106 INCKEASE AND DECREASE 



kilogrammes, and in our days, from 1817 to 1820, 600 kilo- 

 grammes less. In the province of San Paulo the extraction 

 of gold has entirely ceased ; in the province of G-oyaz, it was 

 803 kilogrammes in 1793, and in 1819 scarcely 75. In the 

 province of Mato Grosso it is almost nothing ; and M. 

 Eschwege is of opinion that the whole produce of gold 

 in Brazil does not amount at present to more than 600,000 

 cruzados (scarcely 440 kilogrammes). I dwell on these par- 

 ticulars, because, in confounding the different periods of the 

 riches and poverty of the gold-washings of Brazil, it is still 

 affirmed in works treating of the commerce of the precious 

 metals, that a quantity of gold equivalent to four millions 

 of piastres (5800 kilogrammes of gold*) flows into Europe 

 annually, from Portuguese America. If, in commercial 

 value, gold in grains prevails, in the republic of Columbia, 

 over the value of other metals, the latter are not on 

 that account less worthy to fix the attention of government 

 and of individuals. The argentiferous mines of Santa Anna, 

 Manta, Santo Christo de las Laxas, Pamplona, Sapo, and La 



* This error is twofold: it is probable that Brazilian gold, paying the 

 quint, has not, during the last forty years, risen to 5500 kilogrammes. I 

 heretofore shared this error in common with writers on political economy, 

 in admitting that the quint in 1810, was still (instead of 26 arrobas or 

 379 kilogrammes), 51,200 Portuguese ounces, or 1433 kilogrammes; 

 which supposed a product of 7165 kilogrammes. The very correct infor- 

 mation afforded by two Portuguese manuscripts on the gold-washings of 

 Minas Geraes, Minas Novas, and Goyaz, in the Bullion Report for the 

 House of Commons, 1810, ace. p. 29, goes as far only as 1794, when 

 the quinto do ouro of Brazil was 53 arrobas, which indicates a produce 

 of more than 3900 kilogrammes paying the quint. In Mr. Tooke's 

 important work, "On High and Low Prices," part II. p. 2,), this produce 

 is still estimated (mean year 18101821), at 1,736,000 piastres; while, 

 according to official documents in my possession, the average of the quint 

 of those ten years amounted only to 15 arrobas, or a product quint of 

 of 1095 kilogrammes, or 755,000 piastres. Mr. John Allen reminded 

 the Committee of the Bullion Report, in his Critical Notes on the table of 

 M. Brongniart, that the decrease of the produce of the gold-washings of 

 Brazil had been extremely rapid since 1794 ; and the notions given by M. 

 Auguste de Saint Hilaire indicate the same desertion of the gold-mines of 

 Brazil. Those who were miners have become cultivators. The value 

 of an arroba of gold is 15,000 Brazilian cruzados (each cruzado being 

 50 sous). According to M. Franzini, the Portuguese ona is equal to '028 

 of a kilogramme, and 8 on9as make 1 mark ; 2 marks make 1 arratel, and 

 32 arratels 1 arroba. 



