62 MINES OF EUROPE. 



CHAP. XVIII. 



has been already calculated at about fifty millions 

 sterling, we may venture to consider the annual 

 supply on the average of the period to have nearly 

 approached to ten millions of piastres or dollars, 

 or about two millions one hundred thousand pounds 

 sterling. This is so near to what Humboldt has 

 reckoned it, that there seems no necessity for en- 

 tering farther into the causes of the variation. 



o 



The miners in Europe were excited by the 

 successful operations in America to greater exer- 

 tions, especially those in the Pyrenees, and in 

 several parts of Languedoc, and it may be con- 

 cluded from various representations that the 

 annual supply from the ancient continent had 

 amounted to about one hundred and fifty thou- 

 sand pounds. 



We thus assume that the aggregate additions of 

 fifty-four years were at the annual rate of two 

 millions two hundred and fifty thousand pounds 

 sterling, or that in the whole term the amount of 

 one hundred and twenty-one millions had been 

 produced, to which the fifty millions before in 

 existence being added, would give as the quantity 

 in the year 1600 about one hundred and fifty 

 millions. 



The process of consumption would, however, 

 be going on, and operate on the whole amount. 

 There seems no reason in estimating the gradual 

 diminution in this period at a different rate from 

 what has been before assumed. We continue, 



