372 ENGLISH COINAGE. CHAP. XIV. 



the enormous amount of 819,415, we might 

 be led to conclude that the actual quantity of 

 the coins in circulation was one hundred and 

 twenty-two-fold greater in modern times than 

 before the beginning of the sixteenth century. 

 Thus, on the supposition already assumed, that 

 the stock of gold and silver at the discovery of 

 America amounted to about thirty-five millions, 

 our drawing conclusions from this contrast 

 alone would lead us to calculate the precious 

 metals now in existence at the incredible, if not 

 impossible, amount of four thousand eight hun- 

 dred millions, whereas we are well warranted in 

 concluding that they do not amount to more 

 than about one tenth of that value. 



This great discrepancy between the metallic 

 wealth actually in existence, and that which 

 was annually converted into the current coin of 

 England, may be accounted for in several ways. 

 In the early period of our coinage a large pro- 

 portion of foreign coins had been introduced, 

 especially of gold, and that long before any re- 

 cords which remain notice the fabrication of 

 either gold or silver coins in England. In the 

 time of the Anglo-Saxons and of the Anglo- 

 Normans, the gold of the eastern empire at Con- 

 stantinople had travelled to the west of Europe, 

 and was commonly used in all the larger opera- 

 tions of commerce. The coin known by the 

 name of Bezants was of greater purity than any 



