CONSUMPTION OF GOLD AND SILVER. CHAP. XXIV. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



On the consumption of gold and silver and on the rate of 

 prices of commodities from 1700 to 1810. 



IN a former chapter the stock of metallic wealth in 

 the form of coin in Europe is estimated at the close 

 of the year 1699, to have amounted to two hundred 

 and ninety-seven million pounds sterling. Upon 

 the principle stated in the preceding chapter, that 

 one part in forty- two of the coin is consumed by 

 friction in the wear of it, in the space of one hun- 

 dred and ten years between 1700 and 1810, that 

 stock would be reduced at the end of the period 

 very considerably. In the first forty-two years the 

 sum would be reduced to two hundred and sixty- 

 seven million three hundred thousand pounds, in 

 the second forty-two years to two hundred and 

 forty million five hundred and seventy thousand 

 pounds, and in the twenty-six succeeding years to 

 two hundred and twenty-six millions. 



In the hundred and ten years under considera- 

 tion, the produce of the several mines of America 

 and of Europe, with the gold dust from Africa, 

 has been calculated at the rate of eight millions 

 annually, or in the whole period at eight hundred 



