CHAP. XIV. 



IN THE DARK AGES. 359 



ancients had proceeded. As the mines were 

 worked in countries very remote from each 

 other, the improvements either in the mechanical 

 or scientific process would not be speedily dif- 

 fused, and though some might advance rapidly, 

 others would do so at a slower pace. 



Under the circumstances of the period in 

 question, extending from about the year 800 to 

 1500, it seems scarcely possible to come to any 

 other conclusion than that the mines of the pre- 

 cious metals on the ancient continent produced 

 far less on the average of the seven centuries 

 than those same mines had done in the century 

 closing in 1800. 



The average product of the mines of Europe, 

 including those of the Russian dominions in 

 Asia, did not in the last twenty years of the 

 eighteenth century amount to more gold than 

 equal in value to two hundred thousand pounds 

 sterling, and silver equal to six hundred thou- 

 sand pounds 1 . Of this gold, more than one 

 half was yielded by the mines of Russia, which 

 afforded none before the year 1704. Of the re- 

 mainder, the greater portion was extracted from 

 the Austrian dominions, and the remainder in 



1 See Neueste Zahlenstatistik der Europaischen und 

 aussereuropaischen Staaten, page 16. von C. C. Andre 

 Stuttgart, 1823; also, Algemeine deutsche Real Encyklo- 

 padie, under the articles Gold and Silver. 





