April — sept. 1859.] Ancient and Modern times. 



67 



Fourthly : in the enumeration of Job's wealth, both before his 

 troubles and after, there is no mention whatever of money. 



I should not have brought forward illustrations of the obvious 

 principle that the value of the precious metals is antecedent to, 

 not consequent upon their use as coin, but that I think the facts 

 I have adduced are curious and interesting in themselves. I shall 

 only add that in the Book of Genesis, 4 gold" is first mentioned 

 in the description of Eden (ii. 11, 12) ; " money" in xvii. 12 ; silver 

 coin, in xx. 16. I must not trespass on another division of my 

 subject. My object at present is merely to offer a few remaiks 

 on money in general. 



Their permanence, divisibility, and small bulk in proportion to 

 their value render the metals, gold and silver more especially, the 

 best possible material for a currency. An important advantage 

 arises from the last quality I have named, viz., the almost perfect 

 equalization of value of the precious metals, over all parts of 

 Europe at least. Even at a time when the trade in gold and 

 silver was almost universally restricted by legislative enactments, 

 owing to the erroneous principles of the Mercantile System, 

 their value in the different European countries remained very 

 nearly the same. The proportion between their bulk and their 

 value gave facilities for smuggling more powerful to encour- 

 age than law was to repress their transfer : and whenever these 

 arose from any cause, even a slight difference of value in any two 

 countries, the mercantile instinct soon found means of conveying 

 the precious metals from that in which they bore a lower to that 

 in which they bore a higher price. At the present day, when in 

 England,* and I believe in all other European countries, the trade 

 is perfectly free, an exaltation in value of gold and silver to the 

 amount of one-eighth per cent, in any place in Europe, is sufficient 

 to determine thither such a supply as to restore immediately the 

 normal level. 



But a metallic currency, though the best possible is far from 

 perfect. The fluctuation in the value of the material is a serious 

 drawback. Another is the heavy expense of maintaining a circu- 

 lating medium consisting of the precious metals. The former, 



* Since 1816. 



