CHAP. XXIV.

TRADE WITH INDIA.

193

and eighty millions. The mode in which thisamount has been dispersed and disposed of be-comes now the subject of examination. The ex-portation of the precious metals, chiefly of silver,has in a former period been estimated for India itnd China at one-fifth of the whole produce whichthe mines of America had yielded. The tradewith India was then in its infancy. It was at firstin the hands of the Portuguese, but the Dutch soon became participators in it. The English and French companies had indeed existed, andcarried on some trade, but with little success,and to a contracted extent. The union of thetwo English companies in the beginning of thiscentury gave stability and extension to thecommerce, which advanced slowly at first, buttowards the latter end of it had increased so asto exceed that of all the other European statestogether.

The use of tea, which increased and descendedgradually from the highest classes in England tillit became almost a necessary of life to the verypoorest, had caused a demand for silver for thetrade of China , which could not have been suppliedwithout that vast addition to the store which themines of America administered with increasingliberality. This commodity was so extended inthis country that its consumption had been in.creased one hundred fold during the century,and even in the thirty years between I78O and

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