344

MONEY IN

CHAP. XXVIJ.

but it has escaped the notice of no observing travellerin India that the natives, who have any rupees orother coin, instead of carrying them in a pursetogether, wrap up each piece singly in a cloth toprevent loss by rubbing. A less loss must havebeen suffered from friction also, owing to thegeneral practice adopted by princes and others intimes of insecurity of hoarding treasure. In theirvaults it would suffer nothing; and in an experi-ment which we have seen recorded, some silvermoney which had been hoarded in the treasury ofa native prince had lost in weight only at the rateof one per cent, in thirty years, whilst a parcel ofother rupees of the coinage of 1759 and I 76 O,which had been in general circulation, had intwenty-three years been worn so thin as to be nolonger passable, except by weight, and at a conse-quent great loss.

As far as can be known by any examinationwithin our power, it does not appear that any greatchanges have taken place in Asia , in the prices ofarticles which form the principal means of subsist-ence. There may have been variations caused bythe greater or less productiveness of seasons, or bythe improvement or deterioration in the modes ofcultivation, or in the administration of the severalgovernments; but there have been no such changesas were universally experienced in Europe onthe introduction of the produce of the mines ofAmerica , or of such as have been since occasioned