CHAP. XXI.

INCREASE OE WEALTH.

141

towns were chiefly constructed of stone or bricks,were covered with slate or tiles, and floored withtimber.

The fine arts had made considerable progress inthe preceding century, as well as in that underreview, and the statues, but especially the paintings,had acquired a great value. The great masters ofItaly, of Flanders, of Spain, of Holland , and evenof England and France , had produced works whichwere high in price, and which may be added tothe list of general commodities, and like the otherswould require the use of money to exchange anddistribute them.

The trade which had been created in the pre-ceding century by opening an intercourse withIndia by sea, and by the discovery of America , hadchanged the small and ill-equipped vessels fittedonly to perform coasting-voyages for large, well-built, and costly ships, appropriately constructed forthe long and perilous passage beyond the Cape ofGood Hope, to the eastern shores of America , andin some cases to the more remote parts of thatcontinent beyond Cape Horn .

It would perhaps be presumption to attemptto estimate the amount of increase in the mass ofcommodities during this hundred years; but ifthe number of inhabitants in England had beenincreased from three million eight hundred thou-sand to five million five hundred thousand, and

in this latter number each class had increased