ISO

WATCHES AND ORNAMENTS.

CHAP. XXt.

suppose that one-tenth of the inhabitants had asilver watch, and one-hundredth part a gold watch,with cases weighing two ounces, the whole wouldamount to near twenty millions sterling. Thesupposition is made without any assumption of itscorrectness, and merely to show the prodigiousextent and consequent consumption of an articlewhen from the decline in its value it descends tothe most numerous classes of society.

In the preceding century, the silver or thegold which formed the hilts of the knights’swords, or the spurs fixed on their heels todenote their rank or their valour, the embroideryon the cloaks of the magistrates, the jewels on thehabiliments of kings, nobles, and high-born dames,might give splendour to the tournaments andattract the notice of the chronicler or historian;but the value of such decorations would amountbut to a most insignificant trifle when comparedwith the whole of those smaller portions of goldand silver possessed by the many millions in theranks below them, who in the century that fol-lowed began to assume their just station in society.

Under consideration of all the changes in thecircumstances of European society, it seems fairto conclude that the proportion of the preciousmetals in the seventeenth century which wasapplied to other purposes than making moneyhad much increased beyond that proportion whichit bore in the sixteenth century, and which hasbeen estimated in this inquiry as one-tenth. It