PREFACE. Vll 



In subsequent and frequent conversations with 

 Mr. Huskisson, he suggested the utility of taking 

 a more comprehensive view of the subject, and of 

 examining into the sources of those large accumu- 

 lations of gold and silver which are represented to 

 have existed in the early ages of the world 

 of their gradual decrease in quantity and the 

 causes of the disappearance of a large portion 

 of them. These subjects he thought might be 

 combined with the state of the prices of com- 

 modities, and connected with the renewed increase 

 which has arisen from the discovery of America 

 and the mining operations. The present work 

 must be considered as an attempt to follow out the 

 suggestions in the several quarters of the world. 



I had made some progress in the collection of 

 facts from the sacred and profane writers of an- 

 tiquity, and on some other later parts of the in- 

 quiry, when the dreadful accident occurred by 

 which his country and the world were deprived of 

 the services of that eminent and estimable man ; 

 but in the last conversation I had with him, a few 

 weeks before his death, he expressed much in- 

 terest in the advance I had made, and assisted 

 me by his advice in that mode of arranging the 

 materials which has been adopted in this inquiry. 



