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The annual importation of the precious metals into Cadiz and

Lisbon, indeed, is not equal to the whole annual produce of the

mines of America. Some part is sent annually by the Acapulco

ships to Manilla; some part is employed in a contraband trade,

which the Spanish colonies carry on with those of other European

nations; and some part, no doubt, remains in the country. The

mines of America, besides, are by no means the only gold and

silver mines in the world. They, are, however, by far the most

abundant. The produce of all the other mines which are known is

insignificant, it is acknowledged, in comparison with theirs; and

the far greater part of their produce, it is likewise

acknowledged, is annually imported into Cadiz and Lisbon. But the

consumption of Birmingham alone, at the rate of fifty thousand

pounds a-year, is equal to the hundred-and-twentieth part of this

annual importation, at the rate of six millions a-year.