There are no industries in the country worthy of mention except _aguardiente_ manufacture which is a government monopoly. The sugar cane growers enter into a contract with the government to furnish a stipulated amount of this brandy each month, and it is then sold by the government to the regularly licensed dealers at a fixed price. A large part of the revenue of the republic is derived from this source as many hundred thousand gallons are consumed each year. A cheap grade of “Panama” hat is also manufactured in one province which is exported to the neighbouring republics and the United States.
Nearly the whole of the republic, except the lowlands, is mineralized. Old workings among the gold-bearing formations show that the aboriginal tribes understood the art of separating the gold from quartz. Documents deposited in the archives of Tegucigalpa show that the Spaniards found the mines of Honduras very profitable, and the king’s tithe no doubt aided in building real castles in Spain. The Spaniards were good prospectors but poor workers, for they did their work in the most primitive way. Their work was mostly done by slave labour so that this was an inexpensive item to them. Any of the natives could be drafted into this work upon the initiative of the government. They were seldom carried to any great depth, so that there are hundreds of mines scattered over the country to-day which are abandoned and filled with water. They cannot be operated successfully until roads are constructed over which machinery can be transported.
The chief mining district is not far from the capital city. The Rosario Mining Company is the most successful and best-known company and has been placed on a profitable basis. Silver ores are the most abundant but gold has been washed on the rivers of Olancho for many years in small quantities. Silver is generally in combination with lead, iron, copper or antimony. There are some valuable copper deposits in some places containing eighty per cent of pure copper. Iron ores are common, zinc occurs, but coal has been found only in very small quantities. Opals have been found in considerable numbers and many of them are large and beautiful. About one million dollars’ worth of the various minerals have been mined annually in recent years.