262
BRASIL.
CHAP. XXV.
sixty thousand cruzados 1 . There are two kindsof cruzados, one the old of four hundred rees, theother the new of four hundred and eighty rees.Taking the medium of these, or that the cruzadosare one eighth part of a pound sterling, theamount of the quinto, or duty of a fifth, would beforty-five thousand pounds, and the gross producefive times as much, or two hundred and fivethousand pounds. We are disposed to think thatthis was near the average production of the periodunder consideration, from the coincidence to befound in the casual remarks of other travellers;thus Koster, an Englishman, who resided in thenorth of Brasil , states the amount of the goldas two hundred thousand pounds. Major vonSchaffer, who visited the mining provinces ofBrasil in 1822 , asserts that no more than twenty-four arobas of gold were delivered in to thesmelting house at Villa Rica, in Minas Geras,in the preceding year 2 . This would make thedecline in ten years to be from two hundred andfive thousand to thirty-five thousand pounds.
There was probably a decline after the year