GOLD. —Statistics.

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relating to each of the metals were tabulated separatelyin different parts of the work.

Much interesting information relating to the historyand statistics of the precious metals is given in a workwhich was published by Jacob in 1831, in which hetakes up the subject at the earliest period, and con-tinues it to the year above-mentioned. Jacob showsthat, in the days of Roman supremacy, the greaterpart of the wealth of the world continued to flow intoRome, up to the time of Augustus , when the pro-duction of gold from the Roman mines in Illyria andSpain suddenly ceased; and for a long period theworld received no new accessions of metallic wealth.With much labour and research he constructed atable showing the rate of diminution to which theenormous wealth of the Augustan period was subject;and though it includes both gold and silver under onehead, while at the same time its accuracy cannot beimplicitly relied on, still it is sufficiently correct andinstructive to merit a place in these pages:—•

QUANTITY OF GOLD AND SILVER IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

Year.

14 .£358,000,000

50 . 322,200,000

86 . 287,980,000

122 . 259,182,000

158 . 233,203,800

194 . 209,937,420

230 . 181,943,678

266 . 163,749,311

302 . 147,374,380

338 . 132,636,942

374 . 119,373,248

410 . 107,435,924

446 . 96,692,332

482 . 87,033,099

518 . 78,229,700

554 . 70,406,730

590 . 63,364,057

626 . 57,027.652

662 . 51,324,887

698 . 46,192,399

734 . 41,573.160

770 . 37,415,840

806 .. 33,674,256

From the decline and fall of the Roman empirethe portion of gold added to that already obtainedwas for many centuries not more than sufficient tosupply the annual waste by wear and loss ; and ex-cept the mines of Hungary and Sweden , which donot appear to have been worked before the eighth orninth century, no important new sources of goldwere opened until the discovery of America byColumbus in 1492. This event was followed in thecourse of the next century by a considerable influxof the precious metals into Europe ; yet a verysuperficial inquiry will suffice to show that the actualamounts which were imported from Mexico and SouthAmerica have been greatly exaggerated in the publicmind, and sink into very humble figures whencompared with the enormous treasures obtainedfrom California and Australia . From 1492 to 1500America, according to Humboldt , furnished toEurope , in gold and silver, not more than £52,000sterling, and the entire annual amount of gold andsilver obtained from America during the sixteenthcentury was only about half a million sterling;whereas during the last twenty years the value ofgold alone exported from California and Victoria has

averaged about seventeen millions per annum. Thecelebrated El Dorados of the sixteenth century sinktherefore into utter insignificance, compared withthe recently-developed auriferous regions.

It is true that with the discovery of the Brazil mines and other sources the import of the preciousmetals from America continued steadily to increase ;and from 1600 to 1700, during which period Europe obtained its supply of gold almost exclusively fromthe New World, the mines of the latter were esti-mated to have produced an amount of gold andsilver equivalent to £337,500,000 sterling, or up-wards of £3,000,000 per annum. In consequenceof this continued importation, the value of the coinedmoney in Europe in 1699 has been estimated at£297,000,000 sterling. During the eighteenth cen-tury the supply of the precious metals was stillchiefly derived from America . The annual produceof the mines of that quarter of the globe at thecommencement of the present century was esti-mated by Humboldt at £8,700,000 sterling; andthat derived from the European mines of Hungary ,Saxony, &c., and those of Northern Asia , was valuedby him at £1,000,000 sterling more, raising the totalproduce at that period, exclusive of Africa , to£9,700,000 sterling. The quantity of gold producedin America was to the quantity of silver as 1 to 46 ;in Europe as 1 to 40 ; and the values of equal quan-tities of gold and silver were then in the proportionof 15 to 1, so that the aggregate value of the gold tothat of the silver was nearly 1:3; or, in otherwords, the annual amount of gold alone produced atthe beginning of the present century was worthabout £3,200,000 sterling.

From 1800 to 1810 the yield of the American minescontinued still to increase, and in conjunction withthat of the European and Russian mines is supposedto have amounted in the latter year to upwards of£11,000,000 sterling, in gold and silver. But inthat year began the contest which resulted in thedissolution of the connection between Spain and herAmerican colonies, causing the abandonment ofseveral of the mines, and a consequent decline inthe production of the precious metals to such an ex-tent that, according to Jacob, the total average yieldof the American mines, inclusive of Brazil , duringthe twenty years ending with 1829, might be esti-mated at little more than £4,000,000 a year, beingless than half their produce in 1800. Some yearslater, however, they again began to increase ; andthis, in conjunction with the subsequent extra-ordinary development of the Russian mines, raisedthe entire amount of gold and silver produced fromall the known auriferous localities throughout theworld, before the discovery of California and Australia ,to upwards of £12,000,000 per annum, the valueof the gold to that of the silver being nearly as5 : 6. This will appear from the following table,prepared by Birioiyre, showing, by approximatecalculation, the annual produce of fine gold andsilver for 1846 and 1850; the first being two yearsbefore the discovery of the rich deposits of gold inCalifornia , the latter two years after the discovery:—