xvi INTRODUCTION. 



ported from their American dominions into Spaijt ; though this 

 cannot be done with all the exadnefs that the nature of the thing 

 makes defirable, yet by the nearefl: and niceft computation .we 

 have been able to procure, it may amount, one year with ano- 

 ther, to about 38,000,000 of pieces of eight, or more than 

 9,000,000 of pounds fterling. One would imagine that with this 

 vaft yearly influx of wealth, the Spanijh monarchy fhould be the 

 richeft, and, confequentty, one of the mofl: powerful kingdoms 

 upon the face of the earth ; but the fad is quite otherwife, and 

 Spain feems to be no more than the common coiFer or treafury, 

 into which all the nations of Europe thruft their hands, and 

 draw out as much as their fituaticn and abilities for commerce 

 enable them to take. Many reafons concur to fhew^ why 

 Spain y though furnifhed with fuch immenfe riches, has been ever 

 fince, fo far from growing more powerful, and extending her do- 

 minion in E/^rc/'^, (though fhe has often attempted to doit) that fhe 

 is perhaps at this time more feeble, in comparifon, than fhe was, 

 even before the difcovery of America : There are four things 

 that chiefly contribute to render a nation powerful, refpedable, and 

 formidable in the eyes of its neighbours ; the wealth, the number, 

 the virtue, and the induftry of its inhabitants. The two latter of 

 thofe requifites fupport and augment the two former ; for wealth, 

 deftitute of virtue and induftry, only leaves the poffeffors an open 

 and defencelefs prey to perpetual ravages and inroads from 

 without, and numbers in the fame condition cannot be efteemed 



any 



