196 TRADE WITH ASIA. 



CHAP. XXIV. 



silver and gold brought to Europe annually at 



that time to be forty-three million five hundred 



thousand piastres, of which he supposes there past 



to Asia, 



By means of the Levant trade 4,000,000 



By the Cape of Good Hope 17,500,000 



By the way of Kiacha and 



Tobolsk 4,000,000 



25,500,000 dollars ; 



or, at the rate we have adopted, ^5,318,750 sterling. 

 This would lead to the opinion that nearly two- 

 thirds of the gold and silver furnished by the mines 

 were required and supplied to Asia; which seems 

 improbable, considering the general poverty of its 

 numerous inhabitants, and the small quantity as 

 compared with Europe of the several commodities 

 which furnished subjects of exchange. 



We should doubt if in the early parts of the 

 period, when the supplies from America were 

 smaller, the trade of the east could require nearly 

 the same proportion of those supplies as at the 

 period when Humboldt made his calculation. The 

 trade of England at the latter part of the period, 

 when, with the exception of the United States of 

 America, she engrossed the whole commerce of 

 the east, did not require a regular supply of the 

 precious metals to nearly the extent which Hum- 

 boldt has averaged it at, but much nearer to two- 

 fifths than to two-thirds of that quantity. 



