Note IV'-50 — Chapter IV · OBSERVATIONS ON NEW SPAIN.[IV'-1] (continued 2)

Humboldt, in his Personal Narrative, etc., p. xxii of the Philada. ed. of 1815, takes express exception to these statistics, in the following terms: "The numerous statistical data, which Mr. Pike has collected in a country of the language of which he was ignorant, are for the greater part very inaccurate. According to this author the mint of Mexico coins every year 50 millions of piastres in silver, and 14 millions in gold; while it is proved by the tables annually printed by order of the Court, and published in the Political Essay [of Humboldt and Bonpland], that, the year in which the produce of the mines was the most abundant, the coinage amounted only to 25,806,074 piastres in silver, and to 1,359,814 piastres in gold."