200
USE OF GOLD AND SILVER, chap. xxiv.
use of plate was the consequence of this temperateadvancement in prosperity and refinement. It isasserted by Necker, that the increase of plate, asascertained from the mint of Paris , between theyears 1709 and 1759, was in the proportion ofseven to one.
According to the “ Statistique general et par-ticulitre de la France published by Herbin, in1803, the amount of the silver and gold consumedin France by the goldsmiths and jewellers was tenmillions of francs, beyond that which was obtainedby the melting of old vessels and old trinkets, andby burning the old lace and silks h This, whichmay be called eight hundred and fifty thousandpounds sterling, rests on the authority of M.Necker, whose work is referred to by the “ Societede Gens de Lettres et de Savans 1 2 ,” who compiledthe work of which Herbin was the editor. At thetime that work was published, the use of thosemetals had risen to near the same standard as be-fore the revolution, when Necker wrote, but duringthat miserable period there had been an astonishingdecline in that branch of industry. “ There werevery extensive fabrics of gold and silver articlesat Lyons, Bordeaux, Marseilles, Strasbourg , andsome other places; but the events of the revolu-tion, the want of internal consumption, and the