Pagina 594 de 2651

Such successive reductions of the tax, however, though they may

not prevent altogether, must certainly retard, more or less, the

rise of the value of silver in the European market. In

consequence of such reductions, many mines may be wrought which

could not be wrought before, because they could not afford to pay

the old tax; and the quantity of silver annually brought to

market, must always be somewhat greater, and, therefore, the

value of any given quantity somewhat less, than it otherwise

would have been. In consequence of the reduction in 1736, the

value of silver in the European market, though it may not at this

day be lower than before that reduction, is, probably, at least

ten per cent. lower than it would have been, had the court of

Spain continued to exact the old tax.