A rich country, in the same manner as a rich man, is supposed
to be a country abounding in money; and to heap up gold and
silver in any country is supposed to be the readiest way to enrich
it. For some time after the discovery of America, the first inquiry
of the Spaniards, when they arrived upon any unknown coast,
used to be, if there was any gold or silver to be found in the
neighbourhood? By the information which they received, they
judged whether it was worth while to make a settlement there, or
if the country was worth the conquering. Plano Carpino, a monk
sent ambassador from the king of France to one of the sons of the
famous Gengis Khan, says, that the Tartars used frequently to ask
him, if there was plenty of sheep and oxen in the kingdom of
France? Their inquiry had the same object with that of the Spaniards.
They wanted to know if the country was rich enough to be
worth the conquering. Among the Tartars, as among all other nations
of shepherds, who are generally ignorant of the use of money,
cattle are the instruments of commerce and the measures of value.
Wealth, therefore, according to them, consisted in cattle, as, according
to the Spaniards, it consisted in gold and silver. Of the
two, the Tartar notion, perhaps, was the nearest to the truth