376 ON PRICES 



CHAP. XXX. 



been seen in the prices of cotton, of wool, and 

 of tobacco within a few late years. 



As it is not possible to frame a satisfactory 

 catalogue of commodities that can be viewed as a 

 criterion by which to try the value of gold and 

 silver, we may venture to have recourse to classes 

 of society in the different countries. 



The cultivators of the soil are the most nu- 

 merous part of the community. Their products 

 are the least complicated in their origin, and the 

 most simple in their distribution, and therefore 

 are likely to be first affected by any increase in 

 the value of the precious metals. They would be 

 the first to experience the difficulty of obtaining 

 the usual weight of gold and silver, if those metals 

 became more rare, for the usual measure of corn, 

 of meat, of cotton, of wool, of sugar, or other 

 agricultural products. In this country, where 

 the cultivators are a class of capitalists distinct 

 from the proprietors, their capitals have generally 

 been diminishing, whilst the decline of the mines 

 has been proceeding, and the application of their 

 produce to other purposes than that of coin has 

 been increasing. It certainly does not follow 

 from these two courses having been in simul- 

 taneous progression that one is the cause of the 

 other. The same has been the condition of the 

 cultivators of the soil in every other country, as 

 far as it is accurately known. In every part of 

 the continent of Europe the same complaints are 



