CHAP. XVIII.
69
c °me a more settled people than in the formercenturies. Their government, which had beensuffered to rest after the annoyances of the cru-sades, assumed more magnificence, and allowed tothe people more leisure to follow profitable pur-suits. Their exports drew from western Europe uunual supplies of gold and silver, and the sultanan d his great officers accumulated in their palacessome portions of these metals, and applied themto ornamental or useful domestic purposes. Fromthe compendious nature of the metals, and fromthe suspicious character of the government, it isprobable that a large portion, in comparison withthe whole quantity in Turkey , must have existedin that form rather than in coin.
There is no evidence that any part of the pro-duce of the precious metals from the Americanftfines had passed direct from that continent toAsia during the sixteenth century. Whateversupply Asia received beyond the products of itsown mines must have been derived from Europe hy its commerce, and it is well known that whatPassed either by the Cape to India and China , orb y the Levant to Turkey, Persia, and Arabia , borebut a small proportion to the whole quantity which
In the absence of any precise facts, and withbut little confidence in an approximation to accu-rac y, we may venture to suppose that the preciousPetals which passed from Europe to Asia in the