GOLD AND SILVER

CHAP. XXVI.

270

CHAPTER XXVI.

On the consumption of gold and silver in the twenty yearsbetween 1810 and 1819, but especially on the applicationof them to Other purposes than coin.

It might have been supposed that as approachesare made to recent times, there would have beenless difficulty in arriving at some approximation tothe quantity of the precious metals that is annuallywithdrawn from the circulating medium, or thatis intercepted in its progress from the mines beforeit has been converted into coin. There are somefacts that can be more accurately ascertained, andmany calculations which may be framed with moreconfidence, but still the field is so large and the cer-tain data so few compared with those that are moreor less doubtful, that the inquirer, after the mostassiduous attention, and the most rigid examina-tion, will admit his own conclusions with hesita-tion, and be too diffident to feel a very strongdesire to persuade others to adopt his views.

In the vast field that lies before us, it is neces-sary to select that part which can be most easily andmost accurately examined, and therefore the stateof our own country will receive the first consideration.The greater part of the application both of gold