Page:Craik History of British Commerce Vol 2.djvu/187

Rh was all called in on the occasion to be recoined; and the native antiquaries boast that no less a sum than 411,117l. 10s. 9d. was actually brought to the Mint at Edinburgh for that purpose; "besides perhaps as much more, hoarded up by the whimsical, disaftected, and timorous, who were strongly prepossessed against the Union, and were far from believing it would last any length of time; besides, also, what was then exported, and what was retained by silversmiths for plate, &c." On the whole, it is calculated that the gold and silver currency of Scotland in the year 1707 was not less than 900,000l. sterling. It has been estimated that the money circulated in England at this time was about sixteen millions.

After the details into which we have entered respecting the quarter of a century that immediately followed the Revolution, during which our trade may be supposed to have settled itself in the new channels into which it was impelled principally by that great political change and the wars to which it gave rise, it will be sufficient that we notice only the most remarkable or significant facts in the commercial history of the remainder of the present period.

The accession of the House of Hanover, however much the national industry in all its branches may have benefited from the tranquillity and security resulting from the confirmed establishment of that family on the throne, and the final extinction of the hope of a second restoration of the Stuarts, would not seem at first to have operated favourably upon our foreign trade, nor, consequently, upon the spirit and activity with which production was carried on at home, if we were to regard our exports to other countries as measuring the entire produce of our land and labour. The value of our exports for 1714, the last year of the reign of Anne, was 8,008,068l., which was a higher amount than they overreached during the reign of George I. In 1715 they fell to 6,922,263l.; in 1716 they were 7,049,992l.; and in 1718 they had declined so low as to 6,361,390l. From this point,