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476 SWEDENBORG IN THE HOUSE OF NOBLES [Doc. 169.
that ore, on account of its nobility, and without taking into
consideration the promotion of the public weal, is able to injure
and put aside works that have been brought into a proper
condition; i. e. for the sake of producing 200 marks of fine
silver the production of 2000 skeppund of iron is prevented,
which is equivalent to losing eight dalers for one, even though
you may be assured that foreign merchants are willing to pay
from fourteen to fifteen thousand fine marks in native silver
and in the same noble metal for 2000 skeppund of iron.
Again, if near the mines of the Great Copper-mountain
(Stora Kopparberget,) a large mountain of weak silver ore should
be discovered, from which from six to ten thousand marks of
fine silver could be obtained, at the same cost at which they
are now got out of the great mine ; yet on account of the
above -mentioned rule we should be obliged to protect the
nobler metal, and so put the ignoble on one side, although
we were assured, that a foreign merchant would be willing to
furnish from eight to ten times as much silver of the same
purity as the above for the copper which that large work turns
out every year.
Now , as such an absolute rule might do from ten to a
hundred times more damage every year than it can do good,
it is submitted to the mature consideration of the Diet, whether
it is not necessary to limit the said rule in certain particulars,
so that the nobleness of a metal be not considered exclusively,
but also the public good, i. e. all those particulars and circum
stances by which it may be shown, that one work will profit
the country in time more than the other, or that the work
itself is noble, and the metal in comparison with it ignoble.
Otherwise there is danger of the country losing many tons
of gold for the mere pleasure of getting an eighth part
out of a metal which is of a nobler quality. This seems to
.
be too unequal a distinction between the different metals in
the general economy of the country, and one which is too
costly and altogether excessive.
EMAN . SWEDENBORG .
Stockholm , February 18, 1723.
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