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CHAP. XXVI.
and the colonies still left to Europeans in thewestern world. The jewellery and plate inthose countries were commonly supplied fromEurope, and France and England had the largestshare of the trade. Of late years, in the UnitedStates , there has been a considerable progress madein even the more delicate kinds of manufacture.Since the enactment of the new tariff, whichimposed a heavy tax on the importation of jewellery,the manufacture of it has much increased. During:
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the inquiry among the jewellers in London andBirmingham , it was ascertained that many of theworkmen in the several branches had been induced,by offers of high wages, with security for thecontinuance of them, to emigrate to New York ,Philadelphia, and Boston . From the great numberof families in that country, who are in easy cir-cumstances, and who have a taste for the comforts andconveniences of life, we should estimate the demandfor gold and silver at a higher rate, according tothe free population, than that assumed as the con-sumption of Europe ; but on the other hand it isto be considered that during a part of the periodin question the greater portion of the demandwas satisfied from the workshops of the severalEuropean states. Under these circumstances wemay venture to estimate the quantity of the pre-cious metals used in the United States at aboutone-twentieth of that consumed in Europe . Whatis consumed in Canada, Nova Scotia , and the Bri-