the end of the sixteenth century from ten to twelve millions of piastres annually entered Spain by the mouth of the Guadalquivir. The estimates in round numbers of thousands of millions, far from being entitled to be considered as the fruits of accurate research, are merely the result of an approximate calculalation. Hence every author has thought himentitled to fix on different quantities.

Solorzano affirms on the authority of Davila that Spain received from America, from its discovery in 1492 to 1628, fifteen hundred millions of registered piastres, a sum which differs nearly by one half from that adopted by Ustariz. On the other hand we find in the political treatise of Navarete †, that between 1519 and 1617 according to registers there was imported 1536 millions. 1536 millions. According to this valuation we attribute to the period of 98 years, a smaller sum of piastres than what Solorzano and Davila, admit for the period of 136 years, which is a contradiction SO much the greater as the one of these periods composes a part of the other.

Raynal in the first editions of his celebrated work on the settlements in the Indies es

* De Indiarum Jure, T. II. p. 846. Hist. magna Matritensis, p. 472.

De la conservacion de las Monarquias, Disc. XXI. Compare the changes made in Liv. viii. § xlii.; Liv. x. § liv.

timated the gold and silver imported from America into Europe, since the discovery of the New World at nine thousand millions of piastres; but in 1780 he reduced this sum to five thousand millions. He supposes that the annual importation of registered gold and silver into Spain on an average of eleven years from 1754 to 1764 only amounted to 13,984,185 piastres, while we know from the registers preserved in the mint of Mexico, that at that very period New Spain alone produced annually nearly twelve millions of piastres. I cannot conceive how an author full of sagacity and generally well informed, can have allowed himself to form such erroneous notions respecting the commerce in the precious metals. Raynal gives tables apparently the result of very extensive labour; he estimates separately the quantities of gold and silver from each part of the colonies; and notwithstanding this apparent accuracy, a great number of these calculations rest on very far from solid foundations. He affirms that Spain drew from 1780, every year from the continent of America, 89,095,052 livres in gold and silver, or 16,970,484 piastres; because from an average year taken during the period from 1748 to 1758 there was imported:

Hist. Philosophique, Geneva Ed., 1780, T. II. p. 339.

It is surprisiong to see Raynal confound the produce of 1750 with that of 1780 for during that space of thirty years, the exportation of silver from Mexico had increased more than a fourth, and the mines of South America far from being exhausted were become more abundant. In 1780 there was coined at the mint of Mexico, alone, the sum of 17,514,263 piastres; while the Abbe Raynal estimates the total produce of the mines of Spanish America, at only eighteen millions. He ought to have known from the testimony of a statesman, thoroughly informed respecting the commerce of Spain, that in 1775 the total produce had already risen to 30 millions of piastres, or to 157,500,000 livres tournois per

annum.

*Campomanes, Discurso sobre la Educacion popular de los artizanos, Vol. ii. p. 331.

With respect to the quantity of precious metals received by Spain from her colonies, since the discovery of America, Raynal fixes it at 25,570,279,924 liv., or 4,870,529,509 piastres. This calculation, which would inspire more confidence if the sums were expressed in round numbers, is sufficiently accurate; and it proves that even in setting out from the falsest data, we may sometimes by fortunate computations, arrive at results very near the truth.

Adam Smith, in his classical work on the causes of the wealth of nations* estimates the silver exported from the New Continent into Cadiz and Lisbon, at six millions sterling, or 26 millions of piastres per annum; but this estimate was too small by two fifths even in his time, in 1775. The English author followed the calculations of Meggens, according to whom during 1748 and 1753, Spain and Portugal received annually, at an average, in registered precious metals £5,746,000 sterling, or 25,337,000 piastres. Reckoning four millions for the importation of gold from Brazil, we find according to Meggins, 21 millions of piastres for the Spanish Colonies alone, and consequently three millions more than Raynal allows for the year 1780. Mr. Garnier, the learned commentator on

Book I. Chap. I.

Smith*, who has displayed the greatest accuracy in his researches, estimates the produce of the gold and silver mines of Spanish America, in 1802 at 159 millions of livres tournois, or 30,285,000 piastres; a sum which approaches nearer to the truth than all the calculations to be found in other works of Political Economy.

Robertson in the History of America, values the amount of the precious metals imported into Spain, between. 1492 and 1775 at the enormous sum of two thousand millions sterling, or 8800 millions of piastres; and what is more singular, this justly celebrated author considers his calculation as founded on very moderate suppositions, though he estimates the annual produce of the mines during 283 consecutive years, at four millions sterling, and the amount of the contraband during that period at 968 millions †. When we compare these data with those of the work of Ustariz, we observe that the sums of the Spanish author are lower by one half.

In the Recherches sur le Commerce, published at Amsterdam in 1778 the amount of gold and silver exported from Spanish

*T. V. p. 137.

+ History of America, Vol. iv. p. 62.

Liv. i. chap. x. (T. i. P. ii. p. 124.)