that of the English Eaft India Company before CHA P. the late reduction of their shipping.

But in the East Indies, particularly in China and Indoftan, the value of the precious metals, when the Europeans first began to trade to those countries, was much higher than in Europe; and it ftill continues to be fo. In rice countries, which generally yield two, fometimes three crops in the year, each of them more plentiful than any common crop of corn, the abundance of food must be much greater than in any corn country of equal extent. Such countries are accordingly much more populous. In them too the rich, having a greater fuper-abundance of food to difpofe of beyond what they themselves can confume, have the means of purchafing a much greater quantity of the labour of other people. The retinue of a grandee in China or Indoftan accordingly is, by all accounts, much more numerous and fplendid than that of the richeft fubjects in Europe. The fame fuperabundance of food, of which they have the difpofal, enables them to give a greater quantity of it for all thofe fingular and rare productions which nature furnishes but in very fmall quantities; fuch as the precious metals and the precious ftones, the great objects of the competition of the rich. Though the mines, therefore, which fupplied the Indian market had been as abundant as thofe which supplied the European, fuch commodities would naturally exchange for a greater quantity of food in India than in Europe. But the mines which supplied the Indian market

VOL. II.

Y

XI.

BOOK market with the precious metals feem to have

I.

been a good deal lefs abundant, and thofe which supplied it with the precious ftones a good deal more fo, than the mines which supplied the European. The precious metals, therefore, would naturally exchange in India for fomewhat a greater quantity of the precious ftones, and for a much greater quantity of food than in Europe. The money price of diamonds, the greatest of all fuperfluities, would be fomewhat lower, and that of food, the first of all neceffaries, a great deal lower in the one country than in the other. But the real price of labour, the real quantity of the neceffaries of life which is given to the labourer, it has already been obferved, is lower both in China and Indoftan, the two great markets of India, than it is through the greater part of Europe. The wages of the labourer will there purchase a smaller quantity of food; and as the money price of food is much lower in India than in Europe, the money price of labour is there lower upon a double account; upon account both of the small quantity of food which it will purchase, and of the low price of that food. But in countries of equal art and industry, the money price of the greater part of manufactures will be in proportion to the money price of labour; and in manufacturing art and industry, China and Indoftan, though inferior, feem not to be much inferior to any part of Europe. The money price of the greater part of manufactures, therefore, will naturally be much lower in those great empires than it is any-where in Europe. Through

the

XI.

the greater part of Europe too the expence of CHAP. land-carriage increases very much both the real and nominal price of moft manufactures. It cofts more labour, and therefore more money, to bring firft the materials, and afterwards the complete manufacture to market. In China and In doftan the extent and variety of inland navigations fave the greater part of this labour, and confequently of this money, and thereby reduce ftill lower both the real and the nominal price of the greater part of their manufactures. Upon all these accounts, the precious metals are a commodity which it always has been, and still continues to be, extremely advantageous to carry from Europe to India. There is fcarce any commodity which brings a better price there; or which, in proportion to the quantity of labour and commodities which it costs in Europe, will purchase or command a greater quantity of labour and commodities in India. It is more advantageous too to carry filver thither than gold; because in China, and the greater part of the other markets of India, the proportion between fine filver and fine gold is but as ten, or at most as twelve, to one; whereas in Europe it is as fourteen or fifteen to one. In China, and the greater part of the other markets of India, ten, or at most twelve, ounces of filver will purchase an ounce of gold: in Europe it requires from fourteen to fifteen ounces. In the cargoes, therefore, of the greater part of European fhips which fail to India, filver has generally been one of the most valuable articles. It is the most valuable article

I.

BOOK in the Acapulco fhips which fail to Manilla. The filver of the new continent seems in this manner to be one of the principal commodities by which the commerce between the two extremities of the old one is carried on, and it is by means of it, in a great measure, that thofe diftant parts of the world are connected with one another.

In order to fupply fo very widely extended a market, the quantity of filver annually brought from the mines muft not only be fufficient to fupport that continual increase both of coin and of plate which is required in all thriving countries; but to repair that continual wafte and confumption of filver which takes place in all countries where that metal is used.

The continual confumption of the precious metals in coin by wearing, and in plate both by wearing and cleaning, is very fenfible; and in commodities of which the ufe is fo very widely extended, would alone require a very great annual fupply. The confumption of thofe metals in fome particular manufactures, though it may not perhaps be greater upon the whole than this gradual confumption, is, however, much more fenfible, as it is much more rapid. In the manufactures of Birmingham alone, the quantity of gold and filver annually employed in gilding and plating, and thereby difqualified from ever afterwards appearing in the fhape of thofe metals, is faid to amount to more than fifty thoufand pounds fterling. We may from thence form fome notion how great must be the annual confumption in all the different parts of the world,

4

either

XI.

either in manufactures of the fame kind with CHA P thofe of Birmingham, or in laces, embroideries, gold and filver ftuffs, the gilding of books, furniture, &c. A confiderable quantity too muft be annually loft in tranfporting thofe metals from one place to another both by fea and by land. In the greater part of the governments of Afia, befides, the almoft univerfal cuftom of concealing treasures in the bowels of the earth, of which the knowledge frequently dies with the person who makes the concealment, must occafion the lofs of a ftill greater quantity.

The quantity of gold and filver imported at both Cadiz and Lisbon (including not only what comes under regifter, but what may be fuppofed to be fmuggled) amounts, according to the best accounts, to about fix millions fterling a year.

*

According to Mr. Meggens the annual importation of the precious metals into Spain, at an average of fix years; viz. from 1748 to 1753, both inclufive; and into Portugal, at an average of feven years; viz. from 1747 to 1753, both inclufive; amounted in filver to 1,101,107 pounds weight; and in gold to 49,940 pounds weight. The filver at fixty-two fhillings the pound Troy, amounts to 3,413,431l. 10s. fterling. The gold, at forty-four guineas and a

* Postscript to the Universal Merchant, p. 15 and 16. This Poftfcript was not printed till 1756, three years after the publication of the book, which has never had a fecond edition. The postscript is, therefore, to be found in few copies: It corrects feveral errors in the book.