200 USE OF GOLD AND SILVER. CHAP. XXIV. 



use of plate was the consequence of this temperate 

 advancement in prosperity and refinement. It is 

 asserted by Necker, that the increase of plate, as 

 ascertained from the mint of Paris, between the 

 years 1709 and 17*59, was in the proportion of 

 seven to one. 



According to the " Statistique general et par- 

 ticuliere de la France," published by Herbin, in 

 1803, the amount of the silver and gold consumed 

 in France by the goldsmiths and jewellers was ten 

 millions of francs, beyond that which was obtained 

 by the melting of old vessels and old trinkets, and 

 by burning the old lace and silks 1 . This, which 

 may be called eight hundred and fifty thousand 

 pounds sterling, rests on the authority of M. 

 Necker, whose work is referred to by the " Societe 

 de Gens de Lettres et de Savans 2 ," who compiled 

 the work of which Herbin was the editor. At the 

 time that work was published, the use of those 

 metals had risen to near the same standard as be- 

 fore the revolution, when Necker wrote, but during 

 that miserable period there had been an astonishing 

 decline in that branch of industry. " There were 

 very extensive fabrics of gold and silver articles 

 at Lyons, Bordeaux, Marseilles, Strasbourg, and 

 some other places ; but the events of the revolu- 

 tion, the want of internal consumption, and the 



1 Statistique generale, vol. ii. p. 181. 



2 Necker, vol. iii. p. 74. 



