Pagina 590 de 2651

The tax of the king of Spain upon gold is only one-twentieth part

of the standard metal, or five per cent.; whereas his tax upon

silver amounts to one-tenth part of it, or to ten per cent. In

these taxes, too, it has already been observed, consists the

whole rent of the greater part of the gold and silver mines of

Spanish America; and that upon gold is still worse paid than that

upon silver. The profits of the undertakers of gold mines, too,

as they more rarely make a fortune, must, in general, be still

more moderate than those of the undertakers of silver mines. The

price of Spanish gold, therefore, as it affords both less rent

and less profit, must, in the Spanish market, be somewhat nearer

to the lowest price for which it is possible to bring it thither,

than the price of Spanish silver. When all expenses are computed,

the whole quantity of the one metal, it would seem, cannot, in

the Spanish market, be disposed of so advantageously as the whole

quantity of the other.