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INCREASED USE OF

CHAP. XXIV.

gold and silver to other purposes than that ofcoin are necessarily of a general nature. Thesubject does not admit of any estimation ap-proaching to statistical accuracy, and whateverinferences may be drawn must depend rather oninquiries made at a subsequent period, than onany information that can be derived from theperiod to which they relate. Whoever has hadoccasion to inquire among refiners, gold-beaters,jewellers, or goldsmiths concerning the extent oftheir operations thirty or forty years ago, to saynothing of more remote dates, will have foundthe answers he obtains doubtful and contradictory,though the same persons can give accounts of itspresent state, which may inspire sufficient con-fidence in their accuracy to be made the basis ofsuch estimation as may be relied upon.

It is for that reason, that though we find itnecessary from the plan pursued to estimate inthe present chapter the proportion of gold andsilver applied to other purposes than coin inEurope between 1700 and 1810, yet we deferto a future part of the work the chief of thespecific grounds by which that estimate must bebe sustained. In the mean time the reader is re-ferred to Appendix , No. 5, where sufficient proofis exhibited of the increased use of gold andsilver for purposes of personal ornaments, and fordecorations and utensils. It is not without muchconsideration of all the circumstances which ac-