350 PROPORTION OF COIN CHAP. XXVIII. 



may allow for such families, in gold and silver 

 coin, fifty pounds, and considering that the heads of 

 such families generally keep more bank notes 

 than money, and discharge most demands on 

 them by orders on a banker, and that the children 

 and domestics have seldom more than a few 

 shillings, this estimate will be judged sufficiently 

 high. With this class then the value of their 

 manufactured gold and silver may be ten times as 

 much as that of their coin of those metals. 



A number of families of inferior wealth may 

 be classed together. This class, comprehending 

 such as would average an annual income of one 

 thousand pounds, may be in number about one 

 hundred and fifty thousand, and include one 

 million five hundred thousand individuals. If 

 these, taken together, possess as much of plate, 

 and of gold and silver in jewellery, as have cost 

 one hundred pounds for each family, the value of 

 it in weight will be greater in proportion to the 

 cost, because it will consist chiefly in silver spoons 

 and forks, and in gold and silver watch-cases. 

 The workmanship of these is much less, and 

 the profit of the manufacturer and retailer is also 

 less than that of the highly ornamented and 

 elaborately worked plate of the superior classes. 

 With persons in such circumstances the amount 

 of coined gold and silver will commonly be found 

 to be less than that possessed by those of higher 

 expenditure. 



