108 TRANSFER OF THE 



CHAP. III. 



CHAPTER III. 



On the transfer of the precious metals from some parts of the 

 world to others, as indicated by the sacred and profane 

 writers. 



HAVING taken a view of the narrations con- 

 tained in ancient writers of the stock of gold 

 and silver accumulated in particular spots, and 

 of the mining sources from which those stocks 

 were extracted, it may be desirable to trace 

 the causes which led to their transfer from one 

 country to another, and the channels by which 

 they may have been conveyed, and thus to esta- 

 blish the veracity of the records, whether sacred 

 or profane, from which we derive all our know- 

 ledge of those remote transactions. 



The oldest account we have of any large ac- 

 cumulation of gold and silver, as we have already 

 seen, is that in the possession of one of the ear- 

 liest kings of the Hebrew nation. It may appeal- 

 extraordinary that Solomon should have been 

 able to collect so large a portion of those metals 

 at a period when the other nations of Asia and 

 Europe were so scantily supplied with them. 

 The Greeks of that day were nearly destitute of 



