into one mass, could be contained in a cube of seventy feet. Of the
amount of silver in existence $3,800,000,000 is estimated to be in coin
and bullion, $1,200,000,000 in watches, and the remainder in plate,
jewelry, and ornaments. Of the amount now in existence $4,722,000,000
has been obtained from North America; $613,000,000 from South America;
$59,000,000 from Europe; $50,000,000 from Asia (including Australia, New
Zealand, and Oceanica); and $60,000,000 from Africa. The amount of the
precious metals in existence is estimated to be $13,670,000,000.

Silver, so far as its annual product is concerned, has varied greatly
at different periods. At the commencement of the Christian Era it is
estimated to have been $4,200,000; at the period of the discovery of
America it had diminished to $150,000; after that event it gradually
increased, and in 1600 it attained to $9,000,000; in 1700, to
$18,000,000; in 1800, to $38,000,000; in 1848, to $47,000,000; in 1863,
to $63,000,000; and at the present time it is $114,000,000.

Silver, in performing the function of money, is of great antiquity. Asia
was a commercial country when Europe was a wilderness; and as the East
has not changed her habits since the remotest ages, silver alone is the
money of that continent, inhabited by more than one-half of the human
race, and among whom paper-money is unknown. The _drachma_ was the
principal silver coin among the Greeks, containing sixty-six grains of
pure metal, worth about seventeen and a half cents. It furnished the
type of the Roman _denarius_, containing fifty-eight grains of pure
metal, worth about fifteen and a half cents. The silver _mark_ was
imported into England from Denmark by Alfred in A.D. 870; the _penny_
was next issued in 1070; the _groat_ in 1280; then came the _shilling_
in 1503; and the _crown_ made its appearance in 1607. The earliest
silver coin issued in France was the _livre_, which appeared in 800, of