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it was not coin. " Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver." 

 The word sheckel comes from the Hebrew shackal, to weigh. 

 Calmet affirms that the Hebrews had no coined money until 

 Antiochus Sidetes, King of Syria, granted to Judas Maccabseus 

 the privilege of coining money in Judcea. Now the value of 

 any commodity Corn, for instance would depend on two 

 things : the supply and demand of corn, and the supply and 

 demand of silver. And here you will, I think, begin to see 

 clearly how the Currency Question affects your interests. The 

 farmer is a manufacturer, so to speak, of corn and cattle. H 

 takes the superfluity of his corn and cattle to market, and 

 with them buys money. He must possess himself of money, 

 for money is the only legal tender for his rent, his taxes, and 

 his debts. And hence the farmers seem to me to have been 

 much mistaken as to their interests, when they directed their 

 attention solely to the laws which were made about Corn, 

 and entirely neglected those which were made about Money 

 (hear). They ought to have attended to the laws made about 

 both (hear, hear) ; for their interests are as much affected by 

 the laws made respecting what they buy, viz. Money, as by 

 those made about what they sell, viz. Corn. In 1826, Sir 

 James Graham, in his Corn and Currency, said, " The value 

 " of money is in the inverse ratio of its quantity ; the supply 

 " of commodities remaining the same, increase the quantity of 

 "money, prices rise; decrease the quantity of money, prices 

 " fall. On the other hand, the quantity of money remaining 

 " the same, increase the quantity of commodities, prices fall ; 

 " decrease the quantity of commodities, prices rise." I will 

 endeavour to make this, if possible, still plainer, because this 

 should be well understood. I adopt, then, Mr. Mills' illus- 

 tration. Suppose there are 100 loaves, and 100 shillings to 

 exchange for them ; each loaf would command a shilling. 

 The loaves remaining 100, increase the shillings to 200, and 

 each loaf would command two shillings : decrease the number 

 of shillings to 50, and each loaf would then command only 

 sixpence. On the other hand, the number of shillings remain- 

 ing 100, increase the loaves to 200, and each shilling would 

 command two loaves : decrease the loaves to 50, and it would 

 then take two shillings to buy one loaf (hear, hear). Here, 

 then, is the common sense view of the Currency Question. 

 If the quantity of money in circulation be increased, the 

 harvest being an average one, corn rises : if the quantity of 



