and he computes this in English money at 21,093,750 pounds sterling. Notwithstanding the dissipations of Caligula and Nero, and the vast sums then sent into foreign countries to procure articles of luxury, in the time of Pliny, whose death happened eleven years after that of Nero, money seems to have been still very abundant, if we may form a judgment of it by the immense public charges, the inordinate expenses of the emperor and persons of rank, and the quantities of specie that continued to be annually exported. On the author's expressing to the Chevalier Visconti, the difficulty he found in tracing the sources whence the Romans continued so long to receive the prodigious sums that appear to have been expended and exported by them, M. Visconti, in a letter to him on the subject, observes: "Les anciens tiroient les métaux précieux pour la plus grande partie de l'Afrique, dont les mines qui existent, à ce que l'on croit, sur les côtes Orientales de cette immense péninsule, aujourd'hui ne sont pas exploitées. En outre, de plusieurs mines de l'Espagne et d'autres contrées de l'empire Romain, mines qui sont maintenant épuisées, ou que l'on a abandonnées comme peu profitables. Les métaux précieux monnoiés devoient s'élever dans l'empire Romain à une valeur immense, à ce que l'on peut juger par le nombre infini de pièces d'or des Empereurs Romains, que depuis tant de siècles on trouve et on fond tous les jours."-It is said, that in the mines of Spain alone, 40,000 workmen were employed.* But all those resources gradually declined, many of them became entirely exhausted; luxury and public expenditure continued; the money in circulation rapidly disappeared; to supply the want of it, recourse was had to the ruinous measure of debasing the coin, by encreasing the alloy. In the time of Caracalla, or about 174 years after the death of Tiberius, half the weight of the coin was of base metal; under Alexander Severus, who was proclaimed Emperor * Strabo, lib. iii. about fourteen years after the death of Caracalla, two thirds was alloy; and under Gallienus, who began to reign about twentyfive years after Severus, copper washed with silver was put in circulation, and forced on the public for the value of the coin it represented. If it seem extraordinary that people so enlightened as the ancient Hindus and Egyptians appear to have been, did not, at the times we have been treating of, fabricate money, it is at least as surprising that the Chinese, one of the most industrious people in the world, are, even at this hour, without money of their own, and continue to give and receive in payment metals by weight according to their quality. Vast quantities of coin annually flow into their country from the nations they trade with; they cannot, therefore, be ignorant of its utility; but if the nations with whom the ancient Hindus and Egyptians had intercourse, were, like themselves, without money, we may at most accuse them of want of invention, but not of obstinately, like the Chinese, refusing to profit by the example of other nations. It may also excite surprise that the Romans, notwithstanding their connexion with the Greeks, should not have employed the precious metals in coins much earlier than they did. The historian may record facts, but cannot always explain them. The coins mentioned by Mr. Chambers to have been found at Mavalipouram, and those which it is said, are to be met with in Nepaul, Boutan, Assam, Thibet, and among the ruins of Oujein, though called ancient, and now entitled to be so named, may, nevertheless, be of dates many years subsequent to the expedition of Alexander into India; and what has been translated money from the Sanscrit writings, we may suspect to be nothing more than pieces of metals of a certain weight and touch, prepared for the purposes to which money is applied. But, notwithstanding the preceding doubts we have stated relative to the existence of money at a remote period in India, previously to the time Pausanias wrote, those doubts were, however, to a certain degree weakened, by viewing some ancient gold, silver, and copper Hindu coins, which are deposited in the Library at the India House, and were shewn to the author by Dr. Wilkins since his return to England. They are without dates, but as the names of two distinct sovereigns are upon them, it is to be hoped that Dr. Wilkins, from his knowledge of the Sanscrit language, and of the mythology and history of the Hindus, will be able to ascertain the epoch when they were struck. Two of the gold coins, are very beautiful, and might be supposed to be medals, struck to commemorate some event, as was practised by the Greeks and Romans, and has been continued through modern times. I shall nevertheless conclude this article by inserting another letter from the Chevalier Vis, conti, in which he treats the question of the origin of ancient money in general. 66 J'ai lu, Monsieur, la note savante que vous avez écrite sur l'antiquité des monnoies. Je n'ai jamais prétendu que mon |