Page 575 of 2651

He gives us the detail of the particular places from which the

gold and silver were brought, and of the particular quantity of

each metal, which, according to the register, each of them

afforded. He makes an allowance, too, for the quantity of each

metal which, he supposes, may have been smuggled. The great

experience of this judicious merchant renders his opinion of

considerable weight.

According to the eloquent, and sometimes well-informed, author of

the Philosophical and Political History of the Establishment of

the Europeans in the two Indies, the annual importation of

registered gold and silver into Spain, at an average of eleven

years, viz. from 1754 to 1764, both inclusive, amounted to

13,984,185 ⅗ piastres of ten reals. On account of what may have

been smuggled, however, the whole annual importation, he

supposes, may have amounted to seventeen millions of piastres,

which, at 4s. 6d. the piastre, is equal to £ 3,825,000 sterling.

He gives the detail, too, of the particular places from which the

gold and silver were brought, and of the particular quantities of

each metal, which according to the register, each of them

afforded.