296 Tea with refpeB to the Export of Gold and Silver. 
gold mines fail, and the gold is rifcn in price, or that the Chi- 
nese merchants cannot be fafcd y trufted with large hums •, or 
that our east-india company do not think proper to trade in 
this article themfelves, nor yet to indulge their fervants in it ; 
but very little or no gold has, for a long time paft, been im- 
ported from china. On the contrary, I am told that of late 
fome fmall quantities of gold have been actually carried from 
hence. We have alfo fent gold to the coaft of Coromandel, 
to be coined into pagodas ; whereas formerly it came all from 
china dire&ly. This circumftance alone makes a material dif- 
ference : it calls on us to be watchful, and not to fquander 
away our riches for tea : in other words, it calls on us to aban- 
don the ufe of tea. The Asiatics, as well as the European 
nations, are alfo become more tenacious of thefe metals than 
they were in times paft : and though I am not fure it can be 
proved, yet, I apprehend, that our extenfive paper- credit, has, 
in fome inftances., fubftituted paper in the place of gold and 
filver, fo as to give our coin and bullion a more free egress ; 
and if this is really the cafe, it is a further reafon to decline the 
ufe of tea. 
I have heard it computed, that within thefe fixty years paft, 
we have coined about fifty millions of gold and filver ; how 
many of thefe remain with us, I will leave to the more curious 
to enquire. Thank god we have gold coin ; but as to filver 
coin, ’tis difficult to obtain change for a fingle guinea. One 
reafon of this is, that we have under-rated filver in coinage, 
and therefore it is fent out of the country ; whilft in France, 
the greateft part of their money is lilver, not over- rated as curs, 
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