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The tax of the king of Spain was reduced to a fifth of the

registered silver in 1504 {Solorzano, vol, ii.}, one-and-forty

years before 1545, the date of the discovery of the mines of

Potosi. In the course of ninety years, or before 1636, these

mines, the most fertile in all America, had time sufficient to

produce their full effect, or to reduce the value of silver in

the European market as low as it could well fall, while it

continued to pay this tax to the king of Spain. Ninety years is

time sufficient to reduce any commodity, of which there is no

monopoly, to its natural price, or to the lowest price at which,

while it pays a particular tax, it can continue to be sold for

any considerable time together.