Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/500

 481 COMMERCIAL DESCRIPTION OF To the statement given of the exports of vSu- matra and Pontianak, and of the produce of the mines of Montradak, many items are wanting to en- able us to form an estimate of the total produce of the Archipelago. The whole of the natives of the Indian Islands consume, as ornaments, a much larger quantity of gold than could be reckoned upon from the standard of their relative wealth and civilization. This arises, in some measure, — from the want of silver mines, and the greater relative va- lue of that metal, — from the demand of the pre- cious metals being not for plate or utensils, but for personal ornaments, for which the beauty of gold makes it more suitable, — and from the necessary cheapness of gold in the countries which produce it. This is, of course, a point to be considered in attempting to form an estimate of the whole amount. Of the production of the Malay Penin- sula, the Suliik Archipelago, the east coast of Borneo, and the Island of Celebes, with the whole of the Philippines, we have no means of forming an estimate, but if the whole produce of these, with the domestic consumption, amount to but one-fourth of that of which I have attempted to forai an estimate, and this is, perhaps, a moderate conjecture, then the whole produce of the mines of the Archipelago will be 154,865 oz., worth 2,925,2!28 Spanish dollars, or L. 658,170 Sterling, or more than one-fifth of the produce of the mines of America, nearly nine times the produce of the mines