CHAP. XXVI.

ASIA.

319

and they must of necessity have transmitted muchof the precious metals to make their purchases ofAsiatic commodities.

Under a review of all the circumstances, it maybe a fair assumption to calculate that the portionof the precious metals exported to India andChina by the Cape of Good Hope , which is notincluded in the account in the Appendix , No. 14 ,amounted to one-third of what is shown by thataccount, or about five hundred thousand poundssterling annually during the twenty years. Thiswill make the whole supply furnished to Asia inthat direction amount to forty millions, or at theaverage rate of two millions yearly. This isabout half the sum which Humboldt had estimatedfor the supplies of the same countries, when hewrote his work on Mexico , now almost thirtyyears ago.

Humboldt calculated that silver to nearly theamount of four million dollars passed annuallyfrom Europe to China , through the llussian pro-vinces on the Caspian Sea , and by the way ofKiachta and Tobolsk in Siberia . It is likely thatso industrious an author would make due ex-amination before he published such a statement;but though it may have been correct then, yetthirty years have made a great alteration, and thebalance .of trade is become so much in favour ofEurope, as will be seen in the Appendix , No. 15 ,that instead of Russia having any necessity to