loan a lease of the Almaden mines for a term of thirty years.

These mines are said to be the greatest quicksilver mines in the world,
and yield an immense profit.

The Rothschilds worked the mines and realized their profits, the Spanish
Government receiving a royalty of so much money for each flask of
quicksilver sold.

This royalty, in the twenty-six years the bankers have been working the
mines, has amounted to thirty-six millions of dollars.

The contract with the Spanish Government expires in 1900, and so when
Spain needed money for the Cuban war and applied to the Rothschilds for
it, the bankers were very willing to lend it, asking in return that
their lease of the mines be extended for another term of twenty years.

This, Spain was unwilling to do.

She had been informed by her engineers that if she could get the control
of the mines into her own hands, she could realize a yearly income from
them of $6,000,000.

The Government therefore decided that the lease could not be granted,
and the Rothschilds on their part said that they could not accommodate
Spain with the required money, and so the last loan for the Cuban war
had to be obtained from other sources.

Spain is again in need of money. If she decides to grant a new lease of
the mines she can obtain it readily.