CHAP. xxvi. OF CONSUMPTION. 313 



capable of absorbing a larger portion of those 

 metals, but they are also the great workshops in 

 which are fabricated many of those luxurious 

 ornaments and utensils which are furnished to 

 the gratifications of the richer inhabitants of other 

 countries, of countries where the few ornaments 

 of the numerous less rich individuals are supplied 

 by small internal manufacturers. If it be taken 

 into consideration that the small portions of gold 

 and silver which the inferior classes make use of 

 must, from their vastly greater numbers, exceed 

 that used by the rich, it will not be deemed an 

 unfair assumption to calculate, that the hundred 

 and sixty millions of persons in the rest of Europe 

 annually consume two-fifths as much as the fifty 

 or sixty millions who inhabit England, France, 

 and Switzerland, At this rate we shall consider 

 the whole application of the precious metals to 

 ornamental and luxurious purposes to be as 

 follows: 



Great Britain . . . .-, 2,457,221 



France . . .'."... . 1,200,000 



Switzerland . . . 350,000 



4,007,221 



Estimated amount for the whole of the rest of 

 Europe being two-fifths . ; . ' 1,605,490 



thus making 5,612,711 



To this must be added the consumption of the 

 United States of North America, of the newly 

 created states in Spanish and Portuguese America, 



