Note XXXIII-24 — Chapter XXXIII · COMMERCE AND FINANCE. 1801-1887.
Reading edition
1850-5 were years of brisk business for the Isthmus. Gold circulated so abundantly that few did not handle gold coin. Provisions ruled high. Silver was so scarce that in 1850 a five-dollar gold piece could buy only 40 dimes. Americans said that Panamá was a better place for business than S. F. Maldonado, Anales Polít. Pan., MS., 7.