M. Neckar shows from the registers of Lisbon and Cadiz, that the
importation of gold and silver into Europe, is five millions
sterling annually. He has not taken it on a single year, but on an
average of fifteen succeeding years, from 1763 to 1777, both
inclusive; in which time, the amount was one thousand eight hundred
million livres, which is seventy-five millions sterling.*[14]
From the commencement of the Hanover succession in 1714 to the
time Mr. Chalmers published, is seventy-two years; and the quantity
imported into Europe, in that time, would be three hundred and sixty
millions sterling.
If the foreign commerce of Great Britain be stated at a sixth part
of what the whole foreign commerce of Europe amounts to (which is
probably an inferior estimation to what the gentlemen at the
Exchange would allow) the proportion which Britain should draw by
commerce of this sum, to keep herself on a proportion with the rest of
Europe, would be also a sixth part which is sixty millions sterling;
and if the same allowance for waste and accident be made for England
which M. Neckar makes for France, the quantity remaining after these
deductions would be fifty-two millions; and this sum ought to have
been in the nation (at the time Mr.
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