CHAP. XXX. PAPER MONEY. 365 



CHAPTER XXX. 



On the amount of paper money. On the decline of prices. 

 Conclusion. 



IT has been calculated in the twenty-sixth chap- 

 ter that between the end of the years 1809 and 

 1829 the current coin in Europe and America 

 had been diminished from three hundred and' 

 eighty to three hundred and twenty millions, or 

 in the proportion of one-sixth part. 



During the whole time the currency of both 

 countries consisted in part of various descriptions 

 of paper money, which acted in aid of the metallic 

 money in the interchange of commodities. This 

 paper money was in different periods and in 

 different countries at various degrees of depre- 

 ciation, but in every case it retained some value, 

 according to which gold and silver might have 

 been purchased with it. We may therefore ap- 

 propriately examine what proportion the paper 

 money that circulated bore to the coined metallic 

 money. It will be desirable, also, in the course 

 of the examination, to inquire if the value of 

 the paper money, taking for that value the 

 power of purchasing gold and silver with it, was 



