[Footnote 185-5: The reviews in the Göttingen G. Anz., 1777, and of _von Iselin_, in the Ephemeriden der Menschheit, II, 170 ff., 177, question _Adam Smith's_ (Wealth of Nat., II, ch. 4) entirely too positive denial of the influence of the American production of gold and silver on the diminution of the rate of interest, a view which was shared also by _Turgot_, Form. et Distr., § 78. See a beautiful comparison between a declining of the prices of the currency which, promotes production, with the phenomena attending the growth of a tree, in _Schäffle_, N. Oek., II, Aufl., 249.] [Footnote 185-6: Thus the rate of interest in Rome fell from 12 to 4 per cent. when Octavian suddenly threw the treasures of conquered Egypt upon the market, and the price of commodities only doubled. When later commerce had divided this amount of money among the provinces, it rose again. (_Sueton._, Oct., 41; _Dio C._, LI, 17, 21; Oros, IV, 19.) _Law's_ emissions of paper, in colossal amounts, depressed the rate of interest to 1¼ per cent. (_Dutot_, Réflexions, 990--Daire.) But as soon as the paper money had lost its value, the former condition returned. Similar observations in Rio de Janeiro: _Spix_ und _Martius_, Reise, I, 131.] [Footnote 185-7: While in Paris the capital safely invested paid 2½ to 3 per cent., 57 out of 61 _conseils généraux_ declared, in 1845, that the rate of interest on hypothecations, in their departments, was always over 5 per cent.; 17 estimated it at an average of from 6 to 7 per cent.; 12 at from 7 to 10; some said 12 and 15, and even 22 per cent. in the case of small sums loaned for a short time. (_Chegarny_, Rapport au Nom de la Commission de la Réforme hypoth., 29 Avril, 1851.) In Russia, at the beginning of this century, the rate of interest in the Baltic provinces was 6 per cent.; in Moscow, 10; in Taurien, 25; in Astracan, 30 per cent. (_v. Schlözer_, Anfangsgründe I, 102.) In 1750, in Naples, the rate of interest was from 3 to 5 per cent., in the provinces from 7 to 9 per cent. (_Guliani_, della Moneta, IV, 1.) In Trajan's time in Rome, 6; in Bithynia, 12 per cent. (_Plin._, Epist. VII, 18; X, 62.)]