Pagina 584 de 2651

The proportion between the quantities of gold and silver annually

imported into Europe, according to Mr Meggens' account, is as one

to twenty-two nearly; that is, for one ounce of gold there are

imported a little more than twenty-two ounces of silver. The

great quantity of silver sent annually to the East Indies

reduces, he supposes, the quantities of those metals which remain

in Europe to the proportion of one to fourteen or fifteen, the

proportion of their values. The proportion between their values,

he seems to think, must necessarily be the same as that between

their quantities, and would therefore be as one to twenty-two,

were it not for this greater exportation of silver.