value. As the instrument of commerce, with money we can obtain what we have occasion for. As the measure of value, we estimate that of all other commodities by the quantity of money which they will exchange for; and wealth and money, in short, are in common language considered as in every respect synonymous.

A rich country is supposed to be a country abounding in money. The first inquiry of the Spanish explorers of America, when they arrived upon any unknown coast, used to be, if there were gold and silver in the neighbourhood. The object of the Tartars in questioning the French ambassador was the same as that of the Spaniards, but their inquiries were if there were plenty of sheep and oxen in France. They wanted to know if the country was worth conquering, p. 2. Mr. Locke considered gold and silver as the most substantial part of the movable wealth of a nation, being little liable to consumption or waste. Others admit that if a nation could be separated from all the world, it would be of no consequence how much, or how little, money circulated in it; but that it is different with countries which have connections with foreign nations, and which are obliged to maintain fleets and armies in distant countries. In consequence of these opinions, all the nations of Europe have endeavoured to accumulate money, and have, at different periods, prohibited the exportation of the precious metals, p. 3. The merchants found this prohibition inconvenient, and remonstrated against it-(1) as tending to diminish rather than increase the quantity of those metals in the kingdom; (2) because the prohibition could not prevent the exportation, but only make it more difficult and expensive; and (3) that an attention to the balance of trade was the only way to prevent the exportation of gold and silver; for that the exchange was turned against the country which

1 See M'Culloch's Introductory Discourse, sect. 1.

owed the balance. The two first arguments were solid, but the last was sophistical. They carried, however, conviction to the persons to whom they were addressed, and who knew nothing about the matter: and the prohibition of exporting gold and silver was, in France and England, confined to the coin of those respective countries; and, in Holland and some other places, this liberty extended even to the coin of the country. Thus the attention of Government was turned away from guarding against the exportation of gold and silver to watch over the balance of trade. From one fruitless care it was turned away to another care more intricate, more embarrassing, and equally fruitless; whilst the home trade, which (it was said) neither brought money into the country nor carried any out of it, was considered as merely subsidiary to the foreign, pp. 4-7.

A country that has no mines of its own must draw its gold and silver from foreign countries in the same manner as one that has no vineyards must draw its wines. Like other commodities they are to be bought. All other commodities are the price of those metals. The quantity of every commodity suits itself to the effectual demand, but no commodity regulates itself more easily according to this demand than gold and silver, on account of their small bulk. When the quantity of gold and silver imported into any country exceeds the effectual demand, no vigilance can prevent their exportation. It is partly owing to the easy transportation of gold and silver that their price does not fluctuate continually like that of other commodities,' pp. 7-9.

There are more expedients for supplying the place of gold and silver than that of almost any other commodity. If materials are wanted, industry must stop.

The total quantity of gold and silver in the world is very great in comparison with the annual supply. A considerable increase in the latter is long before it exerts much influence over the former.

If provisions are wanted, the people must starve. But if money is wanted, barter will, though with much inconvenience, supply its place. To watch over the preservation of the quantity of money in a country is, therefore, unnecessary in Government. No complaint is more common than the scarcity of money. Overtrading is the cause of the complaint, which is a general error when the profits of trade are greater than ordinary ; not that dealers send more money abroad than usual, but they buy, upon credit, an unusual quantity of goods, and the demand for payment comes before the returns, pp.

9-10.

It is not because wealth consists more in money than in goods that the merchant finds it easier to buy goods with money than to buy money with goods, but because money is the established instrument of commerce. Besides, the greater part of goods are more perishable than money, and he may sustain a loss by keeping them: his profit arises from selling and not from buying; therefore he is anxious rather to exchange his goods for money than his money for goods. Though an individual with abundance of goods in his warehouse may be ruined, a nation is not liable to the same accident; it may suffer some inconveniency, but the annual produce of its land and labour will be nearly the same, because the same consumable capital would be employed in maintaining it, pp. 10, 11.

It is pretended that nothing can be more disadvantageous to a country than a trade which consists in the exchange of such lasting commodities as gold and silver for others which are perishable. But the exchange of the hardware of England for the wines of France is not a disadvantageous trade, for the number of utensils is in every country limited by the use which there is for them. Gold and silver, whether in the shape of coin or of plate, are utensils as much as the furniture of the kitchen, and to attempt to increase the

wealth of a country, either by introducing or by detaining in it an unnecessary quantity of gold and silver, is as absurd as it would be to attempt to increase the good cheer of private families by obliging them to keep an unnecessary number of gridirons and saucepans. Increase the use for them, and you will increase the quantity; but if you attempt by extraordinary means to increase the quantity, you will diminish the use, and even the quantity too, pp. 12, 13.

It is not necessary to accumulate gold and silver in order to enable a country to carry on foreign wars. Fleets and armies are maintained with consumable goods. A nation may purchase the pay and provisions of an army three different ways-by sending abroad either (1) some of its accumulated gold and silver, or (2) some of its manufactures, or (3) some part of its rude produce. The gold and silver accumulated is distinguished into (1) the circulating money, (2) the plate of private families, and (3) the money laid up in the treasury of the prince. These are but insignificant resources for carrying on a war, since little can be spared from the first, and the second and third are almost always small in amount. The funds which maintained the foreign wars of the present century have had little dependence upon the exportation either of circulating money or of the plate of private families, or of the treasure of the prince, but upon that of British commodities of some kind or other, pp. 13-16.

Besides the three sorts of gold and silver abovementioned, there is in all countries a good deal of bullion imported and exported for the purposes of foreign trade. This bullion may be considered as the money of the great mercantile republic, part of which may have been employed in carrying on our wars; but this must have been purchased with British commodities, which are the ultimate resources of war. The commodities most proper for this purpose seem to be the finer manu

factures, which can be exported at little expense. The manufacturers, during a war, will have a double demand upon them—(1) to work up goods to be sent abroad for paying bills drawn upon foreign countries for the pay and provision of the army; and (2) to work up such as are necessary for purchasing the common returns that had been usually consumed in the country. Manufacturers may flourish, therefore, amidst the ruin of their country. No foreign war of great expense could be carried on by the exportation of the rude produce of the soil. The expense of carriage would be too great; besides the rude produce of few countries is much more than sufficient for the subsistence of their own inhabitants. Hence the inability of the ancient kings of England to carry on a foreign war of long duration; which did not arise from the want of money, but of the finer manufactures. Among nations to whom commerce and manufactures are but little known, the sovereign can seldom draw any considerable aid from his subjects; he therefore accumulates a treasure as a resource against emergencies. The Saxon princes and the first kings after the Conquest accumulated treasures, and the first exploit of every new reign was commonly to seize the treasure of the preceding king as the most essential measure of securing the succession, pp. 16–19.

The importation of gold and silver is not the principal benefit which a nation derives from its foreign trade. It carries out that surplus part of the produce of their land and labour for which there is no demand at home, and brings back something else for which there is a demand. By thus opening a more extensive market for the surplus produce of their labour, it encourages them to improve its productive powers, and thereby to increase the real revenue and wealth of the society, p. 20.

It is not by the importation of gold and silver that the discovery of America has enriched Europe. By the 1 See Rogers's note on this passage.