marcs, 5 gross, 35.15 grains old French weight. The tin furnished by all Europe, weighs only three times as much, as the quantity of silver annually extracted from the mines of America. It may be seen also from the preceding table, that it is erroneous to attribute to Brasil the greatest part of the gold with which the Old Continent is supplied by the New. The Spanish Colonies supply nearly 45,000 marcs of gold, while only 30,000 are extracted from the alluvious grounds of Brasil. If the government of Santa Fe de Bogota begin seriously to turn their attention to the population and agriculture of Choco, the extraction of gold in New Grenada, will in a very few years rival that of Brasil. The author of the immortal work on the Wealth of Nations,* values the quantity of gold and silver annually imported into Cadiz and Lisbon, at only six millions of pounds sterling, including not only the registered gold, but also what may be supposed to be smuggled. This estimate is too small by two fifths.

Bringing together the results which we have just obtained for the New World, with

* According to Meggens (Postscriptum du Negociant Universel, 1756, p. 15) the importation into Spain and Portugal was from 1747 to 1753 at an average 5,746,000 pounds Sterling.

those which are the fruit of the laborious researches of M. Heron de Villefosse and M. Georgi*, we find the following data:

*Geo. phys. Beschreibung des Russischen Reichs, 1797, Th. 6. p. 368. M. Georgi's valuation is for the year 1796. The produce of the mines of Koliwan has doubled, and that of the mines of Nertschink has diminished more than a third between 1784 and 1794.

In this table the gold is valued at 3444 francs 44 centimes, and the silver at 222 francs 22 centimes per kilogramme. It indicates the quantity of the precious metals which annually enters into circulation among the civilized nations of Europe. It is impossible to value the mass of gold and silver at present worked on the whole surface of the globe; for we are absolutely ignorant of what is produced in the interior of Africa, in Central Asia, Tonquin, China, and Japan. The trade in gold dust, carried on on the eastern and western coasts of Africa, and the information derived by us from the antients respecting the countries with which we have no longer any communication, might lead us to suppose that the countries to the south of the Niger are very rich in precious metals. We may make the same supposition respecting the high chain of mountains, extending to the north-east of the Paropamisus, towards the frontiers of China. The quantity of ingots of gold and silver formerly exported by the Dutch from Japan, proves, that themines of Sado, Sourouma, Bingo, and Kinsima, are equal in wealth, to several of the mines of America.

Of the 78,000 marcs of gold, and 3,550,000 marcs of silver, French weight, annually extracted since the end of the 18th century,

from all the mines of America, Europe, and Northern Asia, America alone, furnishes 70,000 marcs of gold, and 3,250,000 marcs of silver, and consequently of the total produce of gold, and of the total produce of silver. The relative abundance of the two metals, differ therefore very little in the two continents. The quantity of gold drawn from the mines of America, is to that of silver, as 1 to 46; and in Europe, including Asiatic Russia, the proportion is as 1 to 40.

These results may serve to throw some light on the great problem of political economy, examined by Mr. Smith, in the eleventh chapter of the first book of his work, where he treats of the causes of the fluctuation between the relative value of the precious metals. This celebrated author supposes, that for every ounce of gold, there are more than 22 ounces of silver imported into Europe; and if this supposition was correct, the Old Continent ought to receive from the New, only 1,554,000 marcs of silver, instead of 3,250,000 which it really receives. However, the greater the abundance of gold in proportion to silver, the more we must be inclined to admit with Mr. Smith, that the proportion between the respective values of the two metals does not alone depend on the quantity in the market. Since the discovery of America, to the