Humboldt’s calculations differ but little from those of M. Michel Chevalier. This great authority considers that the import of gold until the first years in the 18th century, bore the proportion to silver of 1 to 65. Let either of these suppositions be true, there can be little doubt, that the relative weight of supply of the two metals varied by one half, without any serious alteration in their relative price; which surely proves that gold was essentially required, and that the increase of production did but fill up the gap, which, as far as the 18th century, the progress of civilization and of luxury had created, without an adequate means of supply. In ancient times, the relative value of the two metals appears to have been almost entirely governed by the quantities produced and brought to market. A pound of gold was worth eight or ten pounds of silver, according as the quantity brought to market varied in the like proportion. The simplicity of commercial interests, in a state of society when neither luxurious arts or industry were thought of, offered no inducements for the collection of gold or silver for their use as money, excepting on account of their relative scarcity; but when fighting ceased to be the principal occupation of mankind, and labour began to be held in some estimation, an end was put to this patriarchal state: if the people lost their primitive simplicity, the relation of supply and demand no longer depended exclusively on the proportionate production of the two metals; other causes affecting a rise and fall began to operate on prices. When the precious metals were nearly absorbed in the supply of money, their commercial value had no other element to influence an alteration than the requirements of circulation; the monetary value governed the commercial price. But, at the present time the contrary is the case: the greater the degree of civilization, and the greater the increase of a taste for luxuries, the more does the demand for the precious metals for other objects exceed the want of them for coin. Mr. Jacob, whose work on the precious metals appeared in 1831, places a value of [6]149,000,000 francs on the gold and silver annually used for articles of jewellery and plate in Europe and America. During the last twenty years the progress of luxury amongst the industrious and commercial nations of the world has been enormous. The moveable wealth of France and England has made prodigious accumulations. What family is there so poor as not to have some article of plate? Gilding is no longer confined to the decorations of temples and palaces; it is found in the most humble cottage. To what a length may it not reach if the taste should increase for gilding the dresses of ladies, and for covering the uniforms of our men with gold or silver lace?