Page:Swedenborg, Harbinger of the New Age of the Christian Church.djvu/95

 its greater abundance may be many-fold more valuable.

In the following May he had occasion to present another and longer memorial to the same purport, in consequence of instructions given by the Diet to the Royal College of Mines to pay special attention to the mining of silver and copper. He showed that the yearly production of iron in Sweden was equivalent to fifty tons of gold, and that of copper was equivalent to less than fifteen tons. While then he would have the copper mines cherished and protected, he would not have it done at the expense of the iron mines. Yet he seems to have been opposed in these commonsense views by his own colleagues of the Royal College of Mines, on what ground we do not know.

About the same time he presented another memorial to the Diet, setting forth the fact that Swedish iron was then exported in pigs to Holland, whence it was re-shipped inland to Liège and Sauerland, where it was puddled and rolled into bar or sheet iron, then carried back to Holland and exported at great profit to various countries. This profit, he declares, with small expense and industry might be kept at home. He accompanies