Pagina 576 van 2651

He informs us, too, that if we were to judge of the quantity of

gold annually imported from the Brazils to Lisbon, by the amount

of the tax paid to the king of Portugal, which it seems, is

one-fifth of the standard metal, we might value it at eighteen

millions of cruzadoes, or forty-five millions of French livres,

equal to about twenty millions sterling. On account of what may

have been smuggled, however, we may safely, he says, add to this

sum an eighth more, or £ 250,000 sterling, so that the whole will

amount to £ 2,250,000 sterling. According to this account,

therefore, the whole annual importation of the precious metals

into both Spain and Portugal, mounts to about £ 6,075,000

sterling.

Several other very well authenticated, though manuscript

accounts, I have been assured, agree in making this whole annual

importation amount, at an average, to about six millions

sterling; sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less.