Mr. Jacob estimated the coin in Europe at the discovery of America at £34,000,000 sterling, and Mr. King estimated the whole amount of gold and silver in Europe in 1516 at £45,000,000 sterling, over two-thirds of which, perhaps, was coin. (See tables V. and VI. of section 4.)

NO. V.

Estimate of the produce of the mines of Europe and America, the amount used in the arts and exported to Asia, and the amount made into and remaining in coin and bullion at different periods. (See Ante-Table iv., of section 4.)

Amount of coin in Europe in the year 1500,

J'roduce of the mines of America during the 16th century,

Produce of the mines of Europe and imported from Africa,

Total,

Wear and loss of old coin, one-fourth part,

Exported to India, China, and other parts of Asia,

Used in the arts to make into plate, watches, jewelry, gilding images, &c., in churches, and other utensils and ornaments,

Made into coin, (280,000,000)-wear and loss of new coin 1-10th part,

Amount to be deducted,

Specie and bullion in use in Europe and America, Dec. 31st, 1600,
Produce of the American mines during the 17th century,

Produce of the mines of Europe, and gold dust imported from Africa,

Total,

Wear and loss of the old coin, one-fourth part,

Exported to Asia over £1,000,000 per annum,

Used in the arts,

Made into coin, ($436,000,000)-wear and loss of new coin, 1-10th part,

Amount to be deducted,

Specie in use, December, 31, 1700,

Produce of the mines of America during the 18th century,

Produce of the mines of Europe, and goid dust from Africa, according to Jacob, less oue-eighth part,

Made into coin, $796,000,000-wear and loss of new coin, 1 1-10th part,

Exported to Asia, £2,000,000 per year,

Used in the arts, over £2,500,000 per year,

Amount to be deducted,

Specie in use, December 31, 1800,

$167,000,000 960,000, 00 1,260,000,000 80,000,000

$2,467,000,000

Pro luce of the mines of America to December 1810, about

Produce of the mines of Europe, Siberia, and gold dust from Africa, per
Humboldt and Jacob,

$1,219,000,000 398,000,000

42,000,000

All the accounts and estimates seem to agree that most of the American mines were growing less and less productive, and the total supply of the precious metals much less annually from 1820 to 1840 than it was half a century since, while the population of Europe and America, and the wants of the commercial world, as well as the world of fashion, are rapidly increasing.

Since 1840 there has been a great increase in the production of the mines of Russia; which, together with the amount of gold procured during the years 1848 and 1849 from the mines and sands of California, and the prospect of an immense increase from the latter source, renders it probable that the production of the precious metals may, for some years to come, equal, and perhaps exceed, the consumption and the increase of population in the civilized world.

It should be remarked that prior to the nineteenth century, and, to some extent, also, as late as 1816, large quantities of cotton and silk goods were imported from India into Europe and America, and large sums of coin exported to India in payment, as well as to China and the East India Islands, to pay for tea, spices, &c. M. Humboldt estimates that at the commencement of the present century, more than half of all the produce of the American mines, over twenty-five millions of dollars annually of gold and silver, were exported to Asia. Since the machinery of Great Britain, and the prodigious increase of the manufactures of that country, have driver the cotton goods of India not only out of the markets of Europe and America, but to a considerable extent out of their own markets, and pretty much ruined and broken them down; and the British have also battered down the barrier which excluded the products of Europe and America (except specie) from the markets of China, the drain of the precious metals to China, India, and all Asia, has ceased or nearly so. It appears from the reports of the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, that the balance of gold and silver exported to China and other parts of Asia, over and above the amount imported from them, have been as follows:-During the year

ending September 30, 1835, it amounted to $1,995,140; in in 1842 it amounted to $837,094; in 1844 to $574,000; and in 1845 to only $239,874. The exports of the manufactures of Great Britain to China, as well as India and Turkey, have been so great since 1830, that very little specie has been exported from Europe to Asia, and for ever hereafter we may expect the balance to be the other way, and that specie will be exported from China and other parts of Asia to Europe. Let us compare the population of Europe and America at several different periods with the estimated amount of coin at these periods, in order to see how their increase compares with each other; this will enable us to judge of the probable effect of the increase or decrease of coin upon the prices of commodities in the commercial world.

NO. VI

ESTIMATES OF THE POPULATION OF EUROPE AND AMERICA (EXCLUSIVE OF WANDERING INDIANS] AT DIFFERENT PERIODS; ALSO, THE AMOUNT OF COIN AND LULLION IN USE, AND THE AMOUNT TO EACH PERSON.

The Bank of Venice was the first banking establishment in Europe. It was founded in 1171, and subsisted till the subversion of the republic in 1797. It was a deposit bank only, and issued no notes.

The Bank of Amsterdam was established in the year 1609, and that of Hamburg in 1619; they were deposit banks, only, and issued no notes.

The Bank of England was incorporated in the year 1694, and was the first bank which ever issued notes, or bills to circulate as money, in the ordinary transactions of trade and commerce. The Bank of Scotland was established in 1695, with a capital of but £100,000, which was raised to £200,000 sterling in the year 1744, and in 1804 to 1,500,000. The original capital of the Bank of England was but £1,200,000 sterling, consisting of a loan of that amount to the government. These two were the only banks (if we except some private companies and bankers in London) that ever issued notes for a circulating medium, or money, and as a substitute for coin, prior to the 18th century, and the credit of the notes of the Bank of England was at first so poor, that the bank became involved in difficulties in 1696, and was compelled to suspend payment of its notes in coin, and the notes fell in value, and passed at a heavy discount. The amount in circulation February 28th, 1700, was but $938,240, and in August of the same year only 4781,430.

It is fair to assume that the circulating medium of the com mercial world was scarcely increased at all by bank notes, or paper money in any shape, in the year 1700, at the commencement of the 18th century, and that the whole amount of coin and bullion then in use in Europe and America was less than $700,000,000.

The eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries have been fruitful in all sorts of schemes and projects of a financial character, to make credit, and too often the credit of bankrupts, spendthrifts, knaves, and visionary speculators, a substitute for coin. One of the first, greatest, and most ruinous, was the great Mississippi scheme, got up at Paris, by John Law, the forepart of the eighteenth century. After this great bubble burst, France confined herself to a specie currency until the issue of the goverment assignats, during the French revolution, and no bank for issuing notes was established in France until the bank of France, in 1803, to which was granted the exclusive privilege of issuing notes for a period of forty years.— Mr. Jacob estimated the circulation of the Bank of France in in 1810, at but two millions sterling, and in 1830, at nine million pounds sterling. This bank was slow in acquiring the public confidence, so as to get much circulation for its own

notes.

The Netherlands had no money but coin until the establishment of the Bank of the Netherlands in the year 1814, with a capital of 5,000,000 florins, and the exclusive privilege of issuing notes for twenty-five years. Mr. Jacob says its circulating notes then, (1830,) were not supposed to exceed one million sterling.

Banks have also been established at St. Petersburg, Vienna, Berlin, and Copenhagen, besides numerous other banks in the British dominions, and in the United States of America.

Mr. Jacob remarks that Russia was then (1830) the only country of Europe which had not returned to specie payments. When bank notes were first issued, and the quantity small, the rouble was worth about three shillings and four pence sterling, or seventy-five cents, and was of the same value as the Russian silver coin of that name. The increased quantity gradually depreciated the metallic value of the paper, till one silver rouble was worth four of paper. It had nearly attained this low value in 1810, when the paper roubles amounted to 577,000,000. It was nearly the same, but of somewhat greater value in 1830, though the amount had increased to 639,000,000 roubles. He estimates their exchangeable value, in 1810, as equal to 23,000,000 pounds sterling, and in 1830 to £25,250,000.

ART. III: GAS LIGHT-PAINE'S LIGHT-ITS VALUE COMPARED WITH COAL GAS.

The following highly interesting and instructive letter from Professor Prout, of this city, appeared in yesterday morning's Reveille. The well known reputation of the Professor for science and ability, will assure every one of the fidelity with which the experiments have been conducted, and give just weight to his conclusions:

Editor of the Reveille: Having seen in the Scientific American several communications on the subject of Paine's Light -one above the signature of L. A. Hudson, and another above that of George Mathiot, Electro-Metalurgist to the U. States Survey-in which it is stated that they had succeeded in producing a light equal to that of the coal gas, by transmitting hydrogen through oil of turpentine,-I was induced, at your suggestion, to try the following experiments, which may be considered as virtually the same as those performed by these gentlemen, but with very different results.

I was careful, in these experiments, to see that the hydrogen was as pure as that ordinarily made from granulated zinc and sulphuric acid, diluted with a sufficient quantity of water, and that the mechanical arrangements were perfect in all their details.

In Mr. Hudson's communication, it is stated that he used the electro-magnetic machine, in decomposing the water. In my own experiments, I used the zinc with. sulphuric acid, believing, as I do, that the mere mode of preparing the gas, has little or no influence on its physical or chemical relations. Mr. Hudson attributes his success to having burnt the hydrogen, passing through the oil of turpentine under considerable pressure. This I did, by increasing the action in the generating bottle, to a point where it was not safe to increase it further: and the experiment was varied, by putting the full pressure of a gasometer of ten gallons upon the current. In both cases, though the light was as large as that from an ordinary gasburner, the illumination was very feeble, in fact nothing more than we should expect from the combustion of hydrogen, with some admixture of the vapor of turpentine. Mr. Mathiot inferring that, in the modification of the old experiment of the philosophical candle, in which hydrogen is generated under a stratum of turpentine, that the turpentine is either decomposed or combines with the hydrogen, led the hydrogen off by a bent tube, and caused it to pass through the turpentine contained in a separate bottle.

In the philosophical candle, the oil of turpentine is probably decomposed by the sulphuric acid, or the hydrogen, in its nas