Itdiminishedevenmorethanhalf：letusseeinwhatmanner。
Toextractthegoldfromthemines，togiveittherequisitepreparations，andtoimportitintoEurope，mustbeattendedwithsomecertainexpense。Iwillsupposethistobeas1to64。Whenthespeciewasoncedoubled，andconsequentlybecamebyone—halflessprecious，theexpensewasas2to64。ThusthegaloonswhichbroughttoSpainthesamequantityofgold，broughtathingwhichreallywasoflessvaluebyone—half，thoughtheexpensesattendingithadbeentwiceashigh。
Ifweproceeddoublinganddoubling，weshallfindinthisprogressionthecauseoftheimpotencyofthewealthofSpain。
ItisabouttwohundredyearssincetheyhaveworkedtheirIndianmines。
IsupposethequantityofspecieatpresentinthetradingworldistothatbeforethediscoveryoftheIndiesas32isto1；thatis，ithasbeendoubledfivetimes：intwohundredyearsmorethesamequantitywillbetothatbeforethediscoveryas64isto1；thatis，itwillbedoubledoncemore。Now，atpresent，fiftyquintalsoforeyieldfour，five，andsixouncesofgold；[148]andwhenityieldsonlytwo，theminerreceivesnomorefromitthanhisexpenses。Intwohundredyears，whentheminerwillextractonlyfour，thistoowillonlydefrayhischarges。Therewillthenbebutlittleprofittobedrawnfromthegoldmines。Thesamereasoningwillholdgoodofsilver，exceptthattheworkingofthesilverminesisalittlemoreadvantageousthanthoseofgold。