CIIAP. XIV.
IN THE HARK AGES.
359
ancients had proceeded. As the mines wereworked in countries very remote from eachother, the improvements, either in the mechanicalor scientific process would not be speedily dif-fused, and though some might advance rapidly,others would do so at a slower pace.
Under the circumstances of the period inquestion, extending from about the year 800 to1500, it seems scarcely possible to come to anyother conclusion than that the mines of the pre-cious metals on the ancient continent producedfar less on the average of the seven centuriesthan those same mines had done in the centuryclosing in 1800.
The average product of the mines of Europe ,including those of the Russian dominions inAsia , did not in the last twenty years of theeighteenth century amount to more gold thanequal in value to two hundred thousand poundssterling, and silver equal to six hundred thou-sand pounds 1 . Of this gold, more than onehalf was yielded by the mines of Russia , whichafforded none before the year 1704. Of the re-mainder, the greater portion was extracted fromthe Austrian dominions, and the remainder in