CHAP. xxiv. USE OF GOLD AND SILVER. 205 



requisition was so feebly heeded, that very little 

 accrued to the royal treasury, scarcely a sum ex- 

 ceeding ten thousand pounds. 



A similar attempt in 1812 to obtain aid from 

 the treasures of the religious establishments, 

 though rigidly enforced, was scarcely more suc- 

 cessful. The latter was at a time when the Cortes, 

 who made the requisition, had been deprived of 

 power over the greater part of the kingdom by 

 the French occupation, and it is not wonderful 

 that it should have yielded no more than the small 

 sum of twelve thousand pounds. 



But though at these periods there may have 

 been but little of the precious metals extractable 

 by fiscal operations, it by no means follows that 

 there was a great paucity in the whole country. 

 The Spaniards, from the time of the Moorish occu- 

 pation, had been accustomed to hide their gold 

 and silver from the numerous depredators ; and as, 

 after the destruction of the Mahometan power, 

 no safe means of making interest was to be found, 

 it is probable that a larger proportion of what did 

 exist may have been hidden in Spain than in any 

 of the other countries of Europe. 



It would lead to an extensive and almost end- Italy, Ger- 



... . . many, &c. 



less inquiry to examine into the progressive in- 

 crease of gold and silver ornaments and utensils 

 in many other parts of Europe, as in Italy, in 

 Germany, in the eastern parts, as Bohemia, Hun- 

 gary, Poland, and Russia, or in the northern 



