CHAP. xix. BISE OF PRICES. 71 



CHAPTER XIX. 



* 



On the rise of prices simultaneously with the increase of 

 gold and silver in the first century after the discovery of 

 America. 



HAVING arrived at a conclusion which will ad- 

 mit of great difference of opinion, and of the pro- 

 bability of which every reader must form his own 

 judgment, that the quantity of coin in Europe had 

 in the first century from the discovery of America 

 been nearly quadrupled ; we will now consider 

 the effect produced by so vast an alteration in the 

 quantity of that standard by which the value of 

 all other commodities was measured. 



If we could suppose that the general mass of 

 commodities which are the subjects of exchanges 

 had increased in the same proportion as the pre- 

 cious metals, and were always exchanged by the 

 intervention of those metals, we should naturally 

 infer that the prices would remain stationary. If 

 the mass of commodities increased at a greater 

 rate than the metals, we should expect that prices 

 would decline ; but if those metals increased faster 

 than the whole of the other commodities, we should 

 look for an advance in the prices of commodities 

 generally. 



