Note 53 — Grau y Monfalcon’s Informatory Memorial of 1637 (continued 2)

See Cíeza de Leon’s account of the mines of Potosi, in his Chronicle of Peru (Markham’s translation, Hakluyt Society’s publications, London, 1864), pp. 386–392. He says that he himself saw (1549) the amount of the royal fifths, 25,000 to 40,000 pesos each week; and that these for the years 1548–51 amounted to more than 3,000,000 ducados. Cf. Acosta’s description, in his History of the Indies (Hakluyt Society’s publications, London, 1880), i, pp. 197–209; he reckons the fifths as 1,500,000 pesos (of 13¼ reals each) yearly. Both writers state that much of the silver was never reported to the royal officials.

Humboldt makes the statement (New Spain, Black’s translation, iii, p. 372) regarding the yield of Potosi from 1624 to 1634, that it was 5,232,425 piastres (or pesos; of eight reals each)—as translated, “average years,” which presumably is intended for “yearly average.”