether 398 poods or 27.884 mares of gold.

In the next year the Oural supplied 309 poods, and the Altai 130; to which must be added 30 ponds of gold which were extracted from the ores of the Altai and the Nertchinsk; so that Russia, in 1837, produced 469 poods or 7.644 kilogrammes of gold.

This is an eighth less only of the produce of the Minas Geraes, in Brazils, at their most flourishing period, or from 1751 to 1761; it is a third less than the produce of the gold mines of New Granada, Chili, and Mexico, a short time previous to the revolution of the colonies. M. de Humboldt does not think that the working of the Siberian mines has reached its maximum.

The Altai is, perhaps, what Herodotus designates as the gold country.

In Siberia masses of gold have been found beneath the green turf covering the soil; in ancient times pieces even torn from the mountains by the water, may have been found on the soil itself, and have given rise to the fabulous accounts propagated on the subject.

A proof that of old gold circulated among the barbarous tribes of Siberia is that in the old tombs very heavy ornaments of that metal have been found, so much so that the extraction of all this gold from the tombs lowered the value of the metal.

Another source has been opened in North America.

Gold beds exist in the soil of some of the United States, such as Virginia, the Alleghany, Carolinas, Georgia, Tenessee, and Alabama . From 1824 to 1836 all of them together have vielded a quantity valued at 4,844,500 dollars.

This is little compared with the mines of Siberia and Mexico.

However, the gold countries can no lenger be restricted to such a zone, or such a climate; for, as is seen, gold is spread about the globe without regularity; and if, on the other hand, the old mines supply less, others recently discovered make up for their deficiency, and it is but the ancient march of commerce which is disturbed by the new discoveries.