decrease of £141,359 sterling. The principal cause of this appears to be the cessation of the large remittances made to England by the East India Company from the Indian treasuries, and which are not likely to be resumed. The Constantinople steamers have brought gold and silver value £370,533 sterling, against £540,000 received from January to June, inclusive, in 1849, and the Peninsular steamers, from the Spanish and Portuguese ports have brought specie value £130,000. The aggregate amount of the precious metals imported into Southampton from all quarters for the six mouths ending the 30th of June, including $50,000 from the United States, is $14,695,600, or £2,939,120, against £3,372,724, in the corresponding period of 1849, showing a fall off in the total receipts of £423,604, caused by the lessened supplies from Alexandria, Constantinople, and the Mediterranean. The specie imported into Southampton, from all quarters during the six months ending the 31st of December last, amounted to $16,379,655, or £3,275,931, an excess, when compared with the half year just ended, of £336,811 sterling. We subjoin the substance of the statements and views on the same subject, by Professor Tucker, as furnished to the Merchants Magazine: According to approved authority, the quantity of gold and silver in Europe at the end of the 15th century, when America was discovered, was about $300,000,000. Mr. Jacob estimates the coin then in circulation at $170,000,000. According to Baron Humboldt From 1492 to 1500 the amount of gold and silver which flowed into Europe from America was $250,000 a year, in all $2,000,000. From 1500 to 1545 it was $3,000,000 a year, in all $135,000,000. From 1545 to 1600 it was $11,000,000, a year, in all 605,000,000; making the whole amount then received from America $742,000,000. From 1600 to 1700 it was $16,000,000 a year, in all $1,600,000,000 making the whole amount received from America $2,342,000,000. From 1700 to 1750 it was $22,500,000 a year, in all $1,125,000,000; making the whole amount received from America $3,467,000,000. From 1750 to 1803 it was $32,300,000 a year, in all $1,870,000,000; and raising the total amount sent to Europe to $5,337,000,000. From this estimate it would appear that in one century from 1500 the precious metals in Europe had received an accession of $740,000,000, or of 2463 per cent.; in two centuries an accession of $2,340,000,000, or 780 per cent.; and in little more than three centuries the accession had been $5,335,000,000, or nearly 1800 per cent. To ascertain the present amount of the precious metals in Europe and America, we must add to the amount drawn from the American mines:-1. The amount in Europe before the discovery of America. 2. The amount in America at 1803. 3. The amount drawn since 1803 from the American, European, and Siberian mines, and imported from Africa. From their aggregate sum we must then deduct-1. What has been consumed by wear, or in the arts, and by losses at sea. 2. What has been transported to India and China. Thus The whole amount received from America, including $25,000,000 of booty obtained by the conquerors of Mexico and Peru, as estimated by Humboldt, The amount in Europe in 1492, $5,445,000,000 300,000,000 The amount in North and South America in 1803, according to Humboldt, 153,000,000 750,000.000 Drawn from the same, from 1830 to 1850, at the same rate, 555,000,000 The product of the mines of Europe, and the gold dust of Africa, according to Mr. Gallatin, 450,000,000 The same since 1830-at $7,000,000 a year-20 years, 140,000,000 From the Russian mines, 270,000,000 Total, $8,063,000,000 From this sum let us deduct $600,000,000 Consumed by wear of utensils, &c., and lost, 700,000,000 2,100,000,000 $3,400,000,000 Consumed by the wear of the coin-about a five-hundredth part annually, Transported to India and China, according to Jacob, Total, Now remaining in Europe and America, 4,663,000,000 which is less than Mr. Gallatin's estimate, and more than Mr. Jacob's. Professor Tucker arrives at the conclusion, that the precious metals, taken together, are not likely to undergo any sensible depreciation until their increase has made a near approach to 50 per cent. of their present amount, or near one-half of $4,663,000,000; nor to experience the same decline in value as was caused by the discovery of America, whatever that depreciation may be, until the quantity now in existence has also been multiplied fifteen fold, that is, until it has reached the unsupposable sum of $70,000,000,000. Before the discovery of America, the quantity of gold annually drawn from the mines was supposed to be to that of silver as about 60 to 1, and their proportionate values were as 10 or 12 to 1. After several subsequent fluctuations in the relative quan tities and values of the two metals, the proportion of gold to silver, in weight, annually drawn from the mines, has been for about a century as 1 to 40 or 41; and such also had been the proportion in Europe, before the mines of the Oural mountains were extensively worked. The proportion of gold has been greatly augmented by those mines, and is likely to experience a far greater increase by the mines of California. The present value of gold compared to that of silver is 15 or 16 to 1. It has been rising to its present price from about 144 to 1 for the last 50 or 60 years; but the extraordinary productiveness of the Siberian and Californian mines, which, it deserves to be remarked, are on directly opposite sides of the same hemisphere, are about to make its price vary in the opposite direction. It is generally supposed that, of the precious metals in Europe and America, about one-third part in value was gold, which, on the computation we have made, would be $1,554,000,000. For three or four years the Siberian mountains have yielded from $18,000,000 to $20,000,000 a year, which is believed to exceed the yearly product of all the rest of the world. The mines of California, though scarcely known to the world more than two years, appear to have produced from $12,000,000 to $14,000,000 last year; and from present indications the quantity this year will be much more than doubled. There have been already, July 12th, received at the mint of the United States $17,750,000, and large amounts have also been sent to England, China, Valparaiso, and other places. In January last the number of persons at the mines, chiefly seekers for gold, were computed to be 40,000; and the average product of a labourer who is steady, is estimated there at $1000 a month. Let us suppose that only one-half of the 40,000 are working in the mines; that they work only six months in the year-though many also work in the winter (in the dry diggings), and that their whole product for the year is but $2000, or one-third the supposed average, the whole amount they would then produce would be $40,000,000, making the extraordinary accession of gold from Russian and Californian mines for the year $60,000,000; which is nearly four per cent. on the supposed amount of that metal in Europe and America, and three per cent. if we raise that amount, as some do, to $1,800,000,000. Now the average annual product of the American mines between 1560 and 1640, the period when Adam Smith supposes that nearly the whole depreciation took place, was less than $13,000,000 (12,900,000), and consequently less than three per cent., or $454,000,000, the whole supposed amount in Europe in 1560, the commencement of that period. But the quantity yielded by the California mines will continue to increase, if they make any tolerable approach to the confident representations given of their fertility and extent. They will be wrought by greater numbers, and to greater advantage. They will attract immigrants from every part of the United States, and even from other countries, and time can only show to what degree their products will be multiplied. Should they reach $100,000,000 a year-and they may pass greatly beyond that amount -the annual addition would be 63 per cent. on $1,800,000,000, which more than doubles the past contributions of the American mines in their greatest productiveness. AMERICAN COMMERCE. From the report of the register of the treasury on the commerce and navigation of the United States for the last fiscal year, it appears that during the year ending June 30, 1849, the United States exported The exports of bread stuffs for the same period were as follows: $5,350,743 $3,102,977 8,494,368 $5,391,391 $1,583,224 5,513,785 $3,930,561 |