304 <

FRENCH JEWELLERS.

CHAP. XXVI.

the cost of the gold is not more than one-fifth ofthe price of the finished goods 1 .” He adds, “ Allthe statements I have been enabled to obtain,either from my official situation, or from themanufacturers, induces me to conclude that thegold and silversmiths in France employ annuallyof the two metals to the amount of sixteenmillions of francs, and the jewellery appropriatesannually to the amount of four millions ; of thisabout three-fifths is used in Paris alone.”

According to these representations it is seen,that the watchmakers, goldsmiths, and jewellerstogether, must apply gold and silver in theirseveral fabrics to the amount of twenty-ninemillion four hundred and fifty thousand francs,or one million two hundred thousand poundssterling.

These views of the consumption of gold andsilver in France were taken by the ex-minister inthe year 1819, when internal security had beenscarcely established, and when the foreign tradehad assumed no fixed and regular form. Since thatyear, from all accounts, the trade in each of thebranches here noticed had been vastly extended,and a proportionate quantity of the preciousmetals must have been consumed. The increasehad gone on regularly up to the events of July1830, when a sudden suspension of this as well as

1 Chaptal, vol. ii. p. 164.