374 ON PRICES CHAP. xxx. 



where, which furnished inland bills to the parts of 

 the same country, and foreign bills to other coun- 

 tries, which in many cases made the removal of 

 specie unnecessary. The exchequers of states 

 could rely on their credit to supply the place of 

 money till it could be collected from the regular 

 sources, and as no armies were on foot, there was 

 no money kept in a state of inactivity in the mili- 

 tary chests. 



From these altered circumstances, whose influ- 

 ence it is difficult to calculate, the depression of 

 prices, which would be the natural result of a dimi- 

 nution of money, and an increase of exchangeable 

 goods, has been either prevented or lessened. 



If it should be thought' that the increase of the 

 mass of material wealth in Europe and America 

 has kept pace with what we know to have been the 

 increase in the population of those divisions ; it 

 may be stated at about thirty-two per cent, in the 

 twenty years, which, added to thirteen per cent, 

 diminished in the mass of money, would cause a 

 natural decline in prices at the rate of forty-five 

 per cent. 



This rate of decline would be retarded by the 

 increased power given to money from the several 

 causes which have been alluded to. It is difficult 

 to determine, in such a complex system of ex- 

 changes of material wealth as is established in all 

 highly civilised countries, how far a declining 

 quantity of money is counteracted by the addi- 



