have a natural limit, which no human authority is required 

 to assign; they are especially well suited to rude conditions 

 of society, where governments are unstable and other pro- 

 perty insecure. A mere state of nature, however, is not 

 that in which mankind can exist in the greatest numbers, 

 nor in the greatest state of competency and happiness ; and 

 in a liigldy artificial and organized community it becomes 

 necessary to provide a superior instrument of exchange. In 

 England and some other countries, gold and silver have 

 already been found inadequate for all the purposes of com- 

 merce, and paper money has been provided either as a sup- 

 plement or a substitute. 



"Paper, in itself, not being absolutely unlimited, and being 

 of use, has a commercial value, but that limit is much too 

 large to give it the value it should have to constitute it a 

 convenient material for money. What it has not itself, it is 

 capable of having imprinted upon it, an authority which may 

 be Limited to any desired extent. It is divisible and por- 

 table even beyond the metals, and its value can be adjusted to 

 any proportion by the limit of the authority it is made to 

 bear. Duly authorised, it obtains currency; it is readily 

 taken in exchange, because it can be relied upon to be taken 

 as readily for the same purpose. 



"There is, then, one law for the determination of the value 

 of all tilings in commerce, the law of supply and demand; 

 and this holds good of money as well as of other tilings. 



"Increase the supply, the demand being the same, and the 

 value is lowered and reciprocally. There is no absolute value 

 of money, as such, it is only valuable in relation to commo- 

 dities; and the amount or measure of its value is the quantity 

 of goods a determinate amount of it will represent or pur- 

 chase. A given population, in given circumstances, can only 

 produce, transfer, and consume, a certain quantity of goods 

 in a certain length of time. If the time be short, the 



