New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1898-05-29
QUICKSILVER AND THE WAR.
WHY THE METAL HAS RISEN IN PRICE
IN THE LAST MONTH.


THE WORLD BUT THE UNITED STATES HAS
USED THE CALIFORNIA PRODUCT FOR
THE LAST FEW YEARS
Mercury or quicksilver. to use the more COM
mon mercantile term. has been rising in price.
lot rapidly but steadily. since the outbreak OF
hostilitics between this country and Spain. an"
Its rise Is due directly to the war, although In
. curious way. Spain produces more quick
silver than any other country In the world. Until
three or four years ago thousands of pounds
were annually imported from that country
into the United States. The next largest quick
silver yielding mines are in California and have
been worked for years. but while the metal
could be brought from Spain free Of duty the
California product was not able to compete
largely with the foreign Since the Wilson
tariff bill Of 1894 put a duty Of seven cents a
pound upon quicksilver "a rate unchanged by
the Dngiey tariD practically all importation
has ceased. and consumers have bought the
California mercury. Hence the apparent
strangeness Of the fact that although I'M
port no quicksilver from Spain. but produce our
own. nevertheless the war has sent UP the
price Of the article here just it has In Europe.
The tact Is that the American prices are
ruled entirely by foreign prices and are kept
at figures Just below the cost Of Importation
The great Spanish quicksilver mines at Alma
den are controlled by the Rothsctilds who are
said to have taken them some time ago as
curity for the Spanish bonds which they hold.
Since the beginning Of the war they have raised
the prsceA because Of the riots in Spain and
the generally unsettled conditions among the
laboring classes Now. the California mines are
also controlled BY one firm. the California
Quicksilver Agency-it does not like to be called
q "Undicatev' Immediately on an advance
In foreign prices this California agency, ruling
the American product raises its figures CORE
spondingiy. and consumers have no choice but 10
submit
RUlNOUS COMPETITION STOPPED.
1t u stated by competent authorities that one
central control Of the California mines was made
necessary by the fact that under the old regime
the competition among the different mine own
ers was runoua. and the business could not be
carried on at profit to anybody
Quicksilver. which II unique among metals In
being huid at ordinary temperatures. In put up
and shipped in TASKS, containing 76h pounds
each. The price now is 50 cents a pound or
$43 80 a flask when In quantities Of from
twenty-five TO a hundred TASKS. In larger lots,
Of over hundred TASKS II is $43 a flask This
Is about 81 higher than at the beginning Of
the war The respective quantities produced In
California and in Spain may be ascertaned from
O comparison Of the following figures: Last
year California produced &c 079 TASKS and In
1896 29.SG3 TASKS. Since practically all OF the
Spanish quicksilver goes to London, the figures
Of the imports there may be taken as about
the same the output OF the Spanish mines.
In the year which ended on October 81. 1897.
there had been sent to London from Spain 4G ST.
TASKS and in the corresponding ~ Rod Of 1896
1889 TASKS.
INEXHAUSTIBLE SPANISH MINES.
II will thus be seen that the Spanish mines
produce much more abundantly than those In
California They are apparently inexhaustible.
for they are supposed TO have been first worked
over two thousand FIVE hundred years ago. and
still reveal Rich masses of untouched ore in their
depth& They are situated near the town Of
Amaden or Almaden del Azogue Uhe mines OF
quicksilver). In the south central part Of Spain.
fifty-f1ve miles southwest OF the city of Ciudad
Real and about one hundred and fifty miles
northeast of Cadiz. According to Pliny. they
were worked in 700 Il. c.. and in his time sent
annually 10000 pounds OF cinnabar Uhe
Of mercury to Rome. The mines rave been
sxcavated to a depth OF nearly a thousand feet
below the surface. and the richness OF the ore
increases with each lower level
The ten successive floors levels upon which
the mines are worked are nearly hundred
feet apart Masonry and pillars Of the ore itself
are used supports for the roofs OF the levels.
For many centuries. and, indeed. until within
the last twenty-five or thirty years all the me
chanical appliances connected with the mining
at Almaden were Of the rudest and most print