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ably much cheaper than corn, is undoubtedly CHA P. true. But this cheapnefs was not the effect of the high value of filver, but of the low value of thofe commodities. It was not because filver would in fuch times purchase or represent a greater quantity of labour, but becaufe fuch commodities would purchafe or represent a much fmaller quantity than in times of more opulence and improvement. Silver muft certainly be cheaper in Spanish America than in Europe; in the country where it is produced, than in the country to which it is brought at the expence of a long carriage both by land and by fea, of a freight and an infurance. One-and-twenty pence halfpenny fterling, however, we are told by Ulloa, was, not many years ago, at Buenos Ayres, the price of an ox chofen from a herd of three or four hundred. Sixteen fhillings fterling, we are told by Mr. Byron, was the price of a good horfe in the capital of Chili. In a country naturally fertile, but of which the far greater part is altogether uncultivated, cattle, poultry, game of all kinds, &c. as they can be acquired with a very fmall quantity of labour, fo they will purchase or command but a very finall quantity. The low money price for which they may be fold, is no proof that the real value of filver is there very high, but that the real value of thofe commodities is very low.

Labour, it must always be remembered, and not any particular commodity or fet of commodities, is the real measure of the value both of filver and of all other commodities.

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BOOK But in countries almost waste, or but thinly inhábited, cattle, poultry, game of all kinds, &c. as they are the fpontaneous productions of nature, fo fhe frequently produces them in much greater quantities than the consumption of the inhabitants requires. In fuch a state of things the supply commonly exceeds the demand. In different states of fociety, in different ftages of improvement, therefore, fuch commodities will represent, or be equivalent to, very different quantities of labour.

In every state of society, in every stage of inprovement, corn is the production of human in duftry. But the average produce of every fort of industry is always fuited, more or less exactly, to the average confumption; the average fupply to the average demand. In every different ftage of improvement, befides, the raifing of equal quantities of corn in the fame foil and climate, will, at an average, require nearly equal quantities of labour; or what comes to the fame thing, the price of nearly equal quantities; the continual increase of the productive powers labour in an improved ftate of cultivation, being more or lefs counterbalanced by the continually increafing price of cattle, the principal inftruments of agriculture. Upon all these accounts, therefore, we may reft affured, that equal quantities of corn will, in every ftate of fociety, in every stage of improvement, more nearly reprefent, or be equivalent to, equal quantities of labour, than equal quantities of any other part of the rude produce of land. Corn, accordingly,

of

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it has already been obferved, is, in all the dif- c HA P. ferent stages of wealth and improvement, a more accurate measure of value than any other commodity or fet of commodities. In all thofe dif ferent ftages, therefore, we can judge better of the real value of filver, by comparing it with corn, than by comparing it with any other commodity, or fet of commodities.

Corn, befides, or whatever elfe is the common and favourite vegetable food of the people, conftitutes, in every civilized country, the principal part of the fubfiftence of the labourer. In confequence of the extenfion of agriculture, the land of every country produces a much greater quantity of vegetable than of animal food, and the labourer every-where lives chiefly upon the wholesome food that is cheapest and most abun.. dant. Butcher's meat, except in the most thriv ing countries, or where labour is most highly rewarded, makes but an infignificant part of his fubfiftence; poultry makes a still smaller part of it, and game no part of it. In France, and even in Scotland, where labour is fomewhat better rewarded than in France, the labouring poor feldom eat butcher's-meat, except upon holidays, and other extraordinary occafions. The money price of labour, therefore, depends much more upon the average money price of corn, the fubfiftence of the labourer, than upon that of butcher's meat, or of any other part of the rude produce of land. The real value of gold and filver, therefore, the real quantity of labour which they can purchase or command, depends much more upon the quantity of corn which they can purchase

U 3

I.

BOOK purchase or command, than upon that of butcher's-meat, or any other part of the rude produce of land.

Such flight obfervations, however, upon the prices either of corn or of other commodities, would not probably have mifled fo many intelligent authors, had they not been influenced, at the fame time, by the popular notion, that as the quantity of filver naturally increases in every country with the increase of wealth, fo its value diminishes as its quantity increases. This notion, however, feems to be altogether groundless.

The quantity of the precious metals may increase in any country from two different caufes : either, firft, from the increafed abundance of the mines which fupply it; or, fecondly, from the increased wealth of the people, from the increased produce of their annual labour. The firft of thefe caufes is no doubt neceffarily connected with the diminution of the value of the precious metals; but the fecond is not.

When more abundant mines are discovered, a greater quantity of the precious metals is brought to market, and the quantity of the neceffaries and conveniencies of life for which they must be exchanged being the fame as before, equal quantities of the metals must be exchanged for fmaller quantities of commodities. So far, therefore, as the increase of the quantity of the precious metals in any country arifes from the increased abundance of the mines, it is neceffarily connected with fome diminution of their value.

When, on the contrary, the wealth of any country increafes, when the annual produce of

its labour becomes gradually greater and greater, a greater quantity of coin becomes neceffary in order to circulate a greater quantity of commodities and the people, as they can afford it, as they have more commodities to give for it, will naturally purchase a greater and a greater quantity of plate. The quantity of their coin will increase from neceffity; the quantity of their plate from vanity and oftentation, or from the fame reason that the quantity of fine ftatues, pictures, and of every other luxury and curiofity, is likely to increase among them. But as ftatuaries and painters are not likely to be worfe rewarded in times of wealth and prosperity, than in times of poverty and depreffion, fo gold and filver are not likely to be worfe paid for.

The price of gold and filver, when the accidental discovery of more abundant mines does not keep it down, as it naturally rifes with the wealth of every country, fo, whatever be the state of the mines, it is at all times naturally higher in a rich than in a poor country. Gold and filver, like all other commodities, naturally feek the market where the beft price is given for them, and the beft price is commonly given for every thing in the country which can beft afford it. Labour, it must be remembered, is the ultimate price which is paid for every thing, and in countries where labour is equally well rewarded, the money price of labour will be in proportion to that of the fubfiftence of the labourer. But gold and filver will naturally exchange for at greater quantity of fubfiftence in a rich than in a

CHAP.

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