316 TRADE WITH 



CHAP XXVI. 



of gold and silver in one of the first houses in the 

 trade during more than thirty years, that not one- 

 hundredth part of what passes through their scales 

 consisted of gold and silver that had before been 

 manufactured. Similar assertions have been made 

 by all others who have been questioned on the 

 particular topic. We cannot, therefore, deem 

 these meltings of old gold and silver goods to have 

 contributed more than a fortieth part to the pre- 

 cious metals that have been applied to useful or 

 ornamental purposes during the last twenty years. 

 In making, then, such a deduction on that ac- 

 count, we venture to estimate the whole quantity 

 of the precious metals taken from the general stock 

 of them, and destined to purposes of ornamental 

 and useful gratification, to amount annually to the 

 sum of five million eight hundred and ninety-three 

 thousand two hundred and forty-one pounds. 



In the former parts of this inquiry, in all the 

 recent divisions of the subject, a large and rather 

 doubtful allowance has been made for that portion 

 of the precious metals which passed to the several 

 parts of Asia by the channels which Humboldt 

 has traced. A great change has been effected in 

 the commerce of the East within a few late years, 

 owing to circumstances which it is not within the 

 design of this inquiry to do more than notice, as' 

 far as they are connected with the subject of the 

 demand for the precious metals. That demand 

 appears to have lessened within the last twenty 



