INCREASE OF COIN CHAP. XXIV. 



saries which form the sustenance of the great mass 

 of the population of the country. 



An advance in the price of so indispensable an 

 article as wheat, or even of the prices of the ge- 

 neral mass of commodities in Europe, would be 

 no decisive proof of the increase of the precious 

 metals. If the whole material wealth of a country 

 receives a great accession, and a correspondent 

 accession be made to the coin, prices would con- 

 tinue as before if the facility of circulating that 

 coin should remain without alteration. 



If we were to judge from England alone, there 

 would be little hesitation in concluding that the 

 mass of material wealth had increased in the one 

 hundred and ten years, at a greater rate than the 

 precious metals. This is obvious from the increase 

 of the population, and from that population having 

 been better fed, clothed, and lodged, at the con- 

 clusion than at the commencement of the century. 

 The sources of wealth of every kind had yielded 

 more copiously. The soil was better cultivated, 

 and therefore yielded more of the annual neces- 

 saries of life; the surplus of exchangeable products 

 had been augmented so that foreign necessaries 

 or comforts could be more easily and abundantly 

 procured. The facilities of distribution had been 

 improved by the repairs or construction of roads, 

 canals, rivers, harbours, and docks. The imple- 

 ments of industry, which diminish the use and 



