The three great gold districts, which have lately grown into
importance, are, the chain of the Oural and Altai Mountains,
California, and its extensions to Sonora and Oregon, and the eastern
and southern districts of Australia; let us consider each in its order.
The washings of the Russian streams first aroused public attention
from the languor into which the question of gold-working had fallen.
The deposits of the Oural, where the first discoveries were made,
never gave any extraordinary results; the workings appeared almost
impracticable above the 60th degree of latitude, and although begun
on a great scale above half a century ago, they have remained almost
stationary for the last fifteen years; the annual returns, divided
about equally between the government and private individuals, scarcely
exceeded [56]5,000 kilogrammes.
The Altai gold district was in a very different position; in spite of
the rigour of an inhospitable climate, and the difficulties experienced
from any work of labour with a scanty population, the development of
produce was extremely rapid. Begun in 1828, the result, after the first
eight years, was [57]1,722 kilogrammes, but from that time it increased
in a geometrical proportion; it rose to [58]4,000 kilogrammes in 1840,
to [59]10,000 in 1842, and exceeded [60]20,000 in 1847.
The year 1847 appears to have been the culminating point of the
position of gold in Russia. The “_Administration des Mines_” report
a produce of [61]1744 pouds, or [62]28,521 kilogrammes, as the combined
working of the Oural and Altai; admitting that one-fifth of the produce
escaped the government tax, the result of the gold produce of 1847,
would be at least [63]110,000,000 francs. From that time the decrease
has been continuous. The official reports of 1848, give the figures
at 1,726 pouds, or [64]28,252 kilogrammes; 1592 pouds, or [65]26,077
kilogrammes in 1849; 1485 pouds, or [66]124,324 kilogrammes in 1850; and
1,432 pouds, or [67]78,000,000 francs in 1851. It is to be observed
that the reduction refers exclusively to Siberia, east and west; not
only has the activity of the workings in the Oural been undiminished,
but it has slightly increased: the produce of 1849 was 342 pouds, being
[68]244 kilogrammes more than in 1845.
The decrease of production appears to have been principally caused
by excessive taxation. The working of the Siberian gold districts is
divided between the Government and private owners, and in the division,
the eastern side of the mountains has been retained by the former,
whilst the latter have worked the western. The result has been an
immense loss to the public treasury, for whilst two-fifths of the
washings of the Oural are from the government reserves, the Altai
districts do not yield above 5 to 6 per cent. of this produce. The
Russian government has endeavoured to collect by taxation what is lost
either by abstraction or the washings. The tax was at first one-tenth
of the net produce; it was then raised to 15 per cent., and has since
been further increased. The new tax, however, only applies to Siberia,
east and west. It is a progressive rate, divided amongst ten classes,
the rate varying from 5 per cent. on the raw produce, when the working
was from one to two pouds, up to 32 per cent. when the working amounted
to 50 pouds per annum. The whole tax, however, was, in addition to
another tax called “minier,” also progressive, and varying, according
to class, from four to [69]ten roubles per pound of gold.
These exorbitant taxes may have acted in two ways, either as an
encouragement to fraud, or as a discouragement to production. At the
distance at which we live from Siberia, a country where the light of
public opinion has penetrated even less than the rays of the sun, it
is difficult to decide between these two consequences, both perhaps
equally probable. But the fact of the decrease remains undoubted, and
this decrease has been to the extent of one-seventh in three years, or
about [70]4,000 kilogrammes.
The working of the gold regions of Siberia has not been of the
democratic character which it has assumed in California and Australia.
There the first comer, provided he were furnished with a pickaxe, a
bowl, a cradle, and a small store of provisions, might, without further
capital, pitch his tent over some square yards of land, and dig until
he has made his fortune. With a license costing 60s. in Australia,
and with a tax of 20 dollars a year in California, he may go where he
pleases. It is not the government which fixes his boundary, but the
regulations of the republic of miners, forming a community along the
banks of a river, or at the foot of a hill, forbidding one man to usurp
a greater space than he can work with his own hands; the miner himself
possessing nothing, and therefore, risking nothing, may dispense with
all calculations of profit and loss. If the spot he has selected does
not answer his expectations, he shifts his ground, or his occupation.
Under any circumstances, the tax, not bearing upon capital, and being
moderate in amount, is easily paid; a few days work is sufficient for
it; the remainder of his time during the year with his bad or good
luck, is at his own free disposal. Such is not the case, in the Altai,
where the aristocratic forms attaching to all industry, either at the
will of the state, or from the force of circumstances, have exerted
their influence over the first commencement of working the mineral
districts. By the terms of the imperial decrees, concessions are only
obtained on special application, and for a term of twelve years, and
the portion assigned to each person never exceeds 100 sagenes (about
[71]250 metres) by five wersts, (about 5335 metres); the same person
may, however, take several lots, provided they are separated by a
distance of five wersts. These contractors engage a certain number
of workmen, whom they provide with utensils and machinery, besides
feeding them and paying them high wages. Everything connected with the
arrangements entails considerable advance of capital, and when the
chance of a small return, or sometimes of no return at all, is added to
the heavy deduction to be paid to the state, out of the raw material,
is it surprizing that members of this community are frequently
unwilling to extend their operations, and almost always anxious to
conceal the magnitude of their working?
It is said, that in keeping up the amount of the tax, the Russian
Government has had less in view the advantage of a larger participation
of interests than a desire to check a kind of industry very
demoralizing in its nature. If such is really the motive, it might be
less critically censured. Whatever the reason, so long as the Russian
Government considers it advisable to keep up the present taxation,
it is not likely that the increase of production of gold will be
considerable; it appears to be limited for the present to an amount
probably not exceeding [72]90,000,000 to [73]100,000,000 francs per
annum.
The Spaniards--those indefatigable treasure-seekers--who discovered the
hidden riches of the Cordilleras, had been in possession of California
for above two centuries. From the year 1602, Sebastian Viscaino, the
founder of Monterey, had learnt from the Indians, dispersed throughout
that country, that it abounded in gold and silver. Nevertheless,
instead of planting a colony of miners to examine the soil, the
Spaniards sent thither a body of missionaries, who proclaimed the
gospel, and at the same time instructed the natives in the rudiments of
civilization and of agriculture.
In 1846 there was scarcely 10,000 of the original Spanish creoles,
when a body of some hundreds of adventurers from the United States,
under General Taylor, invaded and took possession of the country. The
Government of the Union, in demanding its cession from Mexico, thought
chiefly of an aggrandisement of territory; they wanted ports on the
Pacific and a rival colony to Oregon. Little was it expected that in
the valleys which descended from the Sierra Nevada would be found mines
of gold likely to become the principal attractions to colonization,
and a district whose exuberant products would be shortly disseminated
throughout the markets of Europe, as well as of America.
The extension of the population of California which so speedily
occurred, is greatly due to the truly fabulous success of the first
washings; the miners naturally first planted themselves on the richest
“placers,” they rather culled the produce, than exhausted it; they
frequently discovered “pépites” weighing several ounces, if not pounds
of gold; a clever workman made his fortune in a few days.
In June, 1848, Mr. Larkin, Consul of the United States at Monterey,
valued the day’s work of a gold seeker at an average of 15 to 25
dollars ([74]133 to 267 francs). Colonel Mason, in his report of
August, considered the produce of a day’s work of 4,000 European or
Indian miners at [75]30,000 to 40,000 dollars, giving an average of
about 10 dollars [76](53 francs) to each workman. Captain Folson writes
about a month later, “I do not think that there can exist richer
deposits in the world. I have myself ascertained that an active workman
can collect from [77]25 to 40 dollars per day, valuing the gold at 16
dollars the ounce.” Mr. Butler King, whose report is of still later
date, places the average day’s work per man at about 16 dollars, or one
ounce of gold.
During the second period of working, when the miners flocked to the
“placers,” and disputed every inch of the golden soil, the yield
began to diminish in a very marked degree. A local mining journal,
the “_Placer Times_,” of 26th October, 1850, giving a _resumé_ of the
proceedings of the season, including the encampment from the River
de la Plume to the River Consumnes, covering an extent of about 100
miles, and occupied by 60,000 gold-seekers, estimated the mean result
of a day’s work at from six dollars on the River de la Plume, to four
dollars on the l’Yuba and Ours, and five dollars on the American Fork.
The information collected by our consuls at the beginning of 1850,
gives a result of one to two ounces per day in the Valley of the
Sacramento, and from one to four in the newer regions of St. Joaquim.
The diminishing produce, comparing one year with the other, was not
without some compensation. If the miner gained less, he did not spend
as much. The extravagant rise on all sorts of provisions, clothes,
and tools, had been brought down to a more reasonable limit:--they no
longer paid [78]one dollar for a pound of bread; [79]eighty dollars
for an outer covering; [80]fifty dollars a-day for the use of a cart
with two oxen, or [81]5000 dollars for a cask of brandy. An artizan
could no longer command sixteen dollars for a day’s work. Europe, the
United States, and other nations, shipped to California cargoes of
provisions and of manufactured goods; competition soon lowered the
prices. Roads were made from the “placers” to San Francisco; bridges
were thrown over the rivers; they established stores of provisions
and merchandize at every canteen. Towns sprung up like mushrooms, and
in 1850 San Francisco numbered 50,000 inhabitants. The production of
gold in California appears to have now arrived at its third period.
The miners have acquired a certain experience, their modes of working
are less primitive, and they are more settled. The want of order is
diminishing, and the average produce is increasing. The accounts from
San Francisco in April, 1852, mentioned “placers” in the valley of the
Sacramento, where a day’s working yielded from [82]fifteen to twenty
dollars, and others on the frontier of Oregon, where the average was
from [83]five to ten. On the frontier of Sonora the washings of the
auriferous clay yielded [84]seven to eight dollars a day with the
roughest description of work; all agreed that eight hours hard work
should produce everywhere from six to [85]eight dollars, if the plain
be rich; and as the miner could live on from [86]two to three dollars
a day, he might reckon on a gain of from [87]400 to 500 dollars during
the season. However, by the latest accounts, it would appear that the
“placers” are beginning to be exhausted. 100,000 miners turning over
continuously for three years the alluvial sands, (already successfully
explored by the first comers in 1848 and 1849,) could hardly fail to
extract everything of value. It remains now to explore the auriferous
quartz veins which may extend to the centre of the Sierra Nevada. This
new work, however, requires large capital, and extensive combinations.
The success of such operations has hitherto been but moderate.
The auriferous richness of the quartz rocks in California appears
sufficient to remunerate the speculator; and foreign capital is not
deficient at St. Francisco. Whence is it, then, that the quartz mines
have hitherto been but slightly attractive? It has arisen from the want
of the requisite and essential conditions for the progress of such
undertakings.
Property in “placers” or in mines is not yet sufficiently secure; it
is neither yet placed fully under the safeguard of law, nor is it
protected by police regulations. Anarchy still reigns in this new
country;--not only have the miners to defend their persons and their
acquisitions against the incursions from Indian tribes; not only are
crimes and offences common (lynch law maintaining a permitted existence
instead of laws and police); but every one appears to hold his property
by right of first comer: a miner chooses the spot he likes best; a
strong arm and a carbine, with a steady eye, are his title deeds. To
seize upon a rich “placer” from a miner too weak to resist, is called
in the slang of the district, to “jump a claim.” The President of the
United States himself, stated in his last message, that “The mineral
lands should remain free to every citizen;” and the Secretary of State
has added, “that the right of occupancy should be submitted only to
such laws as the miners themselves thought fit to make.”
The continuous flow of emigration, and the continuous working of the
gold districts, appear to indicate, that in spite of many reverses
and sufferings, the mass of emigrants consider the result as likely
to be profitable. Without approaching to the fabulous accounts of the
early adventurers, these results have certainly largely exceeded in
magnificence those of any former period in history; let us endeavour to
particularize some of them.
Mr. Butler King, in his report to the Secretary of State, in 1850,
after a careful examination of California, values the washings and
gold working of the two years, 1848 and 1849, at [88]40,000,000
dollars. The basis of this calculation, the first officially presented,
was a produce of 1000 dollars ([89]5350 francs) per miner, per annum.
According to Mr. Butler King, American emigration hardly began to
flow towards California until September, 1849; up to that period,
foreigners, principally from Mexico and Oregon, had reaped all the
profit of the washings. The _San Francisco Herald_ estimated, that at
the end of 1850, the gold produce of California, for the twenty-one
months between 1 April, 1849, and 31 December, 1850, at the sum of
68,587,591 dollars (nearly [90]367,000,000 francs). According to the
documents published in France by the Minister of Commerce, which appear
to have been derived from local statistics, the produce was rather less
than the above. From 1 April, 1849, to 31 March, 1851, in two years, it
was raised to [91]329,000,000 francs.
Monsieur Emilie Chevalier, who has just returned from a government
mission to Panama, in a report to the Minister for Foreign Affairs,
considers the result as having been much larger. The gold brought as
freight by steamers in 1850, he estimates at [92]50,306,525 dollars.
The author of the report adds, on the testimony of a person whom he
considers as competent to give a sound opinion, that the sums carried
by passengers are not less than three fourths of the amounts brought
as merchandize; and thus he arrives at the extraordinary figures of
88,000,000 dollars (more than [93]470,000,000 francs) for a single
year. At St. Francisco, where they are able to form probably a more
correct estimate on a subject so difficult to trace accurately,
they do not value the amount of gold carried by passengers at above
one-fourth the amount taken in freight. Even on this supposition there
will be a sum of 25,000,000 dollars, or above [94]133,000,000 francs
to be deducted; but it appears to me very doubtful, if the produce of
1850 exceeded this figure of [95]329,000,000 francs, according to the
French documents already referred to. We have more valuable documents
of another kind to rely upon, in the quantities of gold coined at the
United States’ Mint; the following are the official figures:--