358

ADDITION TO GOLD AND SILVER C HAP. XIV.

CHAPTER XIV.

On the produce of the mines and on the state of the coinageabout the time of the discovery of America .

From the few and indistinct notices of themines from 806 to the discovery of Americawhichare collected in chap. x. vol. 1., it is scarcelypossible to do more than form a conjecture con-cerning the amount of their produce. Thewhole period was a time of hostility and tur-bulence. There was little security for any kindof property, and less still for that which couldalone induce the working of mines for silver andgold. None of the mines that are noticed wereuninterruptedly wrought, and few of them wereworked simultaneously. Some were most pro-ductive at one period, and then yielded nothingfor centuries; whilst others were discovered andexplored and speedily abandoned. The art ofseparating the precious metals from the oresand from the inferior metals with which theywere mingled had been lost since the time ofthe Roman operations, and were recovered bythe same slow and gradual steps by which the