358 ADDITION TO GOLD AND SILVER CHAP. xiv. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



On the produce of the mines and on the state of the coinage 

 about the time of the discovery of America. 



FROM the few and indistinct notices of the 

 mines from 806 to the discovery of America which 

 are collected in chap. x. vol. 1., it is scarcely 

 possible to do more than form a conjecture con- 

 cerning the amount of their produce. The 

 whole period was a time of hostility and tur- 

 bulence. There was little security for any kind 

 of property, and less still for that which could 

 alone induce the working of mines for silver and 

 gold. None of the mines that are noticed were 

 uninterruptedly wrought, and few of them were 

 worked simultaneously. Some were most pro- 

 ductive at one period, and then yielded nothing 

 for centuries ; whilst others were discovered and 

 explored and speedily abandoned. The art of 

 separating the precious metals from the ores 

 and from the inferior metals with which they 

 were mingled had been lost since the time of 

 the Roman operations, and were recovered by 

 the same slow and gradual steps by which the 



