Spanish mining law in the American West: the Ordenanzas de Minería of 1783 translated for United States courts, 1851-1859

After 1848 the United States acquired territory whose mines and land titles had been governed by Spanish and Mexican law, and American lawyers put that law into English so their own courts could apply it. Two compilations printed in New York in 1851 and San Francisco in 1859 carry the mining ordinances of New Spain of 1783 - crown ownership, grant to any subject of whatever rank, forfeiture for failing to work - along with the coerced Indian labour written into the same code.