Pagina 477 de 2651

As the prices, both of the precious metals and of the precious

stones, is regulated all over the world by their price at the

most fertile mine in it, the rent which a mine of either can

afford to its proprietor is in proportion, not to its absolute,

but to what may be called its relative fertility, or to its

superiority over other mines of the same kind. If new mines were

discovered, as much superior to those of Potosi, as they were

superior to those of Europe, the value of silver might be so much

degraded as to render even the mines of Potosi not worth the

working. Before the discovery of the Spanish West Indies, the

most fertile mines in Europe may have afforded as great a rent to

their proprietors as the richest mines in Peru do at present.

Though the quantity of silver was much less, it might have

exchanged for an equal quantity of other goods, and the

proprietor's share might have enabled him to purchase or command

an equal quantity either of labour or of commodities.