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1 14 COMMERCE. 



its traffic ; and the most certain proof of the rapid circulation 

 of wealth. 



The amount of the specie existing in a kingdom, is not a 

 certain indication of the state of its commerce, which may 

 flourish in an extraordinary degree, without its produce being 

 equalled by the former. England, which, in 1783, raised 

 the value of her manufa<£lures to fifty-one millions sterling, 

 and, in 1784, to sixty-eight millions thirty thousand pounds, 

 did not reckon, comprehending Scotland, more than thirty 

 millions of circulating specie in gold, and seven in silver. 

 Consequently, notwithstanding the free trade may, as has 

 been alleged, have diminished the amount of the specie circu- 

 lating in the viceroyalty of Peru, it does not follow from this 

 principle, that it has been the cause of the decay of its com- 

 merce. 



Hume observes, in his Political Essays, that there is not a 

 more infallible mean of reducing the value of specie, than the 

 establishment of banks, public funds, and paper credit. If 

 the latter be multiplied in abundance, the other elFe6ls will 

 become proportionally scarce ; and in this manner, a great 

 part of the precious metals will find their way abroad. For^ 

 seeing that paper has not any estimation out of the country 

 w^hich bestows on it a nominal value, it will not enter into 

 the combinations of the foreign merchant, whose aim will 

 be to extra6t the specie, which is alike precious in every 

 kingdom. .» 



These refledlions have been confirmed by experience. Be- 

 fore the introdu£lion of paper credit into the Anglo-American 

 colonies, gold and silver were in abundant circulation^ but 

 as soon as that medium was established, the above metals al- 

 most 



