Costly Shipwrecks by W. Clark Russell — Read

In 1808, a shrewd and evidently a "highly-calculating" Yankee took the trouble to express the loss suffered by the United States in consequence of the then embargo, in a form very nicely designed to go straight home to the businesses and bosoms of his compatriots. The sum amounted to forty-eight millions of dollars, which, said the ingenious arithmetician, at seventeen dollars to the pound weight, would weigh two millions eight hundred and twenty-three pounds avoirdupois; and it would require to carry it one thousand two hundred and sixty waggons, allowing each waggon to carry one ton; and the distance the waggons would occupy, allowing each waggon seventy-two feet, would be seventeen miles. Forty-eight millions of dollars, placed edge to edge in a straight line, would extend over a space of one thousand one hundred and thirty-four miles. "The above sum," added the computator, "would be sufficient to furnish one hundred and twenty-one sail of the line, completely equipped for a twelve months' cruise. " So much for the length, weight, and worth of an embargo in 1808.

Now, what sort of result, I wonder, would come of a calculation of the weight, and the length, and the waggon-filling capacity of all the money-in hard cash, in bars, and ingots-which will have been carried into and out of this kingdom by ships flying the mercantile ensign between January 1 and December 31 of this present year? I sometimes fancy that it needs a shipwreck and a great foundering of specie to make the "average" public realize the prodigious treasure which is at all hours of the day and night, year after year, and year after year growing vaster in bulk and in value, afloat under the colours flown by the ships of the British merchant service. Let any one, during any six consecutive days, take note of the published records of the bullion movements, and he would be astounded by the results. "The _Bokhara_ has arrived at Plymouth, from China, with £42,450 in gold. " "The _Khedive_ has taken £81,598 in specie for the East, and the _Peshawur_ £65,600. " "The _Pekin_ has brought £50,012 in specie. " "The _Sutlej_, £16,110 from Bombay. " "The _Galicia_, from Valparaiso, £80,000 in silver. " "The _Iberia_, from Australia, £58,000 in gold. " "The _Elbe_, from the River Plate, £93,379 in specie. " "The _Kaisar-i-Hind_, £46,000 in bar silver, and £15,000 in bar gold. " "The _Eider_, from New York, with £5920 in specie. " "The _Trave_, from New York, £7941. " "The _Carthage_, with 50,000 sovereigns from Melbourne. " "The _Ruapehu_, from Wellington (N. Z.), with £10,000. " And so on, and so on, day after day, month after month.