"But never to be discouraged, how have they by the meer Force of indefatigable Application, planted, inhabited, cultivated those inhospitable Climates, those suppos’d barren Countries, those trifling little Spots of Islands, not thought worth looking at by the Spaniards? How have they brought them to be the richest, the most improved, and the most flourishing Colonies in all that Part of the World? So populous, so fortify’d, the People so rich, the Product so great; and which is more than all, so adapted to Commerce, so universally embarked in Trade, that it is at this Time an unresolved Doubt, whether brings the greatest Wealth to Europe, take the Exportations and Consumptions of Manufacture there into the Account of the Return, the Sugars, Tobacco, and other rich Productions of the British and French Colonies; the Fish, the Corn, the Flesh, the Furrs, &c. I say, Which are the greatest in Value, these, or the Gold and Silver of Mexico and Peru?"
Daniel Defoe

January 1, 1970

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Original Language: English

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p. 306

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Daniel_Defoe