Page:The Present State of Peru.djvu/140

114 its traffic; and the most certain proof of the rapid circulation of wealth.

The amount of the specie existing in a kingdom, is not a certain indication of the state of its commerce, which may flourish in an extraordinary degree, without its produce being equalled by the former. England, which, in 1783, raised the value of her manufactures to fifty-one millions sterling, and, in 1784, to sixty-eight millions thirty thousand pounds, did not reckon, comprehending Scotland, more than thirty millions of circulating specie in gold, and seven in silver. Consequently, notwithstanding the free trade may, as has been alleged, have diminished the amount of the specie circulating in the viceroyalty of Peru, it does not follow from this principle, that it has been the cause of the decay of its commerce.

Hume observes, in his Political Essays, that there is not a more infallible mean of reducing the value of specie, than the establishment of banks, public funds, and paper credit. If the latter be multiplied in abundance, the other effects will become proportionally scarce; and in this manner, a great part of the precious metals will find their way abroad. For, seeing that paper has not any estimation out of the country which bestows on it a nominal value, it will not enter into the combinations of the foreign merchant, whose aim will be to extract the specie, which is alike precious in every kingdom.

These reflections have been confirmed by experience. Before the introduction of paper credit into the Anglo-American colonies, gold and silver were in abundant circulation, but as soon as that medium was established, the above metals most