[10] For further details of the troubles of 1632-36, see Vicomte D'Avenel, Histoire de la propriété, etc., i. 120, 121.
[11] Such is the statement of the proclamation itself. The difference between the ratios as there proclaimed and the ratios given in the table, pp. [40] and [69], is presumably due to the calculation being made on the mark of pure metal. For the character of these figures of ratios see the [Preface].
[12] See Hirsch, i. 318.
[13] "The second (cause for the decay of the trade of Spain) is the residence of many Genoa merchants amongst them, who are found in good numbers to abide in every good city, especially on the sea coasts, whose skill and acuteness in trade far surpassing the native Spaniards and Portuguese, and who, by means of their wealth and continual practice of exchanges, are found to devour that bread which the inhabitants might otherwise be sufficiently fed with; and by reason that the King of Spain is ever engaged to their commonwealth for great and vast sums at interest, he is their debtor, not only for their moneys, but also for their favour, which by many immunities throughout his kingdom he is found continually to requite them, and amongst the rest it is observed that there is no Genoa merchant resident in Spain, or any part, but has a particular licence to transport the rials and plate of this kingdom to a certain round sum yearly, which they seldom use really to do, but sell the same to other nations that are constrained to make their returns in plate for want of other more beneficial commodities, which, for the certain profit it is found ever to yield in other countries, is often preferred before all the other commodities of the kingdom."—Lewis Robert's Map of Commerce, p. 165.
[14] By the action of bimetallic law is meant any action of bad money on good—of worn money on new—of higher rated (or lower valuable) money on lower rated (or higher valuable) money. It does not at all matter, especially in cases of debasement, whether there are two metals in the process or only one or even three. If a currency is silver, and part of it is debased and part left good there is bimetallic action, and the good disappears. Of course, the case is argumentatively and for deduction's sake much clearer if a currency is truly bimetallic in the ordinary sense.
CHAPTER III
From the End of the First Cycle of American Influences to the Present Day, 1660-1894
Up to the close of the eighteenth century the production of silver shows a remarkable steadiness and uniformity—the decrease on the yield of the Potosi mines being compensated by the increased output of Mexican silver. In the condition of the output of gold, however, there is a perceptible alteration, due to the increasing imports of that metal from Brazil. The change in the relative production of the two metals appears from the table on p. [155].