The Sun.
London, England, 1839-09-19 00:00:00

In Greece itself precious metals originally existed.
Laurio was renowned for its silver mines. Gold was
found in Thessalia near the borders of Macedonia
and Thrace, as well as in the island of Thases, situated
facing Thessalia. Iberia also furnished gold to the Phe-
nicians and Carthagenians. There were years when
20,0001b5. weight were drawn from Gallicia, Lusitania,
and, above all, the Asturias. This, M. de Hum-
boldt observes, is almost as much as the Brazils have
supplied at tlscir most flourishing period. As for silver,
it abounded in Bahia and the neighbourhood of New
Carthage (Carthagena). There is no doubting (con-
tinues the author) that the earth formerly contained
near its surface layers of gold sand or strata filled with
wrecks of gold ore.
Nevertheless the production of gold in Europe was
greatly inferior to what it was in Asia ; it was towards
that quarter that the eyes of conquerors were turned ;
it was to reach the immense treasures supposed to exist
in Lipanga that Columbus sought a shorter way by the
Atlantic Ocean. Having landed in the Island of Haiti,
he believed himself at Tarsis, Ophir, Lipanga, and on
seeing some particles of gold fancied he had got posses-
' sion of the richest mines of the o.d World. It was
others who supplied so much gold, that, as early as the
year 1497, the Spanish Government was obliged to
alter the relative prices of the two precious metals.
This ratio between the prices of gold and silver again
underwent a change, when, towards the middle of the
sixteenth century, the rich silver mines of Potosi and
Zacatecas, in Peru, and in northern Mexico, were dis-
covered. " According to researches carefully According made by
me," says M. de Humboldt, " the importation of Ame-
rican gold was to that of silver from the same country,
as regards weight, in the ratio of 1 to 63, until the
opening of the gold washing in Brazils, at the beginning
of the eighteenth century. At present, if we consider
the general trade in metals carried on by Europe with
all parts of the world, the ratio between the two metals
is ao longer but as Ito 47. In the first century after
the discovefy 'Of the tibw. Continent the relative value
of the two metals among cbmtbercial nations fluctuated
between 1 : 10 7-1011's and 1 : 12 ; in the two last
centuries between 1..: I'4 and 1:16." This ratio, adds
tire author, does not depend only on the quantity of
those metals annually extracted from the bosom of
the earth ; it is also, determined by the expense of work-
?ng the mines, by the demand and wants of the public,
by the unequal 'deterioration ; and, lastly, by the more
or less. expensive employment of either metal in jewel-
lery and other articles. As a very considerable mass of
the two metals already circulates, and as they are by
degrees put into circulation, they easily and promptly
spread in commerce, there can be no more large and
permanent fluctuations in the ratio between those values.
Instances of this occurred after the great commercial
commotion caused by the American revolution, as well
as after the coining of a considerable quantity of money
of one of the two metals. Thus, in London, though
from 1817 to 1827 gold money was coined there to the
amount of 1,294,000 mares, the ratio between gold and
silver rose but from 1 : 14,97 to 1 : 15,60. From that
period it has scarcely fallen, for, at the end of 1837, one
still had in London one pound of gold against fifteen
pounds 65-100 of silver.
The mass of precious metals which, from the dis-
covery of America to the period of the Mexican revo-
lutions flowed into Europe amounted to 2,381,600
kilogrammes of gold, and 122,217,300 kilogrammes
of silver, 110,362,222 kilogrammes of fine silver.) This
last metal, if melted into a mass, would form a ball of
the diameter of 83 7-10th feets. It is known that all