348 PROPORTION OF COIN CHAP, xxviil. 



CHAPTER XXVIIL 



On the proportion which that gold and silver which is coined 

 bears to that existing in other forms. 



WE have seen that the consumption of gold 

 and silver, and the application of those substances 

 to other purposes than the fabrication of coin, has, 

 in the last twenty years, exceeded that supply 

 of them which the mines have afforded. The 

 greater part of those metals are converted into 

 coin almost immediately on their being extracted 

 from the mines. This is the case with nearly all 

 that is collected in what was Spanish America, 

 with the gold of Brasil, and with that obtained 

 from the Russian mines. It must then have been 

 from the stock of coin either recently or ante- 

 cedently formed, that the gold and silver that 

 have been consumed or appropriated to purposes 

 of ornament must have been drawn. It may be 

 safely inferred that the quantity of coin actually 

 in circulation at the end of the term of twenty 

 years had been diminished. If the view we have 

 taken be correct, that diminution must have 

 amounted to one-sixth of the whole circulating 

 coin of Europe and America. 



How far the portion of the precious metals thus 

 withdrawn from coin and applied to ornamental 



