378 INFLUENCE OF THE METALS. CHAP. xxx. 



prices which it exhibits to the view. The only 

 evil from the diminution of these metals is 

 the discouragement it may present to industry 

 by the apparent loss, or lessened profit, when the 

 result of labour is reckoned in gold and silver 

 and not in other commodities. It matters little 

 to him who raises a bushel of wheat whether it 

 is exchanged for a pennyweight or for an ounce 

 of silver, provided it will procure for him the 

 same quantity of cloth, shoes, liquors, furniture, 

 or other necessaries which may be desirable to 

 him. The relations of the different classes of 

 society to each other, but still more those of 

 different individuals to each other, will be changed, 

 but the change will be made very slowly, and be 

 scarcely perceptible in one or two years, and even 

 at the end of a generation only noticed by those 

 who look back with the means of comparing the 

 range of prices at different periods. 



In the twentieth chapter of this inquiry a view 

 has been taken of the effect produced by an ad- 

 vance of the prices of commodities, in general, at 

 the rate of five to one in the course of a century. 

 The reflecting reader will easily perceive that an 

 operation of an opposite kind may take place, 

 which may no more derange the general economy 

 of states, and no more disturb the relations of 

 classes of society to each other, than was ex- 

 perienced between 1490 and 1590. 



