268 WHOLE PRODUCT CHAP. XXV. 



last twenty years has scarcely exceeded three mil- 

 lions l . 



Within the last sixteen years there has been a 

 great increase in the produce of gold and silver 

 from the Russian mines. These are, indeed, in 

 Asia, but as their supply is brought to the mint in 

 Europe, and from thence circulated, it coincides 

 with the plan here adopted to consider their pro- 

 duct in the same view with that of America and 

 Europe. 



According to a communication from Baron 

 Humboldt, made since his return from Asia, to 

 the editor of " Poffendorf's Annalen," it appears 

 that the annual produce of the precious metals of 

 Europe and of Asiatic Russia amounts to twenty- 

 five thousand five hundred marcs of gold, and two 

 hundred and ninety-two thousand marcs of silver; 

 of which seventy-six thousand five hundred of silver 

 and twenty-two thousand of gold are supplied from 

 the Russian empire 2 . The value of this gold is 

 about seven hundred and twenty thousand pounds, 

 and of the silver five hundred and thirty thousand 

 pounds, being together one million two hundred 

 and fifty thousand pounds annually, or in the 

 period of twenty 3 years from 1810 to 1829, twenty- 

 three millions ; to this the supply from America, 



1 Andres Neueste Zahlenstatistik, p. 153. 

 a See Appendix, No. 10, for a more particular account of 

 the produce of the Russian mines. 



3 Of late the silver in England has increased, chiefly from 



