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CHAP. VI.

Digression concerning the commerce with India. -- This the only one that raised ancient nations to wealth. -- Its continual variations. -- The envy it excited, and revolutions it produced....................51

CHAP. VII.

Of the causes that brought on the decline of the nations that had flourished in the middle ages, and of Portugal, Spain, Holland, and the Hans Towns..........62

CHAP. VIII.

General view and analysis of the causes that operated in producing the decline of all nations, with a chart, representing the rise, fall, and migrations of wealth, in all different countries, from the year 1500, before the birth of Christ, to the end of the eighteenth century, -- a period of 3300 years...............70

BOOK II.

CHAP. I.

Of the interior causes of decline, arising from the possession of wealth. -- Its general operation on the habits of life, manners, education, and ways of thinking and acting of the inhabitants of a country................81