COMMERCE. 



103 



terest on the capital embarked, it cannot etiter into a com- 

 petition with the wools of Segovia and Castille, of a superior 

 qnalit}^, which may be brought to market at as low a r cite. 



From the above details it may be colle(£i,ed, that the pro- 

 vinces of Peru have to seek riches in the bosom, and not on 

 the superficies of the earth. All those that the mineral king- 

 dom can produce, are to be found in abundance within their 

 confines: alum, copperas, and ochre ; crystal, basaltes, and 

 sulphur ; the cope^ a species of black naphtha, as hard as as- 

 phaltum, which, although it has a defe6l easily to be cor- 

 re6led by blending it with other substances, that of burning 

 the cordage, is employed for maritime purposes instead of 

 pitch ; copper, lead, and iron ; and lastly, and pre-eminent- 

 ly, gold and silver, the general instruments of equation in 

 every description of commerce. 



It is recorded by Llano Zapata, in the discourse prefixed 

 to his Memoirs of South America, that at the commencement 

 of the seventeenth century, eighteen thousand spots of mineral 

 territory, in which were comprehended one hundred and 

 tv/enty thousand mines, were registered in Peru. Notwith- 

 standing this object of commerce and industry has declined 

 sensibly, for reasons w^hich will hereafter be adduced, the 

 mines, as they are at present worked, } ield annually about 

 four millions and a half of piastres in gold and silver, without 

 reckoning the portion of these metals employed in the mahu- 

 fa6lure of articles of convenience and luxury. 



As metals, gold and silver have an intrinsic value ; the 

 iiations which possess them ought accordingly to watch over 

 their increase, in the same way as the husbandman attends to 

 the propagation of his seeds. They neither feed nor clothe ; 



insomuch 



