CHAP. XXVI. SPAIN AND PORTUGAL. 311 



changes of fashion, yet there was sufficient of both 

 to afford good occupation to numerous goldsmiths, 

 watchmakers, and jewellers, in Amsterdam, Rot- 

 terdam, Haerlem, and Utrecht. In the Belgian 

 Netherlands, too, since its junction with Holland, 

 there was a general appearance of ease among the 

 inhabitants, and a most manifest rapid increase of 

 general prosperity under which the use of gold 

 and silver utensils and decorations had been ex- 

 tensively diffused. It is as needless to speak of 

 the misery produced by the reverse that has taken 

 place in the condition of those states, as it is to 

 speculate on what will be their future lot. 



In the southern kingdoms of Spain and Por- 

 tugal there has recently been but a small 

 portion of the precious metals in any other form 

 than that of coin. Much of the silver and gold 

 which the several religious establishments in those 

 countries possessed, and it was probably the 

 largest portion, had been seized during the 

 calamities which the invasion and the civil com- 

 motions had inflicted on them. How far the 

 subsequent intervals of tranquillity had restored a 

 portion of what had been confiscated, it is difficult 

 to ascertain. In the several states of the Italian 

 peninsula there is so much poverty among the 

 great mass of the population, that we cannot 

 estimate the use of the precious metals at a high 

 rate. It is true there is a tendency to mag- 



