CHAP, xviri. CONSUMPTION. (J3 



therefore, to calculate that one part in three hun- 

 dred and sixty was annually consumed, or one 

 tenth part in thirty-six years. On these principles 

 the diminution on the fifty millions in existence 

 in 1546 would reduce them in fifty-four years to 

 forty-two millions seven hundred and fifty thousand 

 pounds. The same gradual loss would be suf- 

 fered on the one hundred and twenty-one mil- 

 lions, but that can only be taken as the operation 

 of the mean term of years, or of twenty-seven 

 years. This diminution would thus amount to 

 about nine millions, and the result to which we 

 arrive would be that at the end of the year 1599 

 the stock of gold and silver actually in existence 

 amounted to about one hundred and fifty-five 

 millions ; or as it may be stated in round numbers, 

 at nearly five times as much aswas in the possession 

 of mankind in 1492, when America first became 

 known to the Europeans. It would be of great 

 advantage to the purpose of this inquiry to ascer- 

 tain in the period under consideration, what pro- 

 portion of the gold and silver obtained was applied 

 to conversion into coin, and what to the fabrica- 

 tion of articles of utility, magnificence, or luxury. 

 Instead, however, of attempting to hazard conjec- 

 tures on so obscure a subject, we must be content 

 with such general observations as the aspect of the 

 several countries of Europe present on looking at 

 their modes of thinking, and their manners and 

 habits. The Spaniards, into whose possession the 



