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USE OF GOLD AND SILVER, chap. XXIV.

kingdoms of Denmark and Sweden . The in-habitants of all those countries, however it may-have been with the governments, increased inmaterial wealth ; and we may fairly infer that ina similar manner they must have increased in theapplication of that wealth to purposes of luxury,of show, of splendour, or of such gratifications ofan ornamental kind as best coincided with theirrespective tastes. The use of gold and silvermust therefore among them have become moreextended ; and as it descended from the higherranks to the more numerous bodies of which theranks below them consisted must have caused anincreased consumption in that way.

The progressive steps in luxury are much moretraceable by us in England than in foreign coun-tries. We shall therefore take no farther noticeof Holland, of the Netherlands, of the Hanse towns,or the independent republics of Italy , than toobserve that their progress in wealth and luxury,though checked by occasional interruptions, con-tinued generally through the whole of the century,and the application of the precious metals to thelatter purpose must have been nearly in the sameproportion.

In the reign of Queen Anne there seems, fromthe accounts preserved at Goldsmiths’ Hall, tohave been a very sudden increase in the manu-facture of plate. It may be difficult to accountfor the fact, but perhaps the rich services pre-