صفحة 514 من 2651

Silver must certainly be cheaper in Spanish America than in

Europe; in the country where it is produced, than in the country

to which it is brought, at the expense of a long carriage both by

land and by sea, of a freight, and an insurance. One-and-twenty

pence halfpenny sterling, however, we are told by Ulloa, was, not

many years ago, at Buenos Ayres, the price of an ox chosen from a

herd of three or four hundred. Sixteen shillings sterling, we are

told by Mr Byron, was the price of a good horse in the capital of

Chili. In a country naturally fertile, but of which the far

greater part is altogether uncultivated, cattle, poultry, game of

all kinds, etc. as they can be acquired with a very small

quantity of labour, so they will purchase or command but a very

small quantity. The low money price for which they may be sold,

is no proof that the real value of silver is there very high, but

that the real value of those commodities is very low.