ABSTRACT
Your Committee have still further to remark upon this point, that the Evidence laid before them has led them to
entertain much doubt of the alleged fact, that a scarcity of Gold Bullion has been recently experienced in this country. That Guineas have disappeared from the circulation, there can be no question; but that does not prove a scarcity of Bullion, any more than the high price proves that scarcity. If Gold is rendered dear by any other cause than scarcity, those who cannot purchase it without paying the high price, will be very apt to conclude that it is scarce. A very extensive home dealer who was examined, and who spoke very much of the scarcity of Gold, acknowledged (Min. p. 35), that he found no difficulty in getting any quantity he wanted, if he was willing to pay the price for it. And it appears to Your Committee, that, though in the course of the last year there have been large exportations of Gold to the Continent, there have been also very considerable importations of it into this Country from South America, chiefly through the West Indies. The changes which have affected Spain and Portugal, combined with our maritime and commercial advantages, would seem to have rendered this country a channel through which the produce of the mines of New Spain and the Brazils passes to the rest of the world. In such a situation, the imports of Bullion and Coin give us the opportunity of first supplying ourselves; and must render this the last of the great markets in which a scarcity of that article will be felt . This is remarkably illustrated by the fact, that Portugal Gold coin is now sent regularly from this Country to the Cotton Settlements in the Brazils, Pernambuco, and Maranham, while Dollars are remitted in considerable quantities to this country from Rio Janeiro.
