204

THK NATURE AND CAUSES OF

nual supply. The consumption of those metals in some par-ticular manufactures, though it may not perhaps be greaterupon the whole than this gradual consumption, is, however,much more sensible, as it is much more rapid. In the ma-nufactures of Birmingham alone, the quantity of gold andsilver annually employed in gilding and plating, and therebydisqualified from ever afterward appearing in the shape ofthose metals, is said to amount to more than fifty thousandpounds sterling. We may from thence form some notionhow great must be the annual consumption in all the differ-ent parts of the world, either in manufactures of the samekind with those of Birmingham , or in laces, embroideries,gold and silver stuffs, the gilding of books, furniture, &c. Aconsiderable quantity too must be annually lost in transport-ing those metals from one place to another both by sea andby land. In the greater part of the governments of Asia ,besides, the almost universal custom of concealing treasuresin the bowels of the earth, of which the knowledge frequentlydies with the person who makes the concealment, must oc-casion the loss of a still greater quantity.

The quantity of gold and silver imported at both Cadiz and Lisbon (including not only what comes under register,but what may be supposed to be smuggled) amounts, accord-ing to the best accounts, to about six millions sterling a year.

According to Mr. Meggens* the annual importation of theprecious metals into Spain , at an average of six years ; viz.from 1748 to 1753, both inclusive; and into Portugal , at anaverage of seven years ; viz. from 1747 to 1753, both inclu-sive; amounted in silver to 1,101,107 pounds weight; andin gold to 49,940 pounds weight. The silver at sixty-twoshillings the pound Troy, amounts to 3,413,431/. 10 j. ster-ling. The gold, at forty-four guineas and a half the poundTroy, amounts to 2,333,446/. 14s. sterling. Both togetheramount to 5,746,878/. 4s. sterling. The account of whatwas imported under register, he assures us, is exact. Hegives us the detail of the particular places from which thegold and silver were brought, and of the particular quantityof each metal, which, according to the register, each of themAfforded. He makes an allowance too for the quantity ofeach metal which he supposes may have been smuggled.

Postscript to the Universal Merchant, p. 15 and Id* This postscript was not printedtill 1756, three years after the publication of the book, which has never had a second edi-tion. The postscript is, therefore, to-be found in few copies; it corrects several errors inthe hook>