Effects on Civilisation of Great Influx of Gold and Silver from the Plunder of America.

The entire stock of the precious metals, coins and plate, at the period of the discovery of America estimated by Jacob in 1820, was £34,000,000. Up to the year 1546 there had been obtained from America £25,000,000, and from Malacca, etc., say £10,000,000, as a large portion of the first spoils were absorbed by the nobles and ecclesiastics, the entire stock was not exceeding £50,000,000 in 1546. Prom 1546 to 1645 a period of one hundred years, there were obtained from America gold and silver to the value of £200,000,000, from Japan £80,000,000, total £370,000,000 sterling. Assuming that £50,000,000 were retained in America or lost, and £70,000,000 were converted page 22 into plate, or employed in the arts, there would remain £250,000,000 for conversion into coins, this would have enhanced the previous stock five times!! And this is more or less what happened.

From the discovery of her placers in 1680, Brazil has produced to 1803 upwards of £184,000,000 of gold (Humboldt). From the discovery of her places in 1848 to 1878, California has produced £220,000,000 of gold. From the discovery of her placers in 1851 to 1878, Australia has produced £240,000,000 of gold (U.S. Monetary Commission R., Sir Hector Hay).

The total sum of the supplies of gold and silver to Europe up to 1878 inclusive, since the discovery of America, were about £2,627,000,000, to this must be added £33,400,000 for the amount of specie estimated to have been in use as coins in Europe at the period of the discovery of America; the total of these sums is £2,661,200,000. The amount of coin estimated to have been in the Western world in 1876 was £700,000,000, and at the present time it is a little over £600,000,000. It follows that of the total supplies nearly £2,000,000,000, or over 70 per cent. has been consumed in the arts, or exported to Asia (Jacob).

From the opening of the American placers, and consequence of the diffusion of money was that great "rise of prices," which occurred in Northern Europe between 1570 and 1640—Society was profoundly stirred into action, in the course of a century and a-half prices rose in Maritime Europe from five to ten times (Adam Smith). The plunder of the coast of Africa, the Eastern Archipelago, and Japan contributed to this. A great wave of industrial activity swept from the south to the north of Europe. Spain, Holland, England, and France all enjoyed a halcyon age, when men lived by centuries instead of years; they saw more movement, more progress, more growth in one generation than had been seen before in one hundred, when genius soared to the dome of thought, and miracles were performed in every department of invention. This period coincided in Spain with the ages of Charles and Philip, in Holland with the Republic, in England with Elizabeth, and in France with Louis XIV."

If all prices rose simultaneously and evenly, neither a rise nor a fall of prices could have any interest for the great mass of mankind, but such is not the order of nature. The precession of prices during the above period took the following form—1st. Corn; 2nd. Fabrics; 3rd. Labour; 4th. Lands and rents. As stocks of agricultural products and merchandise bore a much smaller proportion to the wealth of nations then than they do at present, the principal force of this "rise of prices" manifested itself in the enhanced value of labour, and the improved condition of the commercial and industrial classes. The purchasing power of labour over rents and land increased so rapidly that a very considerable portion of the lands of Northern Europe passed during this period into the hands of classes who were impelled to render them productive, but who never since the conquest of Europe by the Romans had before enjoyed an opportunity to do so, Everywhere was seen the signs of a new awakening, in the industrial arts, in learning, in science, and the improved condition of the people.