THE WEALTH OK NATIONS.

205

The great experience of this judicious merchant renders hisopinion of considerable weight.

According to the eloquent, and, sometimes, well informedAuthor of the Philosophical and Political History of theEstablishments of the Europeans in the two Indies, the an-nual importation of registered gold and silver into Spain , atan average of eleven years; viz. from 1754 to 1764, bothinclusive, amounted to 13,984,185§- piastres of ten reals.On account of what may have been smuggled, however, thewhole annual importation, he supposes, may have amountedto seventeen millions of piastres; which, at 4 a'. Gd. the piastre,is equal to 3,825,000/. sterling. He gives the detail too ofthe particular places from which the gold and silver werebrought, and of the particular quantities of each metal which,according to the register, each of them afforded. He informsus too, that if we were to judge of the quantity of gold an-nually imported from the Brazils into Lisbon by the amountot the tax paid to the king of Portugal , which it seems isone-fifth ot the standard metal, we might value it at eighteenmillions of cruzadoes, or forty-five millions of French livres,equal to about two millions sterling. On account of whatmay have been smuggled, however, we may safely, he says,add to this sum an eighth more, or 250,000/. sterling, so thatthe whole will amount to 2,250,000/. sterling. Accordingto this account, therefore, the whole annual importation ofthe precious metals into both Spain and Portugal , amountsto about 6,075,000/. sterling.

Several other very well authenticated, though manuscript,accounts, I have been assured, agree in making this wholeannual importation amount at an average to about six millionssterling; sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less.

The annual importation of the precious metals into Cadiz and Lisbon , indeed, is not equal to the whole annual produceof the mines of America . Some part is sent annually by theAcapulco ships, to Manilla; some part is employed in thecontraband trade which the Spanish colonies carry on withthose ot other European nations; and some part, no doubt,remains in the country. The mines of America , besides, areby no means the only gold and silver mines in the world.They are, however, by far the most abundant. The produceof all the other mines which are known, is insignificant, it isacknowledged, in comparison with theirs; and the far greaterpart of their produce, it is likewise acknowledged, is annually