211.  Gold leaf consists of a portion of the metal beaten out to so great a degree of thinness, as to allow a greenish-blue light to be transmitted through its pores.  About 400 square inches of this are sold, in the form of a small book containing 25 leaves of gold, for 1s. 6d.  In this case, the raw material, or gold, is worth rather less than two-thirds of the manufactured article.  In the case of silver leaf, the labour considerably exceeds the value of the material.  A book of fifty leaves, which would cover above 1000 square inches, is sold for 1s. 3d.

212.  We may trace the relative influence of the two causes above referred to, in the prices of fine gold chains made at Venice.  The sizes of these chains are known by numbers, the smallest having been (in 1828) No. 1, and the numbers 2, 3, 4, etc., progressively increasing in size.  The following table shews the numbers and the prices of those made at that time.(1*) The first column gives the number by which the chain is known; the second expresses the weight in grains of one inch in length of each chain; the third column the number of links in the same length; and the last expresses the price, in francs worth tenpence each, of a Venetian braccio, or about two English feet of each chain.

Venetian gold chains Price of a Venetian Braccio, equal to Weight of Number of links two feet 1/8 inch No. one inch, in grains in one inch English 0.44 98 to 100 60 francs 1.56 92 40 1 1/2.77 88 26 2.99 84 20 3 1.46 72 20 4 1.61 64 21 5 2.09 64 23 6 2.61 60 24 7 3.36 56 27 8 3.65 56 29 9 3.72 56 32 10 5.35 50 34 24 9.71 32 60

Amongst these chains, that numbered 0 and that numbered 24 are exactly of the same price, although the quantity of gold in the latter is twenty-two times as much as in the former.  The difficulty of making the smallest chain is so great, that the women who make it cannot work above two hours at a time.  As we advance from the smaller chain, the proportionate value of the work to the worth of the material becomes less and less, until at the numbers 2 and 3, these two elements of cost balance each other:  after which, the difficulty of the work decreases, and the value of the material increases.

213.  The quantity of labour expended on these chains is, however, incomparably less than that which is applied in some of the manufactures of iron.  In the case of the smallest Venetian chain the value of the labour is not above thirty times that of the gold.  The pendulum spring of a watch, which governs the vibrations of the balance, costs at the retail price two pence, and weighs fifteen one-hundredths of a grain, whilst the retail price of a pound of the best iron, the raw material out of which fifty thousand such springs are made, is exactly the same sum of two pence.

214.  The comparative price of labour and of raw material entering into the manufactures of France, has been ascertained with so much care, in a memoir of M. A. M. Heron de Villefosse, Recherches statistiques, sur les Metaux de France.(2*) that we shall give an abstract of his results reduced to English measures.  The facts respecting the metals relate to the year 1825.