\ 

 MONEY, 2^4^ \ 



tmiiy against mixing gold and silver with base metals. To 

 prevent that fraud, pieces of gold and silver are impressed 

 with a public stamp, vouching both the purity and the quan- 

 tity ; and such pieces are termed coin. This was an im- 

 provement in commerce, and at first, probably, deemed com- 

 plete. It was not foreseen that these metals wear by much 

 handling in the course of circulation, and consequently, that 

 in time the public stamp is reduced to be a voucher of the 

 purity only, not of the quantity. This embarrassment is 

 remedied by the use of paper money ; and paper money is 

 attended with another advantage, that of preventing the loss 

 of much gold and silver by wearing. 



Before the invention of money, men were much at a loss 

 how to estimate the value of their property. In order to ex- 

 press that value they were necessarily obliged to compare it 

 to something else, and having no settled standard, they would 

 naturally choose objects of known and established value. 

 Accordingly we read both in Scripture and in the ancient 

 poets, of a man's property being worth so many oxen and so 

 many flocks and herds. ^\'^e are informed that even at the 

 present day the Calmuc Tartars reckon the value of a coat 

 of mail from six to eight, and up to the value of fifty horses. 

 In civilized countries every one estimates his capital by the 

 quantity of money it is worth ; — he does not really possess 

 the sum in money, but his property, whatever be its nature 

 or kind, is equivalent to such a sum of money. 



It is common to imagine that the more money a country 

 possesses, the more affluent is its condition. And that is 

 usually the case. But the cause is often mistaken for the 

 effect. A great quantity of money is necessary to circulate 

 a great quantity of commodities. Rich flourishing countries 

 require abundance of money, and possess the means of 

 obtaining it ; but this abundance is the consequence, not the 

 cause of their wealth, which consists in the commodities cir- 

 culated, rather than in the circulating medium. The in- 

 crease of European comforts, of affluence, of luxury, is at- 

 tributed to the influx of the treasures of the new world — and 

 with reason ; but those treasures are the sugar, the coffee, 

 the indigo, and other articles, which America exports, to 

 obtain which Europe must send her commodities that have 

 been produced by the employment of their people. Gold 

 and silver, though they have greatly excited their avari^ 



