ADJUSTMENT OF THE RELATIVE CHAP. XV. 



Europe, whose influence acted most powerfully on 

 the knowledge, the morals, the manners, the go- 

 vernments, the laws, and the religion of the 

 western world. Half a century from the com- 

 mencement of the reign of that monarch, by a 

 new way to India being opened, and by the 

 discovery of America soon after, a new impulse 

 was given to the commercial spirit and enterprise 

 which has continued to increase, in spite of oc- 

 casional interruptions, to the present day. 



In this commercial intercourse, the several 

 countries which produced more of any com- 

 modities than were needed for their own demand, 

 would sell them to such as required them for 

 consumption. But as one country wanted more 

 of some other than that other could supply, or 

 than it had equivalents to give in return to that 

 particular country, the difference must be made 

 up by payments in the commodity which is called 

 money, or in something to represent that com- 

 modity which would become equally available in 

 commerce. The difference in the weight, the 

 purity, and the denomination of metal money in 

 the" several countries was very great ; and the risk 

 and expense of conveying it to a distance were still 

 more powerfully opposing obstacles. Hence arose 

 the invention of bills of exchange. The intricacy 

 and complication of the several kinds of money 

 current in the numerous trading states, such as 

 the small republics of Italy, and the various in- 



