GOLD AND SILVER CHAP. XXVI. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 



On the consumption of gold and silver in the twenty years 

 between 1810 and 1819, but especially on the application 

 of them to other purposes than coin. 



IT might have been supposed that as approaches 

 are made to recent times, there would have been 

 less difficulty in arriving at some approximation to 

 the quantity of the precious metals that is annually 

 withdrawn from the circulating medium, or that 

 is intercepted in its progress from the mines before 

 it has been converted into coin. There are some 

 facts that can be more accurately ascertained, and 

 many calculations which may be framed with more 

 confidence, but still the field is so large and the cer- 

 tain data so few compared with those that are more 

 or less doubtful, that the inquirer, after the most 

 assiduous attention, and the most rigid examina- 

 tion, will admit his own conclusions with hesita- 

 tion, and be too diffident to feel a very strong 

 desire to persuade others to adopt his views. 



In the vast field that lies before us, it is neces- 

 sary to select that part which can be most easily and 

 most accurately examined, and therefore the state 

 of our own country will receive the first consideration . 

 The greater part of the application both of gold 



