Remarks on the production of the precious metals

The United States have naturally sent the larger number of the emigrants to California. It is with the United States principally that the trade is carried on. It would appear, then, to be natural that the principal flow of gold from the Sierra Nevada should take that direction. Doubtless a portion of the gold found annually in California will remain there, and form the circulating medium. Considerable amounts also will have been spread throughout South America, and amongst the various commercial countries of Europe, either in payment of goods shipped, or as the free capital arising from the accumulations of labor. I shall not be exaggerating, however, in supposing, that seven-tenths of the gold annually produced is coined in the United States, and that one-tenth of the produce only is shipped directly to Europe. Thus, then, the United States having received from California [99 - £20,000,000]100,000,000 dollars up to the end of 1850, the total produce of the four years, including 1848, (during which year there did not appear to have been any coinage from Californian gold), ought to have been from [100 - £30,000,000]750,000,000 to [101 - £32,000,000]800,000,000 francs.

The gold exported from California in 1851 is estimated by the Custom House returns at [102 - £11,200,000]56,000,000 dollars. According to the calculations of the St. Francisco Herald, for the first three months of 1852, the total produce amounted to [103 - £2,931,228]14,656,142 dollars; at this rate the produce of the year 1852 would not be less than [104 - £12,400,000]62,000,000 dollars. The export of April is estimated at St. Francisco, at [105 - £684,400]3,422,000 dollars, rather more than [106 - £720,000]18,000,000 francs. The produce of the “placers,” according to the latest reports, although still abundant, is decreasing; nevertheless, if Australia does not attract the most experienced and the most greedy of the work-people, the mines of California appear likely to yield this year not less than about [107 - £12,000,000]300,000,000 of our money; that is six times the amount of the production of gold at the beginning of the century, throughout the civilized world. It is twice the amount of the production of gold in 1847. It is hardly needful to exaggerate these figures, as many writers on both sides of the Atlantic have already done, in order to prove that a change is occurring in our monetary values, and that the status quo which has lasted for above half a century, is not necessarily to continue for ever.

V

Of the three great gold-producing countries of modern times, New South Wales is the one now most attracting public attention. This country enjoys several advantages over the others.

The climate is mild and healthy, the land is neither occupied by savage tribes nor infested with wild beasts. In a country where drought is the principal obstacle to successful cultivation, the gold regions, situated on the slopes of the highest mountains and near the sources of the principal streams, are naturally the best watered. They appear to extend from north-east to south-west, following the direction of the Murray, the largest river in Australia, and over an extent of 1,400 miles, [108 - The kilomêtre is about ⅝ of an English statute mile.](2,452 kilomêtres) by 400 miles (643 kilomêtres). This surface is larger, by four times, the extent of California, and five times larger than Great Britain.

The effects of the Californian gold have been principally felt at a distance from the producing country. The valleys of San Joaquim and the Sacramento were, before the extraordinary discoveries of 1847, but a desert, with but an occasional “oasis” of cultivation; California had neither population, agriculture, commerce, or industry. The “rancheros,” half farmers, half hunters, raised cattle for no other purpose than for the value of their hides; the discovery of gold could hardly disturb any existing trade. The production itself was then the cause or the motive power, creating a new state of society, a new order of things.

In Australia, on the contrary, and long before the consequences of the discoveries could be appreciated in Europe, the working of the mines was of itself a revolution. The first washings occurred in May, 1851; at that time the English colonists in that part of the world were in a flourishing position. The population of European origin did not exceed 400,000 in the whole Australian group of islands. New South Wales, in which division Victoria was included, recently elevated into a separate colony, numbered more than two-thirds of this total, and formed the chief seat of its industry and wealth. The inhabitants, principally the descendants of convicts of the last century, obtained, in 1850, a representative form of government, and now make their own laws. They have upwards of fifty-one newspapers, and they have also public schools and banks. Their principal harbours are on a large scale, and the inter-communication by steam-boats and roads excellent. Their principal cities are Sydney, with its 50,000; and Melbourne, with its 35,000 inhabitants, which are lighted with gas, and have an organized police, as in London.

The luxury of living and of dress defies comparison, and affords large profits to tradesmen; they have already begun to make two railroads. Australia has its commercial fleet, which entered into competition for the supply of flour to California in 1850. The trade with England is of twice the magnitude to that which existed between England and her American colonies at the time of their separation. The colonial revenue, exclusive of the sale of the Crown lands, which forms the foundation of the emigration fund, nearly amounts to £1,000,000 sterling, per annum.

Australia produces wheat, Indian corn, and barley, in abundance; they have planted vines, from which they are making good wine; tobacco is successfully and extensively cultivated; but the principal source of wealth is derived from the growth of wool, for the production of which the lands watered by the tributaries of the Murray are as well adapted as the valley of the Mississippi is for the production of cotton. Australia takes a prominent position with respect to civilization, in the midst of the pastoral employment of her population. It is a vast arcadia, the poetical side being cast into shade by the industrial occupation of its inhabitants, and perhaps somewhat damaged by a very natural corruption of morals. It has been called a mine of wool and tallow; 20,000,000 of sheep are said to be pastured on its plains. In England the use of Australian wool has almost entirely superseded that of Germany and Spain, and the Yorkshire manufacturers cannot now dispense with it. In 1850 Australia exported 137,000 bales, and in 1851, 130,000; 130,000 bales are worth about [109 - £2,600,000]65,000,000 francs. The mother country receives, then, from Australia about £3,000,000 sterling of raw material in exchange for £3,000,000 of English manufactures; the result is most profitable for capital and labor; it is to this beneficial and flourishing trade that the sudden appearance of gold has threatened a most unexpected and alarming interruption.

Sir Roderick Murchison, whose opinions are considered as of high authority, commenting on the writings of Count Strelecki on the geology of New South Wales, announced, in the year 1845, that gold would be found in the sides of those great chains of hills, which may be called their Alps or their Pyrennees. At different times, fragments of the precious metal had been brought either to Sydney, or to Melbourne, without having excited the belief in the minds of the public that they were really the product of their own soil. In the month of March, 1851, a person, less incredulous than his neighbours, a Mr. Hargraves, struck with the similarity of the geological features of the country to California, whence he had lately arrived, made up his mind that gold must be to be found in New South Wales, and set himself resolutely to work to hunt for it at the foot of the mountains, and in the beds of the adjacent rivers. Having found some small portions, he followed the pursuit until he had satisfied himself of the existence of gold in a great number of places. He then went to Bathurst, an advanced post in the country, called a public meeting, openly announced his discovery; and in order to give practical proof, took many of his hearers to the seat of his own exploits, in a little valley at the foot of Mount Sumner, where he employed nine miners to dig actively, and to wash the earth. Four ounces of the purest gold were brought to light, as the produce of three days’ labor; each man had gained £2 4s. 4d. (61 francs) per diem; but this was not considered by Mr. Hargraves as above the half of the probable gain to be obtained by an experienced workman, and with proper implements.

This happened on the 8th May, 1851. The result of the experiment was immediately blazoned forth: three persons started for the washings, and returned in a few days with several pounds of gold. At the same time a geologist, ordered by the local government to attest the statements of Mr. Hargraves, at once stamped an official authority on the actual existence of gold mines. This news created an immense sensation, not only in Bathurst, but beyond, and in the capital of the colony. On the 19th May, there were 600 miners at the “placers;” an enormous immigration to a district where the population was but thinly scattered over an almost indefinite extent of land. On the 24th, some of the people wrote to their friends, that they were collecting from £3 to £4 per day. One party of four miners had in one day, obtained thirty ounces of gold, and had found a “nugget” weighing one pound. In three weeks time, one workman alone amassed £1,600 sterling.

We would remark, in running hastily over the account of these early experiments, that from the first, the inhabitants of Australia foresaw the serious consequences of the revolution about to occur. The colonial journals were filled with lamentations and direful forebodings, and cursed, both in prose and in verse, the mania for gold. The solitude of the towns, at the expense of which the deserts were peopled, the abandonment of labour, the disruption of all social ties, flocks left without shepherds, and crops destroyed for lack of harvestmen: in short, every kind of misfortune from which the colonies are now suffering, were seen in perspective. The greediest seekers for gold might well take alarm; the epidemic, however, stopped not, and soon spread in all directions. The Government took the lead, by largely rewarding Mr. Hargraves, and appointing him the “explorer of the mineral districts.” A proclamation immediately appeared, claiming the precious discoveries as Crown property, and announcing a rate of license for working gold mines at 30s. per miner per month. A wild spirit of speculation soon sprang up in every direction. The municipal authorities everywhere followed the example of the Government. From the Bay of Newton to the Gulph of St. Vincent, over an extent of 2,000 miles of shore, there was no town or village without its sought-for neighbouring “placers.” In many districts, associations were immediately formed, offering premiums for the earliest discovery of gold.

The locality of the first operations was situated at the junction of two little valleys, whose water-courses fell into the River Macquarie, a tributary of the Murray, and which soon received the scriptural name of Ophir. The early successful workings in these “placers” were soon cast into shade by the more brilliant result of the works on the Turon, and its tributaries; here gold was found not only in scales, but in pépites or nuggets. Whilst the Ophir digger was making his 15s. or 20s. on an average day’s work, the people at Turon were counting their gains by ounces. The more primitive process of washing had given way to the more philosophical system by amalgamation. The operation was sufficiently remunerative to repay a simple mechanic at the rate of 20s. a day in addition to his keep; but the miners no sooner obtained money enough to buy a license, and some implements, but they set to work in a more business-like manner. They formed themselves into parties of three or six, the day’s work of each party sometimes producing several ounces of gold. The weight of the pépites varied from one-fifth of an ounce to many ounces.

Towards the middle of July, Doctor Ker found in the valley of Meroo, a few miles from Wellington, a lump of quartz weighing 3 cwt., containing more than 100 pounds of gold. Later, again, they found three “nuggets,” each weighing from 26 to 28 pounds. In the month of August, the export to England commenced; the first remittances of gold dust amounted to £50,000 sterling. The washings at the Turon and Mount Ophir were then producing £10,000 to £12,000 sterling per week.

The treasure of Doctor Ker, exhibited first at Bathurst and then at Sydney, soon drove everybody wild. The very newspapers which had first maligned the discovery, now sounded the trumpet in praise of this wonderful piece of good fortune. “The news,” says the Morning Herald of Sydney, “will astonish Australia, will astonish England, Ireland, and Scotland, will astonish California, and will astonish the whole world. On the arrival of the packet in England, when every newspaper throughout the United Kingdom shall have repeated the news of the discovery as the wonder of our age, the sensation will be profound, and will exceed anything hitherto talked of, or thought of; from the queen on the throne to the peasant in the fields, there will be but one united exclamation of surprise and astonishment; from the palace to the cottage, from the drawing-room to the stable, from the schoolboy to the philosopher and the statesman, there will be one universal talk of this mass of gold, and of the country whence it came; from all the ports in Great Britain and Ireland, ships will be freighted with passengers and goods – population and wealth will rush to Australia like a torrent. Port Jackson will be the best filled and the most flourishing harbour in the world, and Sydney will take its rank amongst the most opulent cities. New South Wales will be looked upon in England as the queen of her colonies.”

Waiting the impression to be produced in the mother country by the news of the “golden land,” to use again the expression of the Morning Herald, the population of Sydney flocked to the diggings; the numbers who left were about 400 a day. Sailors deserted their ships in the harbours. Government, on account of the dearness of provisions, doubled the salaries of their officials. In every direction there was a general hunt in quest of new “placers;” and the districts South and West of Sydney were explored by miners to the extent of 200 miles. Auriferous deposits were discovered in the counties of St. Vincent, Argyle, Dampier, Wallace, and Wellesley, as well as in the basins of Murrumbedgee Shoalhaven, the River Hume, the River Peel, and the Snow River. At the extreme north of New South Wales, in the district of Moreton Bay, the diggings are in full work at the several branches of the River Condamine. Nearer to the capital, in New England, gold has been found in abundance in the basin of the River Macdonald. 200 miles south of Sydney, at Braidwood, one miner realized £30 sterling in five weeks; another £42 sterling in fifteen days; and a party of three £200 sterling in one week. Nothing was more common than a produce of two ounces per man per day; and not unfrequently it reached as much as one pound. Women also set to work. One widow and her two daughters are said to have collected an average of two ounces a-day.

The district of Turon did not lose its repute. Such was the attraction for gold hunting, that a labourer at Meroo would not undertake to work for hire at a lower rate than £3 a-week, in addition to his food. Up to October, 1851, the Government had given out 8,637 licenses; 10,000 miners were at work in the province of Sydney, and £215,866 sterling, (about 5,500,000 francs) had already been shipped to England.

In December, the yield of the “placers” averaged £40,000 sterling per week, a sum equivalent, after deducting the stoppages during extreme drought and rain, to £2,000,000 sterling per annum.

These results, however brilliant they appeared, were soon eclipsed by the accounts from the province of Victoria. Gold was first discovered at Ballarat, where it was found at some considerable depth from the surface; then at Mount Alexander, where it was dug up merely by the pickaxe, almost on the ground; at Caliban, fifteen miles further, at Albany, on the Murray, and on the east coast at Gipp’s Land.

It is asserted that the chain of hills which separates the province of Victoria from Sydney, and which are known by the name of the Snowy Mountains, is one vast mine of gold. Every day announces some new discovery, and that of yesterday is almost always surpassed by that of to-day. The mines of Mount Alexander are in extent about ten miles, and the earth is said to be full of gold; they find the precious metal in a gravelly clay, and in the interstices of a slatey formation. It is sufficient to dig six inches of soil; and already, in the month of December, 1851, there were 15,000 miners at work, and the deposits appeared inexhaustible.

Here occurred the most extraordinary events. Amongst ordinary cases, seven workmen were cited, who amassed 500 ounces of gold in three weeks, which at £3 sterling per ounce, the then current value of gold in the colony, was about [110 - £10]260 francs per day each; at another time, two miners, in the same space of time, collected 400 ounces, or [111 - £30]735 francs per day each. One carman, who had never even removed the earth, made up a bag of £1,500 sterling in five weeks. A convict, but just freed, made £150 sterling in sixteen days. A workman, who had never exercised any trade but that of shoeing horses, was somewhat less fortunate, but brought home £100 sterling, clear, after paying all expenses, and working five weeks. A boy of fourteen, in less time, collected £400 sterling; and another of the same age, £120 sterling; but the ambition of the workmen knew no bounds; there was scarcely a man who set to work digging a hole who did not expect to come home at night with £40 or £50. These expectations were kept up by some most wonderful instances of fortune, the recital of which, repeated from group to group, amongst the diggers, soon became matters of history. One spot of a few feet square produced [112 - £1,800]45,000 fr.; four sailors, after six weeks’ work, loaded their cart with a case containing two hundred pounds of gold, about [113 - £10,400]260,000 francs; four other workmen, after two months’ labour, divided [114 - £40,000]1,000,000 francs. One workman was spoken of who gathered twenty-five pounds in two or three weeks, and another was known to have amassed eleven pounds in forty-eight hours; another, in less than one hour, made up a package weighing thirty pounds, worth at least [115 - £1,520]38,000 francs. It was said that the miners would no longer pick up gold-dust, it was not worth while; anything smaller than a pin’s head was thrown aside as too insignificant for notice. There must have been fine gleanings from these fastidious reapers.

In the “placers” of Mount Ophir, and of the Turon, where the profits and the workings were on a more moderate scale, there was less difficulty in preserving order and good behaviour. Captain Erskine, of the Royal Navy, who was there about the end of July, 1851, reports most favourably in this respect. The miners received him with the most perfect civility; order and good feeling was the general rule. Captain Erskine only saw one man drunk on the placers. The sale of spirituous liquors was forbidden, and the Sundays religiously observed. There even appeared some traces of regular industry. The neighbouring “placers” of Port Philip presented a perfectly different scene. There, mining appeared to be considered as a complete lottery. The coolest heads soon grew as wild as the steadiest – passions and extravagance broke loose in all directions. The consumption of wine, beer, and spirituous liquors was enormous; gambling tables, quarrels, and prize fighting, desecrated the Sundays. One man was quoted who placed a £5 note between two pieces of bread and butter, and ate it as a sandwich. Another rolled up two £5 Bank notes, and swallowed them as a pill. A third went into a pastry cook’s shop to eat a cake, threw down a Bank note, and refused to take up the change. The miners appeared to have no idea of the value of money; they bore their losses with the most perfect philosophy. One man, who had had a draft of [116 - £150]3760 francs stolen from him, and on enquiring at the bank, finding it had been already cashed, exclaimed, “Bah! there is no want of money now.”

A “placer” in the colony of Victoria presented the appearance of an immense encampment, with thousands of tents of all sizes, colours, and shapes; the bivouac during the night was illuminated with fires in all directions, and noisy with the discharge of guns and pistols; every miner was armed to the teeth, and could only trust to himself for the protection of his booty and his life; every one kept himself on the qui vive, and took even the precaution of daily discharging and reloading his firearms every evening at sunset. Government offered a weekly transport to Melbourne at a charge of 1 per cent.; but as, notwithstanding so exorbitant a charge, this transport was without any guarantee against robbery, the miners formed themselves into parties, when tired with making their fortunes, and escorted their own treasures. The bandits from Van Dieman’s Land came down like birds of prey, and fell upon the miners, and in such numbers and with such fury, that when a murder was committed the local police were not unfrequently afraid to go amongst them to seize the murderer. The authorities of Melbourne were unable to give effectual aid under such circumstances; for their own city police, with the exception of six, had all gone off to the diggings. A cry of despair and indignation was universally raised. “The imbecility of our Government,” says the Argus, “has compelled us to take the police into our own hands, and to make lynch law the rule of action.” The Morning Herald says, “The Government must act with energy, and without loss of time, or we shall become a second California, with mutiny and lynch law established, and crime in its naked deformity.” The Governor, Sir G. Fitzroy, responded to this appeal by sending home for more troops, and by recruiting his police by discharged soldiers. Will it be sufficient for the preservation of this community, scarcely yet formed, from the threatened danger of disorganization, to send a vessel of war to the station of Port Jackson, and to Port Philip, and to reinforce the garrisons of Australia, as Sir John Packington proposes, with some 400 or 500 soldiers?

Fortunately, such a state of disorder is not likely to become chronic; when public authority, which ought to suppress it, is declared incompetent, society, alarmed for its own existence, steps in and at all hazard gets rid of turbulent characters. What is to be as much feared, especially in a community of such recent formation, is the attraction to a spirit of gambling, from fortunes thus suddenly acquired. Men, fascinated by such a magnet, abandon all productive and useful employment. Neither their ordinary vocations or their known duties will retain them in their ordinary habits; no rates of pay can follow the progressive chances of the miner with his pickaxe; the trade of gold-seeking supplants every other occupation; a whole people are bowed down to the earth, and absorbed in a work which brutalizes them, and they abandon to others all the cares of and attention to the cultivation of the soil.

From the beginning of November last, the towns of Melbourne and Geelong were forsaken. Out of this numerous population the women alone remained stationary. The proximity of the “placers” at two or three days’ journey rendered the access easy. It was not necessary, as at Sydney, to equip for a long journey, or to lay in a stock of provisions and money. Men deserted, in crowds, flocks, farms, ships, workshops, counting-houses, and shops; no wages would induce them to remain. They flocked in from Sydney, Van Dieman’s Land, South Australia, and even from California. Vessels arriving could not discharge their cargoes for want of hands; goods perished on the quays, where they had been piled up. In many districts of the colony business and cultivation were suspended; hands were wanted everywhere. When shearers were to be met with, they asked the enormous price of 3s. 6d. for twenty fleeces. A month later, and Adelaide, the capital of Australia, realized the picture of the “Deserted Village.” Traders, artizans, proprietors, and capitalists, all were either ruined or had emigrated to Port Philip, to escape from inevitable ruin. The shares in the celebrated Burra Burra Copper Mine, which had been sold for above £200, found no buyers at £60, and their 700 workmen had disappeared; prices of all goods and wages rose in a frightful degree.

We read, in a letter from Melbourne, of the 17th January, 1852: – “In the Banks and at the Post Offices, the clerks work double tides; other public services are at a stand for want of hands. There are no male servants to be found, even at exorbitant wages, and women will not remain, unless at considerable increase of pay. I requested first the waiter, and then the maid, at the hotel where I was stopping, to send a small parcel of linen to be washed. They told me that they could find no one who would wash. I was obliged to go to a shop and buy some new things. If you want a pair of boots, you must pay £2 10s. (63 francs). A pair of shoes cost 20s. (25 francs).”

Another letter, of the 1st January, adds again to the picture: – “In my opinion, this town is threatened with complete ruin. Last night, two men arrived, announcing a discovery of gold deposits in the district of Gipp’s Land; they had brought £10,000 sterling in gold, and said there was enough there for all the world. What shall we do for want of labor? Suppose that 100,000 immigrants were to arrive here next year, would one of them remain in the towns or at the farms, earning a few shillings per week, when they can go to the diggings and gather £50 in one day? At this very moment I cannot find one man in Melbourne who can mend a pair of boots at any price. I get bread from Collingwood, as a great favor, and the baker will not engage to supply me regularly. I pay 5s. for two buckets of water, and 30s. for as much wood as a horse can carry. One can hardly find a man with a handbarrow to carry a portmanteau, even at any price he chooses to ask. The servants of the Judge have all left him, and he cannot use his carriage; his sons clean the knives and shoes, and drag their invalid father to the court in a wheel chair.”

An inhabitant of Melbourne, himself reduced to the necessity of looking after his horse, whilst his wife attended to cooking the dinner, writes: – “One of the members of our club, a large sheep-owner, and who cannot obtain shearers, is gone to the diggings to try and hire some men. He asked them what wages he should pay them, they replied that they must have all the wool; and, as he was leaving them, they called him back to say. ‘We are in want of a cook; we will give you £1 a day if you like to take the place yourself.’”

At the “placers,” a mechanic is worth at least £1 a day. The people who return to the towns with their little fortunes will no longer work, and consider that they have a right to live on in idleness. All provisions are dear. At Mount Alexander, flour was sold at 5d. a pound (which is equal to [117 - 6d.]60 centimes the demi-kilo.); oats at 18s. the bushel, or [118 - £2 8s.]64 francs the [119 - 22 Imperial Gallons.]hectolitre. In August last, wheat was not higher than 3d. a pound, and oats 4s. the bushel, in the Sydney market, a higher price than in any famine year in the European markets.

Two causes have been acting simultaneously in creating this great rise in the price of all the necessaries of life, in those countries where the gold finders have become suddenly enriched by the discoveries of these “placers.” In the first place, population increasing more rapidly than the supply of food, has necessarily caused a rise in price, and this consequent increase in price, is out of all proportion to the deficiency of supply. Who does not know that a deficiency of one-sixth, or even of one-tenth of the crop of grain, frequently doubles, or even trebles, the price during the famine. Such was the case in France and England in 1846; and without facilities of communication, and the cheapness of carriage, the result, even at that period, would have been much more calamitous. Can we be astonished, then, that in a country where civilization is but just established, where roads, canals, and railroads are wanting, the evils must be felt in a greatly increased degree?

Another cause is the very abundance of the precious metals. Gold, when amassed by handfuls, instead of being collected in very small quantities, and with great labour, must necessarily lose a large part of its value. The diminution of the price of gold and silver is, generally, only shewn by the increase in the price of every other article. The nominal value of the monetary sign remains the same, but its power diminishes in proportion to its increase in quantity, unless some counteracting cause, such as an excessive supply of provisions, &c., should step in and re-establish the equilibrium.

Up to the present time, every progress in mining in Australia is retarding the proper care and attention to the breeding of cattle. Van Dieman’s Land, which produced food for other districts of Australia, is likely, it is said, to require an import of food for her own people. It was true that the crops at the end of 1851, presented every appearance of a magnificent harvest, but how could a harvest be got in on an island inadequately supplied with labour, and where the people are deserting daily for other places?

The position is certainly critical; with any other people than those of Anglo-Saxon race, it might be desperate: a few months more delay, and the wool shearing will be lost; for the flocks, no longer watched, will have strayed away, and possibly will have perished. It was the work of a quarter of a century to have accumulated the capital employed in Agriculture in Australia; without an immense immigration, not of gold seekers, but of shepherds, and persons accustomed to a pastoral life, before the end of 1852 all this capital will be inevitably destroyed. England has awakened rather late to the danger, but she has now to work in good earnest to apply the remedy. The Governor of Australia witnessed the daily arrivals of emigrants with alarm, so long as they added only to the crowds of miners, and who by their competition still further increased the price of provisions; he even pressed the Colonial Secretary to try and turn the stream of emigration to other colonies. But independent of Government emigration, voluntary associations for the same object have not been inactive. Liverpool alone has been shipping at the rate of 2,000 a month for Sydney or Melbourne. Ships are wanting in all the ports of Great Britain and Ireland, for the transport of emigrants. Shipbuilding yards are all in the greatest state of active employment.

Nor has this want of an agricultural population in Australia been overlooked. The islands to the north and west and the Highlands of Scotland, contain a population far too numerous for their means of adequate support, so that in spite of hard and constant work, there is frequent mortality from famine in this poor and barren country. Twenty or thirty thousand of these labourers, engaged for agricultural occupations in Van Dieman’s Land, and for sheep tending in New South Wales, would cease to be a burthen on English charity, and would avert the ruin of Australia. Subscription lists are opened in England for this object, and the colony itself is in a position to lend its aid, as Sir John Packington informed Sir G. Fitzroy that the government would place at the disposal of the local legislature the revenues which might accrue from the workings of these gold regions. At this time the port of London contains a fleet of vessels ready to sail for Australia, capable of conveying 23,000 persons and 30,000 tons of merchandize. It is clear, that by abandoning all the rights of the Crown to the treasures of the “placers,” the British Government has saved Australia. By this arrangement, the Colonial revenues have been almost doubled; 30s. a month levied on 60,000 miners, working eight months in the year, would produce [120 - £720,000]18,000,000 francs. A tax of 60s. which was attempted to be established, but which the miners resisted, might have produced [121 - £1,440,000]36,000,000 francs. In default of English labourers, the expenses of whose voyage must necessarily be great, and whose willingness to work could not be depended on, there would be funds enough to import a whole population of Indians or Chinese.

The production of these gold regions in Australia does not appear to have exceeded £1,500,000 sterling in 1851, from all the “placers” then worked; but we know that the working in the province of Sydney did not begin until the middle of May; and in Victoria, not until the end of September. In January, 1852, they reckoned 10,000 miners in the Sydney gold districts, the produce of which oscillated between 12,000 and 15,000 ounces per week. For eight month’s work this would give about [122 - £1,240,000]31,000,000 francs at the Colonial price, and [123 - £1,400,000]35,000,000 at the English price of gold; but the population will certainly have increased in 1852, and it will be a moderate calculation to estimate the produce of this province at [124 - £1,600,000 to £2,000,000]40,000,000 to 50,000,000 francs during this year.

In the province of Victoria, 30,000 miners were at work at the “placers,” at the end of December; and the number was daily increasing. They probably would have received, by the spring of this year, a reinforcement of 10,000. Mineral working is a lottery, in which very few gain the great prizes. A letter from Sydney, dated 4th February, thus sums up the result of the work, and of its uncertainty and irregularity. “They calculate, that out of every ten speculators who hire workmen for the gold-washings, only one repays his expenses, and of those who work on their own account, the proportion who are successful is about one in five.” It is not to be expected, then, that the quantity of gold collected by so many miners should equal the brilliant, the extraordinary, profits made by many of the first adventurers. It is a liberal calculation to suppose that the 40,000 miners of the province of Victoria might obtain on an average 10s. or 12s. each for their daily work. At 200 days’ work this could give about [125 - £120 each, or about £4,800,000 per Annum.]3,000 francs each, or about 120,000,000 francs per annum. Thus, these two provinces would yield a produce in 1852, of [126 - £1,600,000]40,000,000 for Sydney, and [127 - £4,800,000]120,000,000 for Victoria, together about [128 - £6,400,000]160,000,000 francs.

In following the scale of progress of California, these results might be doubled the third year: but it should be remarked, that up to March last, notwithstanding the immense increase of the workings carried on for nearly a year in Sydney, and for six months in Australia-Felix, the colony had not shipped, of all the gold it had collected, above £819,000 sterling (20,537,000 francs) to England.

Uniting the products of the three great gold regions, we find that Siberia, California, and Australia, are expected to supply in 1852, about [129 - £24,000,000]600,000,000 francs: a mass of gold equal to about 175 tons in weight. It should be borne in mind, that China and Japan have also their mines of gold and silver in full work; the produce of which does not appear, however, to leave those countries. The Chain of the Himalaya possibly contains mineral wealth equal to that of the Cordilleras, the dorsal division of South America, from Chili to Oregon. It is also said, that the inhabitants of Thibet have begun to work their golden alluvial deposits. All the mines in the world, therefore, are not yet fully worked; and there will, probably, be an ample supply for some generations to come. The gold supplied by America, independently of California, can hardly be estimated at above [130 - lbs. 21,436=£1,000,000]8,000 kilogrammes per annum. Hungary is the only country in Europe, excepting Russia, which is producing about [131 - lbs. 5,359=£250,000]2,000 kilogrammes of gold. The quantity from Africa is very small; and [132 - lbs. 8,038 to lbs. 10,718=£375,000 to £500,000]3,000 or 4,000 kilogrammes is the whole of the known produce of the washings in the Straits of Sunda, and in the peninsula of Malacca. From all which sources united, an approximative value may be fixed at from [133 - £1,600,000 to £2,000,000]40,000,000 to 50,000,000 francs. To sum up the whole, then, it would appear that the gold production of 1852 may be estimated at —

It has been already stated, that California produced [134 - £30,000,000]750,000,000 francs during the four years 1848 to 1851. Russia, during the same period, at the rate of [135 - £4,000,000]100,000,000 fr., will have produced [136 - £16,000,000]400,000,000, and the other gold districts [137 - £8,000,000]200,000,000. Thus, in the five years ending with 1852, the total production including Australia, will probably amount to nearly [138 - £80,000,000]two milliards of francs: a result unexampled in history; gold has never previously flowed from such numerous channels, and from such abundant sources.

VI

What will be the effects produced by this expansion of gold on those countries where the discoveries and working have occurred, and on the great centres of wealth and industry, where competition is in active operation, and where the gold may, when in the shape of coin, fix a new value on commodities? First, as regards the gold-producing countries themselves. It is clear that the attraction to the “diggings” must retard, if not put a temporary stop, to really productive labour, that of the cultivation of the land: but this demoralizing influence may not be of long duration. The “placers” will become exhausted, the gold of alluvial deposit, that which the rains and other causes have spread over the surface of the soil, has hitherto been the chief feeder of the supply. The thousands of miners working at the various sources, and turning over and over again every part of the surface, will soon have picked out every particle of the metal. The remainder of the gold must then be sought for in the quartz; whence it can be obtained only by the aid of scientific processes, and effectually extracted only by the application of capital: which is hardly likely to be supplied to an adequate extent, excepting by companies, in the same way as has been the case in the working of silver mines. Then individual enterprize will be again directed to the cultivation of the soil. Out of the crowds of emigrants in Australia and California, now attracted to the “diggings,” the number required for agricultural purposes will no longer be deficient. Amongst the adventurers who are expatriating themselves to seek fortunes in new countries, there will be numbers of poor families who will consider themselves adequately repaid by being able to obtain in a distant land, a fair remuneration for their services, and the ownership of land, with the means of a comfortable livelihood.

The Spaniards, in the early days of conquest in South America, began by abandoning all other pursuits than the search of gold and silver; they ended however, by building cities, forming harbours, constructing churches, planting the land, and rearing flocks. After the soldiers came the miners, after the miners came the colonists: swords were turned into plough-shares. That which occurred in the 17th century will recur in the 19th. Australia, California, and the colder regions of the Altai, will be covered with people. It may readily be believed that Providence, in the accumulation of treasures like loadstones in the hearts of the mountains and in the depths of the valleys, has contemplated the attraction of a superabundant population, and of the genius of colonization throughout the civilized world.

Thus much for the producing country itself. Let us now consider the effect of this superabundance of gold on the importing countries. The first and most important question is, whether the relative proportions in value between gold and silver is likely to be materially disturbed. We have been considering the present production of gold, let us now see how the case stands as regards silver.

Mons. de Humboldt estimates the amount of silver annually produced at the commencement of this century at 870,000 kilogrammes (about [139 - £7,720,000]193,000,000 francs). In 1847, M. Michel Chevalier, considered the annual production to be 775,000 kilogrammes, (about [140 - £6,880,000]172,000,000 francs), but there is reason to suppose that this writer under-estimated the returns of the Mexican mines, which he placed at [141 - £3,700,000]18,500,000 piastres, and in a later work, the same authority states the production at [142 - lbs. 2,411,562=£7,234,686]900,000 kilogrammes. The English paper, The Economist, estimated the return of 1850 at [143 - £7,670,880]191,772,000 francs; the actual production, however, appears to have been much larger. It cannot be placed at a lower figure than 1,000,000 of kilogrammes for 1851, or at about [144 - £9,200,000]230,000,000 francs. The following is the table of details:

We do not think we shall be exaggerating in supposing that the production will have reached [145 - £10,000,000]250,000,000 francs in 1852, and that it will consequently have exceeded [146 - lbs. 2,947,465=£8,842,395]1,100,000 kilogrammes. At this rate the accumulated value of the precious metals produced in 1852 will have reached the figure of [147 - £34,000,000]850,000,000 fr., of which silver will represent the proportion of about 30 per cent; the weight of gold will then be in the proportion of 1 to 6³⁄₁₀ to silver.

In estimating a gradual increase in the production of silver, we have some data for our supposition. In 1843, there was scarcely [148 - £3,200,000]16,000,000 piastres from Mexico; in 1849, the silver coined at the Mexican Mint amounted to [149 - £4,000,000]20,000,000 dollars, without reckoning that portion which escaped duty, and which probably amounted to [150 - £600,000 to £8,000,000]3,000,000 or 4,000,000 more; [151 - According to the information of M. Rosales, the production of Chili in 1850 should have been 4,070,000 piastres.]we are certainly quite within the mark, it is even more probable that the production this year may again reach the sum of [152 - £5,400,000]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 - £164,200]821,000 piastres, and in 1845, [154 - £306,800]1,534,000, having in 1849 given [155 - £668,600]3,343,000, and in 1850 [156 - £814,000]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 - £7 to £8.]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 - About £30]150 piastres the cwt. In 1850 the agent of Messrs. Rothschild fixed the price at [159 - About £20 12s.]103 piastres in Vera Cruz, and at [160 - About £21]105 at the depot in Mexico. At the same date the price was [161 - About £24]120 at Mazatlan. The cost price of the quicksilver at Almaden is [162 - £3 12s.]18 dollars the cwt., and it is sold at the rate of [163 - £9]45 dollars for extraction of the ores in Spain.

The high price will cease with the monopoly. Spain has no longer the exclusive privilege of furnishing quicksilver for the mines in the New World. California possesses mines of cinnabar in abundance, and they are now in full work. Those of New-Almaden, situated at some leagues from San Francisco, are now producing [164 - lbs. 882=£103]400 kilogrammes a day. At 300 day’s work this could give a provision of [165 - lbs. 264,660=£30,875]120,000 kilogrammes, sufficient to work at least [166 - lbs. 214,361=£643,083]80,000 kilogrammes of silver. At the mine itself this quicksilver is worth [167 - About £5]25 piastres the cwt.; brought to Fresnillo, near the rich veins of Sombrerete, and on the backs of mules from the port of Mazatlan, it has been sold at [168 - About £18 12s.]93 piastres in 1850. The proprietors of New-Almaden undertake to reduce the price whenever the price of Spanish quicksilver shall be lowered. They have sent some of it to Chili, where silver-mine working has taken a fresh start. They can sell it advantageously in Peru, for the quicksilver of Huancavelica cost at Pasco in August, 1850, [169 - About £20 16s.]104 piastres the cwt. The mine of New Almaden is not the only one being worked in California; cinnabar is met with in several directions, and hereafter it is probable that California may be looked to as a country producing quicksilver as well as gold.

The news of the discovery of quicksilver mines in Mexico, in the neighbourhood of San Luis de Potosi, was confirmed by accounts received in London in March last. Are they old mines formerly abandoned on account of their poverty, or have they really discovered an ore which, as at New Almaden, yields a produce of 50 per cent. of quicksilver? This is a point yet to be cleared up. In the meantime the price of silver has fallen in the district of Guanaxuato to [170 - About £8]40 piastres the hundred weight, and it is now varying between a price of [171 - About £11 and £11 4s.]55 and 56 piastres. In short, one of the conditions connected with silver mining has materially changed. An economy of [172 - About £12 or £14]60 or 70 piastres per hundred weight in the cost of amalgamation can hardly fail to kindle a fresh spirit of enterprize.

Another cause will necessarily act on the production of silver, and that is the very abundance of gold. When silver is found to be more in demand, fresh activity will ensue, both in reopening old galleries, which have been closed as not sufficiently remunerative, and in pushing on the work in those actually in operation. If the mines, feeding the present supply, are becoming exhausted, and other sources are not forthcoming, in a few years silver will reach the price of gold, or the value of gold will descend to that of silver; but as the limits of silver working are but the price of labour, the power of machinery, and the application of science, so, every increase in the quantity of gold which is not caused by accidental circumstances, or by an extraordinary demand, must produce a corresponding increase in the production of silver. Is not this a fact which we have been witnessing since 1850? Who can venture to affirm that Californian gold has had no influence in stimulating the workings of silver in Mexico and Chili? Besides this, the extraction of gold is generally accompanied with a production of silver. Silver mines are not always auriferous, and the richest in gold contain but a small quantity of it, but gold mines are almost always argentiferous. The proportion of silver in a “nugget” of gold is about ⅛th in California, ¹⁄₁₀th in Siberia, and ⅕th in New South Wales. So that for every [173 - 4 kilogrammes of gold are equal to lbs. 10·7212=£500. 1 kilogramme is equal to lbs. 2·6803=£8·0409.]four kilogrammes of gold in Australia, there is about one of silver. This is an important fact resulting from chemical analysis.