62
CHAP. XVIII.
has been already calculated at about fifty millionssterling, we may venture to consider the annualsupply on the average of the period to have nearlyapproached to ten millions of piastres or dollars,or about two millions one hundredthousand poundssterling. This is so near to what Humboldt hasreckoned it, that there seems no necessity for en-tering farther into the causes of the variation.
The miners in Europe were excited by thesuccessful operations in America to greater exer-tions, especially those in the Pyrenees , and inseveral parts of Languedoc, and it may be con-cluded from various representations that theannual supply from the ancient continent hadamounted to about one hundred and fifty thou-sand pounds.
We thus assume that the aggregate additions offifty-four years were at the annual rate of twomillions two hundred and fifty thousand poundssterling, or that in the whole term the amount ofone hundred and twenty-one millions had beenproduced, to which the fifty millions before inexistence being added, would give as the quantityin the year 1600 about one hundred and fiftymillions.
The process of consumption would, however,be going on, and operate on the whole amount.There seems no reason in estimating the gradualdiminution in this period at a different rate fromwhat has been before assumed. We continue,