CHAP. XXVI. LEVANT. 321 



The trade with the Levant, by which thirty 

 years ago, according to Humboldt, gold and silver 

 to the amount of four million dollars were annu- 

 ally transferred from Europe to Asia, has been so 

 changed that it is a matter of doubt on which side 

 the balance of payments is to be considered. The 

 value of the silk, of the opium, and of the other 

 drugs, which are furnished by Asia, as far as the 

 trade of Constantinople and of Smyrna extends, is 

 more than equalled by the value of the goods sent 

 to those markets from Europe. This has espe- 

 cially been the case since the vast extension of the 

 various kinds of English cotton goods has in some 

 measure supplanted the use of Indian articles of 

 that description in the Turkish dominions. 



We therefore see no necessity for considering 

 the whole trade of Asia, taken collectively, to have 

 absorbed more of the stock of the precious metals 

 which Europe had collected from the mines of 

 America, and from those within her own limits, 

 than to the amount of two millions sterling an- 

 nually, within the twenty years we have been re- 

 viewing. 



We have estimated the stock of the coin in 

 existence at the end of the year 1809 to have been 

 three hundred and eighty million pounds ; and 

 the additions made to it between that period and 

 the end of the year 1829, at the rate of five mil- 

 lion one hundred and eighty-six thousand eight 

 hundred pounds annually, would make it one hun- 



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