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Ch. 1: Gold and Silver in 1882

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GOLD AND SILVER.
181
$5,000,000 or even $10,000,000 for a single given year, it would be a useless over-reflnement to attempt now to correct the accepted figures by adding the insignificant amounts produced at that time in the South­ern States.
Prof. W. P. Blake has carried the figures through the second natural time division (that is, the period during which California and Oregon may be considered to have been practically the sole producers) and up to the close of 1863, or somewhat beyond the proper limits of this epoch. The Comstock lode was discovered in 1859, began production in 1860, and by 1863 had made its influence largely felt. In 1863, prospectors were scouring Nevada, Idaho, and Washington Territory; and a con­siderable production began to come from other sources than California, Oregon, and the Comstock lode. Professor Blake's estimate of the actual gold exports from San Francisco, which has formed the basis for the figures now accepted, is as follows:
Declared exports of gold from San Francisco from 1848 to 18C3, 'inclusive, with estimates of the actual movement, Hy Prof. W. P. Blake.
These figures do not show any silver production; in fact, silver min­ing in the United States may be said to have only begun in 1860. The value of the silver contents of the gold, however, has been added in the compilations which are now generally accepted; and though the computation has been made in a very rough way, the value of the silver was so small as compared with that of the gold that a revision seems hardly necessary.
Various authorities have been quoted for the period up to the time when a United States mining commissioner was appointed, and when Mr. Valentine began the publication of his estimates based upon the express returns. Mr. J. Boss Browne, in his reports as commissioner (1866 and 1867), gave the then accepted figures, which, however, were undoubtedly overestimated, and they have since been materially re­duced. Dr. B. W. Raymond, mining commissioner from 1868 to 1875
Ch. 1: Gold and Silver in 1882 Page of 38 Ch. 1: Gold and Silver in 1882
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