238

MINING IN THE

CHAP. X.

Turkey.

to a metallic value; but in the period underconsideration, though diligence has not beenrestricted to a slight search, no such notices ofprices have been found as can be entitled toany confidence. In that respect those centuriesmay be emphatically denominated the dark ages.

It may however be inferred, and that withoutany great presumption, that the decline in priceshad been gradual during the whole course ofcenturies, because in the following ages, whennotices of prices do occur, as will be hereaftershown, they had fallen so excessively that no-thing but a very slow and gradual depression, andthat of universal extent, could have preventedtheir being remarked as a most extraordinaryphenomenon.

Before we proceed to take a view of the miningoperations at the period when, after a long ces-sation, they were again resumed in several ofthe countries of Europe , we must premise thatthe information which can be obtained is neitherprecise nor statistical. Diligence may inquirewithout obtaining satisfactory answers, and itmust suffice to produce such answers to thepublic as can be obtained, which, even whencondensed into a narrow compass, may, at leastit is so apprehended in the present case, appearto the readers to be prolix and perhaps tiresome.

Before examining the state of the mining inthe other parts of Europe , we may properly ad-