A

DISSERTATION

ON THE QUANTITY OF

BULLION AND COINED MONEY

IN THE ANCIENT WORLD;

COMPRISING

A SHORT HISTORY OF THE GOLD AND SILVER MINES OF ASIA,

AND A SURVEY OF

THE IMMENSE TREASURES POSSESSED BY THE ANCIENT SOVEREIGNS OF INDIA

A

DISSERTATION, &c.

SECTION I.

HAVILAH, the Land of Gold,-the ancient Mines of ARABIA and ETHIOPIA, the Treasures in Bullion of the ancient EGYPTIAN Sovereigns, -the golden SOFALA, the Source of the Wealth of the TYRIANS and SOLOMON,—the former, however, had another abundant Source in the Mines of SPAIN, the PERU and POTOSI of Antiquity.-A Description, from the Prophet EZEKIEL, of the Magnificence of ancient Tyre.

The Sources of the Wealth of the ASSYRIAN

or BABYLONIAN Empire investigated, and that Wealth exemplified in the Ornaments of the Temple of BELUS and the DEA SYRIA.-Brief Strictures on coined Money and the DARICS struck at BABYLON.-The Empire of ASIA, and the Current of Wealth which constantly followed it, transferred, by CYRUS, from BABYLON to SusA.-The immense Wealth in Bullion and coined Money of the ancient PERSIANS,—

its principal Sources, its own Mines in CARMANIA, the mines of LYDIA and THRACE,— and the vast internal Commerce carried on with INDIA.-The Whole fell a Prey to ALEXANDER on his Conquest of Persia, and to his Captains after his Decease.—The silver Mines of ATTICA, and the accumulated Treasures preserved in the GRECIAN Temples, considered.— Those Temples, the public Banks of GREECE, and the Priests the Bankers.-A Survey is now taken of the Wealth of ancient INDIA, the great central Deposit, for many Centuries, of the Bullion both of the Eastern and Western World,- that Bullion principally melted down and formed into Statues of the numerous superior and subordinate Deities of INDIA, as well as to fabricate the splendid Utensils of their Temples.- An Account of the Treasures of that Kind found in those Temples by Sultan MAHMUD, of GAZNA, and other Invaders of HINDOSTAN. The Author returns from HINDOSTAN to the Consideration of the Wealth obtained by ALEXANDER, and its Dispersion by his Successors, the PTOLEMIES of EGYPT, the SELEUCIDE of SYRIA, and the MACEDONIAN Sovereigns.-The whole Wealth of ASIA centred finally among the ROMANS.-A considerable Part dissipated by their profligacy; a still more considerable Portion fell to the lot of the Goths,

Vandals, and other barbarous Nations who plundered ROME; but, by far the most considerable Portion was buried, during the Times of Tyranny and Turbulence, in that Earth from which it originally came.

To form any adequate idea of the wealth of the ancient world in gold and silver bullion, we must turn our eyes to the countries in which mines were first discovered and wrought. Now the region, most early mentioned in history, sacred and profane, as producing gold, is HAVILAH, in the Pentateuch of Moses, and the gold which it produced is said to have been remarkable for its purity. Havilah, which the river Pison watered, is, by the best commentators, asserted to be Arabia; and accordingly we read both in Agatharchides and Strabo, that ́Arabia anciently abounded in gold in so extraordinary a manner, that its inhabitants would give double the weight of that valuable metal for iron, treble its weight for brass, and ten times its weight for silver.* We are informed by those authors that, in digging the earth in the southern parts of Arabia, they found pieces of gold that needed not the refiner's fire, sometimes as big as olive-stones, and, at others, as big as walnuts;

* Vide Agatharchides Cnid. apud Photium, p. 1370, et' etiam Strabonis Geograph. lib. xvi. p. 583.