T ROE: CoM Bo ON. £ GL, E. 
. 103, 
on account of his Majefty’s navy, in the four years previous to 1797, 
amounted to . 
L.7,825,876 
And in the four years preceding 1793, amount- 
_— 
ed only to. 
2,500,139  Excefs 
—L. 5,325,737 
And it appears by an account prefented, of the amount of 
bills drawn on the Commifhioners for victualling, from 
- foreign parts, in the four years ending the 5th of Ja- 
. nuary 1797, that they amounted to 
And in the four years ending the 5th of Ja- 
- nuary 1793, to 
- Though it cannot be doubted 
that the balance of our trade, even 
with thefe deductions, muft have 
brought great wealth in various ar- 
ticles of commerce, into this king- 
dom, and that unufual quantities of 
foreign merchandize mutt, in con- 
fequence thereof, have been depo- 
fited in it; yet it may be doubted, 
whether it brought fo great a quan- 
tity of the precious metals, to be 
converted into coin, as in former 
periods; for it appears in the evi- 
dence of Sir John Hort, who was 
his Majefty’s Conful General in 
Portugal for twenty-nine years, and 
of Mr. Whitmore, an eminent Por- 
tugal merchant, that the importa- 
tion of gold and filver bullion from 
Lifbon into this kingdom, has been 
lefs than it was formerly: and that 
the exchange between Lifbon and 
London, which ufed formerly to be 
greatly in favour of London, has of 
te, froma variety of circumftances, 
-been fometimes in favour of, and 
fometimes againft, this country; 
and for the laft three years, more a- 
gainft this country than in its fa- 
vour, from caufes which are fully 
explained in the evidence of thofe 
gentlemen. Mr, Whitmore adds, 
that the quantity of filver which 
1,368,921 
ae 134,629 
Par BO Wl L200) 
Total Excefs L. 6,560,029 
has of late been imported, has 
greatly exceeded the quantity of 
gold. But as the Mint price of 
filver bullion has been, during 
nearly the whole of the prefent 
century, confiderably lefs than the 
market price of this precious metal, 
the filver bullion fo imported could 
not be converted into coin, but af- 
ter having left a quantity fufficient 
for the ufe of our manufaétures, 
muft have again been exported; and 
did not contribute in the fmalleft 
degree to augment the coin of this 
kingdom. 
The accounts prefented by the 
officers. of the Mint, of the quantity 
of bullion coined in the laft four 
years, fhew that the quantity coin- 
ed at the Mint in 1795, amounted 
only to 493,416l. and in 1796 to 
464,6801.. which is not more than a 
fixth of what was brought to the 
Mint to be coined in the two pre- 
ceding years, and greatly inferior 
to what had been coined, upon an 
average of the former years of his 
Majetty’s reign. 
By an account prefented by Mr. 
Irving, of the quantity of bullion 
exported from this country from the 
year 1790 to 1796 both inclufive, 
it appears that the quantity of gold 
G 4 ullion 
