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alternative legal tender, silver. The effect would be to 
make a given quantity of gold invariably representative of 
a given quantity of the real standard of value, labour, in its 
turn represented by the commodity silver. 
I am aware that it is theoretically conceivable that by the 
failure of supplies, hoarding, the increase of population, and 
so on, the exchange value of both legal tenders might rise. 
But this is so remote a contingency that it may be treated 
for the present as a practical impossibility. 
