c.1818/9 : 1 Troy Ounce platina (ore @ Chocó) = S$ 0.14
April 1826 : 1 Troy Oz platina (ore @ Chocó) = S$ 0.676041 (Thlr. 0.9014)
Early 1821: 1 Troy Oz platina (ore @ Chocó) = S$ 0.41
c. December, 1825 : 1 Troy Oz platina (Colombia ore, mkt) = S$ 1.35
c. March, 1826 : 1 Troy Oz platina (Colombia ore, mkt) = S$ 1.08
c. May, 1826 : 1 Troy Oz Platinum (ingot, govt sale price) > S$ 6.49
April, 1826 : 1 Troy Oz platina (ore @ Chocó) = S$ 0.68
1826: An executive decree in April, 1826 cited the platina market price paid to owners @ 16 pesos per libra. Resrepo (ms, 1826) reported prices paid for platina between 16 -20 Pesos per libra.
For export, the export of ingots was authorized at 6 peso per onza. (It is not clear how much platinum was actually produced in Colombia. Recorded sales for 1827-8 suggest ore rather than ingots, however.)
The spot-price at Chocó for the same month (or March, 1826?) was assumed to be 10 pesos per libra by a German in Costa Rica; it is more likely to have been only $8.
circa January, 1826 : 1 Troy Oz platina (ore @ Chocó) = S$ 0.68
January, 1826: The German author had apparently arrived in the region by late 1818. A letter to Germany cites the Silver Piastre rate per Libra and indicates the ore price had risen at least five-fold (500%) in as many years.
The platina rate was then 10 Piastres (Silver Dollars) a five-fold rise since 1819 (c.1819: 2 Piastres = 3 Thaler Courant.) This platina price is not indicated as a peak or high, nor are any fluctuations during preceding years otherwise indicated.
Retail Platinum (refined, manufactured) prices reported by Breant (Paris) to von Humboldt (Berlin) support that hypothesis.
However, the (presumed) January 1826 price appears almost -50% lower than the official Colombian report of the same month, which cites a rate $16.-20. per libra. There's also no explication of local price volatility, nor any reference to European market prices (nor the general circumstance of smuggling-costs) over time; this may also be an arbitrary
monopolist's rate. If both sources are correct, a price collapse might be evident: extreme price volatility would imply a Chocó/Cartagena price collapse, possibly from August 1825 through the date of the merchant's letter.
Alternately, the German in San José may be reporting local prices in two different places at two different times. In normal circumstances, the platina price should be at least 25% higher in Costa Rica; Chocó Spot was probably $8. or less, logically.
"Five years ago when I first came here, a {Spanish Libra of} Platina cost $2 Spanish Dollars and now it costs $10 {Spanish} Dollars."
1826: 1 Thaler C.M. = S$ 0.75 ; Thlr 1.33 = S$ 1. ; 1 Thaler = S$ 0.66
April 1826: Major Colombian discovery announced publicly from an 1825 discovery. Local knowledge may have been antecedent by several months (January 1826?) to half a year.
In South America, the Peak Platina Price likely occurred ~4 months prior to December, 1825.
In St. Petersburg, the Peak Platina Price occurred around December, 1825.
In different parts of the world, reports of two very major producer discoveries (with near simultaneous local market price peaks) is very noteworthy and not likely mere coincidence.
July, 1826:
As reported in the USA, March 1827 (one year later):
A London stock market crisis gripped capital markets in December 1825: Bordo, Taylor & Williamson (2003) reject the theory of contagion from the Latin American bond market.
June, 1826: Colombian government intent to purify and sell Platinum at S$ 6./onza
April, 1826 : 1 Troy Oz Pt (intended rate) = S$ 6.49
Excerpt: p.139, THE SANTANDER REGIME IN GRAN COLOMBIA by DAVID BUSHNELL, WESTPORT, CONNECTICUT: GREENWOOD PRESS, PUBLISHERS
April 1826 : 1 Troy Oz platina (ore @ Chocó) = S$ 0.676041 (Thlr. 0.9014)
Early 1821: 1 Troy Oz platina (ore @ Chocó) = S$ 0.41
Late 1821 : 1 Troy Oz platina (ore @ Chocó) = S$ 0.54
c. December, 1825 : 1 Troy Oz platina (Colombia ore, mkt) = S$ 1.35
c. March, 1826 : 1 Troy Oz platina (Colombia ore, mkt) = S$ 1.08
c. May, 1826 : 1 Troy Oz Platinum (ingot, govt sale price) > S$ 6.49
April, 1826 : 1 Troy Oz platina (ore @ Chocó) = S$ 0.68
1826: An executive decree in April, 1826 cited the platina market price paid to owners @ 16 pesos per libra. Resrepo (ms, 1826) reported prices paid for platina between 16 -20 Pesos per libra.
For export, the export of ingots was authorized at 6 peso per onza. (It is not clear how much platinum was actually produced in Colombia. Recorded sales for 1827-8 suggest ore rather than ingots, however.)
The spot-price at Chocó for the same month (or March, 1826?) was assumed to be 10 pesos per libra by a German in Costa Rica; it is more likely to have been only $8.
circa January, 1826 : 1 Troy Oz platina (ore @ Chocó) = S$ 0.68
January, 1826: The German author had apparently arrived in the region by late 1818. A letter to Germany cites the Silver Piastre rate per Libra and indicates the ore price had risen at least five-fold (500%) in as many years.
The platina rate was then 10 Piastres (Silver Dollars) a five-fold rise since 1819 (c.1819: 2 Piastres = 3 Thaler Courant.) This platina price is not indicated as a peak or high, nor are any fluctuations during preceding years otherwise indicated.
Retail Platinum (refined, manufactured) prices reported by Breant (Paris) to von Humboldt (Berlin) support that hypothesis.
However, the (presumed) January 1826 price appears almost -50% lower than the official Colombian report of the same month, which cites a rate $16.-20. per libra. There's also no explication of local price volatility, nor any reference to European market prices (nor the general circumstance of smuggling-costs) over time; this may also be an arbitrary
monopolist's rate. If both sources are correct, a price collapse might be evident: extreme price volatility would imply a Chocó/Cartagena price collapse, possibly from August 1825 through the date of the merchant's letter.
Alternately, the German in San José may be reporting local prices in two different places at two different times. In normal circumstances, the platina price should be at least 25% higher in Costa Rica; Chocó Spot was probably $8. or less, logically.
"Five years ago when I first came here, a {Spanish Libra of} Platina cost $2 Spanish Dollars and now it costs $10 {Spanish} Dollars."
c.1818/9 : 1 Troy Ounce platina (ore @ Choco) = S$ 0.14
April, 1826 : 1 Troy Oz platina (ore @ Choco) = S$ 0.68
Citation: Columbus: amerikansiche Miscellen (1827) p.191826: 1 Thaler C.M. = S$ 0.75 ; Thlr 1.33 = S$ 1. ; 1 Thaler = S$ 0.66
In South America, the Peak Platina Price likely occurred ~4 months prior to December, 1825.
In St. Petersburg, the Peak Platina Price occurred around December, 1825.
In different parts of the world, reports of two very major producer discoveries (with near simultaneous local market price peaks) is very noteworthy and not likely mere coincidence.
July, 1826:
As reported in the USA, March 1827 (one year later):
A London stock market crisis gripped capital markets in December 1825: Bordo, Taylor & Williamson (2003) reject the theory of contagion from the Latin American bond market.
June, 1826: Colombian government intent to purify and sell Platinum at S$ 6./onza
April, 1826 : 1 Troy Oz Pt (intended rate) = S$ 6.49
Excerpt: p.139, THE SANTANDER REGIME IN GRAN COLOMBIA by DAVID BUSHNELL, WESTPORT, CONNECTICUT: GREENWOOD PRESS, PUBLISHERS
ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT
Probably the most ambitious and at the same time least workable of all mining projects were those that concerned the exploitation of platinum. In theory, the sale and export of platinum was a fiscal monopoly of the Colombian treasury, which had been set up by the Congress of Cuoita for the same reasons that led Colombia to preserve the colonial monopolies of salt and tobacco: the short-run need for added revenue. It was felt that platinum was ideally suited to this purpose since it was also a natural monopoly of Colombia. But little was produced for sale, and though platinum enjoyed a high price in Europe as a curiosity the foreign demand was easily met by smuggling the metal out to Jamaica. A domestic market would have been created if the laws passed by successive Congresses for issuing a platinum currency had ever been carried out, but this could not be done chiefly because of the difficulty of refining the metal in Colombia.
Francisco Antonio Zea's plan for the Bank of England to issue platinum coins in Great Britain had equally little effect. Colombians were slow to lose their enthusiasm, however, and the Congress of 1826 gave careful consideration to the proposal of an English promoter to establish a platinum refinery in Colombia and earn literally millions of pesos for the government both by coining the metal in Colombia and by selling it abroad in bars. A law to authorize the program was duly passed, requiring the concessionaires to raise the operating capital themselves and also to train young Colombians in the process of platinum refining, presumably so that foreign assistance - could be dispensed with when the agreement expired. The following February a formal contract was signed with English interests, but apparently nothing else was accomplished.
Five-month news delay, after 7.5 years. A German emigrant wrote home in 1826.
Where 1 Thaler C.M. = 6 Real, S$ 1. = Thlr. 1.33
:
Write a Göttingers alarm clocks in his Keimath . *)San Jose, Costa Rica, 10 Gr . north latitude, April 7 1826
Dear parents and siblings !
A larger and more unexpected than the joy was, as I received your letter of October 30, 1825 , I have not had any since I left Europe - the only letter from you for almost eight years , dated October 1, 1825 with copies of any letters which Sit have written to me since my absence - I was happy to part you are all well and healthy and in better condition as it was when I left Europe, a match I can also report from me : I am well, healthy, and since 24 November married to the daughter of the port captain, Gonzalez Otona, in Panta*) - After a lot of walking and traveling, I now think the province of Costa Rica, where San Jose is the capital, to choose my abode ; here, San Jose is best place to settle . This is undoubtedly the most beautiful, fertile , prolific but poorest country I have ever seen , the richest because of the fertility of the soil and of the precious metals, and the poorest because of the few trade and commerce with other nations. There are here two to three harvests a year, usually only two, because one deosn't need more. - The richest gold mines in the world , I think , are here, and feed little or not processed. Since then, the Spanish have lost South America, I'm one of the first foreigners having come here, but now come hither also some English. Food here is almost as cheap as in Germany. Laborers don't earn much here, as in Gottingen (at Guäyaquil, a day laborer earns 3 Gulden daily. But that is a great trading city, and 200 German meiles/1800 kms south of here) Sugar, one of the principal products of our province, costs approximately 6 Reales per Arroba (25 Libras: 11.545 Kgs) say 1 Thaler. Conv. Coin. Brown sugar, similar to the brown Brazilian, cost of quintal (46.18 Kgs) 12 Reales - Very good coffee is now grown here, and it costs 0.5 - 0.67 Reales (Libra?) - Cacao is of particular quality...
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