Ch. 1: Gold and Silver in 1882

Page of 38

Text size:



	184 MINERAL RESOURCES. Production of gold and silver in the United States to June 30, 1883.



	Up to June 30, 1883, the aggregate production of gold in the United States may be stated at $1,632,304,670, and of silver $598,083,217, making a grand total of $2,230,447,887. Eeduced to the equivalent weights, the total gold output has been 78,965,572 troy ounces, or 2,707.4 avoirdupois net tons. The total for silver represents 462,590,469 troy ounces, or 15,860 tons. It will perhaps convey little meaning to say that the grand total is in excess of the national debt; but a better conception of the vastness of the amount may be had by considering that all the gold produced in the country to the present time, if brought together, would suffice to load 271 ordinary freight cars; the silver, supposed in the same way to be collected together as fine bullion, would require 1,586 cars for its transportation. The gold would tax the carrying capacity of a large ocean steamship; while the silver would suffice to form cargoes for a small fleet. Present status of the industry.—From the foregoing figures the general deduction may be drawn that the annual precious-metal output of the United States during recent years may be stated at between $70,000,000 and $80,000,000, coining value, and that the fluctuations in the proportional amounts of gold and silver are greater than those of the total product. It is also safe to assume that this rate of production will be maintained for some time to come, and that the probability of a slight increase is greater than that of a decline. Experience has shown that as old districts become exhausted, or fall off in their rate of production, new localities are developed which fully take their place, and that the general result is therefore nearly uniform as compared year by year. By the time the country has been thoroughly explored for gold and silver deposits, a time which may be considered as indefinitely remote, the facilities for mining and working the ores will undoubtedly be such as to enable systematic and permanent development to be maintained in places and with ores which at present could not be profitable. The production of the precious metals appears to be the sole industry which is at all independent of changes in the relation between supply and demand, unless,

Page of 38