268

WHOLE PRODUCT

CHAP. XXV.

last twenty years has scarcely exceeded three mil-lions 1 .

Within the last sixteen years there has been agreat increase in the produce of gold and silverfrom the Russian mines. These are, indeed, inAsia , but as their supply is brought to the mint inEurope , and from thence circulated, it coincideswith the plan here adopted to consider their pro-duct in the same view with that of America andEurope .

According to a communication from BaronHumboldt, made since his return from Asia , tothe editor of “ PoffendorPs Annalen,” it appearsthat the annual produce of the precious metals ofEurope and of Asiatic Russia amounts to twenty-five thousand five hundred marcs of gold, and twohundred and ninety-two thousand marcs of silver ;of which seventy-six thousand five hundred of silverand twenty-two thousand of gold are supplied fromthe Russian empire 2 . The value of this gold isabout seven hundred and twenty thousand pounds,and of the silver five hundred and thirty thousandpounds, being together one million two hundredand fifty thousand pounds annually, or in theperiod of twenty 3 years from 1810 to 1829, twenty-three millions; to this the supply from America ,

1 Andres Neueste Zahlenstatistik, p. 153.

2 See Appendix , No. 10, for a more particular account ofthe produce of the Russian mines.

3 Of late the silver in England has increased, chiefly from