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The quantity of the precious metals which is to be found in any

country, is not limited by any thing in its local situation, such

as the fertility or barrenness of its own mines. Those metals

frequently abound in countries which possess no mines. Their

quantity, in every particular country, seems to depend upon two

different circumstances; first, upon its power of purchasing,

upon the state of its industry, upon the annual produce of its

land and labour, in consequence of which it can afford to employ

a greater or a smaller quantity of labour and subsistence, in

bringing or purchasing such superfluities as gold and silver,

either from its own mines, or from those of other countries; and,

secondly, upon the fertility or barrenness of the mines which may

happen at any particular time to supply the commercial world with

those metals.