eight millions of dollars, but has not since exceeded twelve millions of dollars.

Mr. Tooke, who wrote his book on high and low prices under the impression that there had been no defalcation in the supply of gold and silver from the mines, endeavoured to account for the depression of prices from over production. When the account of the supply from the South American mines for the ten years which preceded 1810, and for the ten years which followed that year, was sent to him by Mr. Jacob, Mr. Tooke published the account in a supplemental section to a second edition of his work. But he doubted the extent of its operation, 1. From the quantity of commodities, in the circumstances he adverted to, affecting the contingent as well as actual supply, compared to the average rate of consumption, which it appeared to him might account for the difference of bullion prices. 2. The diminution or cessation of the drain of silver from hence to the East Indies and China, and an inversion of the stream by the importation of the precious metals from the East Indies to this country. 3. From the increased transport to Europe of immense capitals in gold and silver, consequent upon the migration of old Spaniards. from South America.

But none of these causes had any operation in 1811. Increased production since has, per

C

haps, been rather a consequence from than a cause of the rise in the exchangeable value of money, from a defalcation in the supply of the precious metals; because all commercial men have engagements to make good, and when they become unequal to meet their payments from returns falling off in money amount, they naturally endeavour to make up for deficiency of price by increase of quantity. The diminution or cessation of the drain of silver to the East, and the influx thence to this country (consequent upon gold and silver becoming scarcer in Europe than in Asia), did not take place for nearly ten years after 1810; and the supply brought by emigrant Spaniards could only be to a limited amount, and could produce only a temporary effect.

The termination of the war, and the preparation made for returning to a metallic standard in 1819, to which so much effect beyond their actual operation has been ascribed by others, could not account for the fall of prices in 1811. The one could not have any influence until 1816, nor the other for three years afterwards. Mr. Tooke appears to me to have shown, very successfully, that war or peace, or even taxes, have little effect upon general prices. He appears to me to be not less successful in showing that the diminution of prices, consequent upon

returning to a standard of gold, could not have any influence beyond the difference between the mint and the market price of gold, in which he supports Mr. Ricardo's opinion. It was the rise in the exchangeable value of the standard, and not the return to it, which has occasioned a depression of prices so much beyond the difference between paper and bullion prices.

In reviewing Mr. Jacob's book on the production and consumption of the precious metals, the reviewer questions a rise in the exchangeable value of money, from a defalcation in the supply of gold and silver from the mines, upon grounds which either serve only to lessen the effects of the defalcation, or which resolve the rise into an increased supply of other commodities; but, if the supply of all other commodities be unquestionably increasing, and the supply of gold and silver be stationary, or increasing in a much smaller proportion, it necessarily follows that a continuing depression of prices must follow from the scantiness of the supply of the precious metals; and the amount of the depression must increase in proportion to the increasing abundance in the supply of other commodities, and the scantiness of the supply of gold and silver, varied by the difference in the abundance or scantiness in the

* Edinburgh Review for April, 1832.

relative supply in particular years. It seems impossible to account for a continuing depression of prices, otherwise than by a rise in the exchangeable value of gold and silver, from a scantiness in the supply. The comparative aggregate of our exports in every succeeding year shows continuing depression, which appears to increase in a greater proportion of late years, than attended the depression when it first began in 1811; but the commencement, unquestionably, was occasioned by a defalcation in the supply of the precious metals; and the progressive depression since is perfectly consistent with a progressive increase in the supply of other commodities, conducing with the scantiness of the supply of the precious metals to depress prices.

Since 1814, the official and declared value has been given, in our finance accounts, of every separate article exported. A list of them is subjoined to the prefixed table, comprising every branch of home produce and manufacture. With the exception of a few articles, the official and declared value of which is always the same (umbrellas and parasols for example), the declared value of every article becomes less and less every year. Depression has fallen much more heavily upon some articles than upon others. The differences of depression can be accounted for, from circumstances applicable to each branch of manufac

ture; but it can no more be explained how depression should increase upon every article every year, than it can be explained how a great and sudden depression should have begun in the year 1811, otherwise than by a defalcation in the supply of gold and silver from the mines; which, in point of fact, we know happened in that year, and still continues, to the extent of three fourths of the previous annual supply. Other causes may account for the differences, but no other cause can account for the commencement or the continuance of the depression, without the intermission even of a single year. How much of the amount of the depression may arise from this cause, and how much from other causes, it is impossible to ascertain; but there is one among our articles of export which may afford reasonable evidence in this respect, namely, tin unwrought. The Cornwall mines are worked now exactly as they were in 1814. Tin is got nowhere else in Europe; and at present, from no other than the Cornwall and Banca mines. We have, therefore, in some measure a monopoly of the article, and are enabled to suit the supply to the demand, the increase of which, as it should seem, should be to increase the price. Yet the quantity exported has increased yearly since 1814, until the three last years that it has fallen off. The finance accounts do not enable me to