BOOKS RECEIVED Argentina, Department of Agriculture. Argentine International Trade: A Few Figures on its Development. Buenos Aires: Department of Agriculture. 1914. pp. 64. Babson, R. W. The Future of Nations: How Prosperity Must Come. Boston: Babson Statistical Organization. 1914. pp. 120. Bland, A. E., Brown, P. A., and Tawney, R. H. (Editors). English Economic History: Select Documents. London: G. Bell & Sons. 1914. pp. 730. 6s. Bogart, E. L., and Thompson, C. M. Exercise Book in Economic History of the United States. New York: Longmans, Green & Co. 1914. pp. 63. 50 cents. Brisco, N. A Economics of Efficiency. New York: Macmillan. 1914. pp. 385. $1.50. Brown, H. G. International Trade and Exchange: A Study of the Mechanism and Advantages of Commerce. New York: Macmillan. 1914. pp. 197. $1.50. Coker, F. W. Readings in Political Philosophy. New York: Macmillan. 1914. pp. 573. Colson, C. Railway Rates and Traffic. [Translated from the 3d (1907) edition of the author's "Transports et Tarifs " by L. R. Christie, G. Leedam and C. Travis.] London: G. Bell & Sons. 1914. pp. 195. 3s. 6d. Croly, Herbert. Progressive Democracy. 1914. pp. 438. $2.00. New York: Macmillan. Ely, R. T. Property and Contract in Their Relations to the Distribution of Wealth (2 vols). New York: Macmillan. 1914. pp. 995. $4.00. England, Board of Trade. Report on Strikes and Lock-Outs and on Conciliation and Arbitration Boards in 1913. London: Government Printing Office. 1914. pp. 232. 1s. 6d. Fantl, Gustav. Die volkswirtschaftlichen Gefahren des Buchforderungskredites und ihre Bekämpfung. Vienna: Manz. 1914. pp. 31. K. 1. (Reprint from an Austrian Journal.) Gesell, G. A. Minnesota Public Utility Rates; Gas, Electric, Water. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota. 1914. pp. 254. (Bulletin of the University of Minnesota.) Hasskarl, G. C. H. Modern Problems of the Home, School and Church Solved. Verona: Privately published. 1914. pp. 191. Henry, H. M. The Police Control of the Slave in South Carolina. Emory: Privately Printed. 1914. pp. 216. Hepburn, A. B. Artificial Waterways of the World. New York: Macmillan. 1914. pp. 171. $1.25. (Revised Edition.) Hobson, C. K. The Export of Capital. New York: Macmillan. 1914. pp. 264. $2.00. Hoeniger, H. (and others). Der privatwirtshaftliche Gesichtspunkt in der Sozialökonomie und Jurisprudenz. Mannheim: J. Ben sheimer. 1914. pp. 212. M. 4. (Heft 1 of a new series Die private Unternehmung, to be issued by Freiburg professors; this Heft containing five introductory essays.) Holdsworth, J. T. Money and Banking. New York: D. Appleton. 1914. pp. 439. $2.00. Hollander, J. H. The Abolition of Poverty. Mifflin Co. 1914. pp. 122. 75 cents. Boston: Houghton Huttmann, Maude A. The Establishment of Christianity and the Proscription of Paganism. New York: Longmans, Green & Co. 1914. pp. 257. $2.00. (Columbia University Studies, Vol. LX, No. 2.) Italy, Direzione Generale della Statistica. Annuario Statistico Italiano 1913. Roma: G. Bertero & Co. 1914. pp. 466. Jastrow, J. Im Kriegszustand. Die Umformung des öffentlichen Lebens in der ersten Kriegswoche. Berlin: Georg Reimer. 1914. pp. M. 3.60. 215. Kendrick, B. J. The Journal of the Joint Committee of Fifteen on Reconstruction. New York: Longmans, Green & Co. 1914. pp. 414. (Columbia University Studies, Vol. LXII.) Korea, Government-General of Chosen. Annual Report on Reforms and Progress in Chosen (Korea), 1912–13. Keijo (Seoul): Japanese Government. 1914. pp. 271. Ma, Yin Ch'u. The Finances of the City of New York. New York: (Columbia Longmans, Green & Co. 1914. pp. 312. $2.50. University Studies, Vol. LXI, No. 2.) Moore, H. L. Economic Cycles: Their Law and Cause. New York: Macmillan. 1914. pp. 149. $2.00. Morse (E. L.), Editor. Samuel F. B. Morse: His Life and Letters. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin Co. 1914. 2 vols., pp. 440, 548. $7.50. National Conference on Universities and Public Service. Proceedings. Madison: Cantwell Printing Co. 1914. pp. 289. New York Department of Labor. Statistics of Industrial Accidents in 1912 and 1913. Albany: J. B. Lyon Co. 1914. pp. 175. Reeves, Edith. Care and Education of Crippled Children in the United States. New York: Survey Associates. 1914. pp. 252. (Russell Sage Foundation.) $2.00. Reid, D. C. Capital and Profits. Springfield: Hazard. 1914. pp. 221. $1.40. Secrist, Horace. An Economic Analysis of the Constitutional Restrictions upon Public Indebtedess in the United States. Madison: University of Wisconsin. 1914. pp. 131. 40 cents. (Bulletin of the University of Wisconsin, No. 637.) Shurtleff, Flavel. Carrying Out the City Plan: The Practical Application of American Law in the Execution of City Plans. New York: Survey Associates. Sage Foundation.) 1914. pp. 349. $2.00. (Russell Stalker, Archibald. Taxation of Land Values in Western Canada. pp. 56. (Thesis for the Uruguay. Anuario Estadístico de la República Oriental del Uruguay, 1909-10. Montevideo: Juan J. Dornaleche. 1915. pp. 471, cxx. Van Kleeck, Mary. Working Girls in Evening Schools. New York: Survey Associates. 1914. pp. 252. $1.50. (Russell Sage Foundation.) THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS MAY, 1915 AMERICAN GOLD AND SILVER PRODUCTION IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE SIXTEENTH -- CENTURY SUMMARY I. Introduction. Uncritical and exaggerated estimates before the nineteenth century, 434. — The work of Humboldt, Soetbeer and Lexis, 437. New sources of information, 439. — II. Mexico: earliest accounts of its wealth, 440.- Information used by Soetbeer and Lexis, and conclusions drawn from it, 442. How the present writer prepared his estimates, 442. III. Peru: its three divisions, Peru, Upper Peru and Chili, 448. Nature of the evidence used by Soetbeer and Lexis, and their results, 449. New evidence and how employed, 452. - Summary, 458. IV. New Granada: its conquests; the early treasurers of the colony, 458.- Estimates of Soetbeer, Lexis and Restrepo; figures secured by the present writer, 462.-V. West Indies and Tierra Firme, 464. — Early gold-production on the islands and coasts of the Caribbean, 465. — Conclusions, 467. — VI. Resumé of the figures in the preceding sections, 468. VII. Seville: receipts of the India House, 1503-1560, 469. — Private importations of bullion appropriated by the crown, 470.- The function of Spain as the distributor of the precious metals to the rest of Europe, 471.- Appendix: Monetary values in Spanish America in the first half of the sixteenth century, 475. I. INTRODUCTION IN the Europe of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the lack of precious metals to meet the requirements of an expanding mercantile activity came to be felt with increasing severity. The production of bullion in the few mines worked in Euope was small and uncertain. A variety of circumstances, such as trade with Asia, the transforming of gold and silver into plate and jewels, and the accumulation of ecclesiastical treasure, had so far offset the output from the mines as probably to deplete the stock of money in circulation. It was the crying need of gold which fostered an increase of alchemy toward the end of the Middle Ages. It also prompted the voyages of Columbus and his companions; for one of the principal motives which led to the discovery of the New World was the conviction that by sailing westward might be found Marco Polo's golden land of Zipangu. The precious commodity was not obtained from Zipangu, but in the barbarian empires of Peru and Mexico. And from these distant regions, especially after 1545, a rich stream of precious metals flowed in ever larger quantities to the shores of Spain, and through Spain to the north of Europe. Some conception of the amount of bullion which crossed the seas in the first half-century after Columbus may contribute to an appreciation of the economic problems of that age. Travellers and historians since Columbus' own time have exercised their imaginations upon the subject of American treasure. The extraordinary character of the remittances of gold, silver, pearls and emeralds gave contemporaries an exaggerated image of the revenues drawn by Spain from her new colonies. To many minds, apparently, they were the very foundation of Spain's political greatness. Early observers, it is true, were as a rule comparatively modest in their assertions; but in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Castilian fancy knew no bounds. Peter Martyr wrote in the second decade of the sixteenth century, before the conquests had extended to the mainland: "Solo de la Española se trae a España todos los años la suma de |