CHAP. xir. CONSUMPTION OF METALS. 311 



CHAPTER XII. 



On the effect of the decrease of the precious metals on the 

 prices of commodities in the period extending from the dis- 

 solution of the Western Roman Empire to the discovery of 

 America. 



THE scattered fragments of information which 

 may be collected by diligent research respecting 

 the attempts to obtain the precious metals from 

 the bowels of the earth are chiefly of import- 

 ance to the purpose of this inquiry, because 

 they lead to the inference that no great increase 

 or diminution, in the actual quantity of those 

 metals, took place in the middle ages. 



At the period when the mines in Hungary 

 and Germany began to be worked, or as regards 

 the former, recommenced their workings, it has 

 been hypothetically assumed that the whole 

 quantity of coined money amounted to not more 

 than about thirty- three or thirty-four millions 

 sterling. 



If we suppose the same rate of consumption 

 to have proceeded as at the former periods, we 

 shall find that to replace that loss by wear which 

 would have required in the time of Augustus 

 at least an annual supply of one million sterling, 



