a very small quantity. The low money price
for which they may be sold, is no proof that
the real value of silver is there very high, but
that the real value of those commodities is
very low.
Labour, it must always be remembered, and
not any particular commodity, or set of commodities,
is the real measure of the value both
of silver and of all other commodities.
But in countries almost waste, or but thinly
inhabited, cattle, poultry, game of all kinds,
&c. as they are the spontaneous productions
of Nature, so she frequently produces them in
much greater quantities than the consumption
of the inhabitants requires. In such a state of
things, the supply commonly exceeds the demand.
In different states of society, in different
states of improvement, therefore, such
commodities will represent, or be equivalent,
to very different quantities of labour.
In every state of society, in every stage of
improvement, corn is the production of human
industry. But the average produce of every
sort of industry is always suited, more or less
exactly, to the average consumption; the average
supply to the average demand. In every
different stage of improvement, besides, the
raising of equal quantities of corn in the same
soil and climate, will, at an average, require
nearly equal quantities of labour; or, what
comes to the same thing, the price of nearly
equal quantities; the continual increase of
the productive powers of labour, in an improved
state of cultivation, being more or less
counterbalanced by the continual increasing
price of cattle, the principal instruments of
agriculture. Upon all these accounts, therefore,
we may rest assured, that equal quantities
of corn will, in every state of society, in every
stage of improvement, more nearly represent,
or be equivalent to, equal quantities of labour,
than equal quantities of any other part of the
rude produce of land. Corn, accordingly, it
has already been observed, is, in all the different
stages of wealth and improvement, a more
accurate measure of value than any other commodity
or set of commodities. In all those
different stages, therefore, we can judge better
of the real value of silver, by comparing
it with corn, than by comparing it with any
other commodity or set of commodities.
Corn, besides, or whatever else is the common
and favourite vegetable food of the people,
constitutes, in every civilized country, the
principal part of the subsistence of the labourer.
In consequence of the extension of agriculture,
the land of every country produces a
much greater quantity of vegetable than of
animal food, and the labourer everywhere
lives chiefly upon the wholesome food that is
cheapest and most abundant. Butcher's meat,
except in the most thriving countries, or where
labour is most highly rewarded, makes but an
insignificant part of his subsistence; poultry
makes a still smaller part of it, and game no
part of it. In France, and even in Scotland,
where labour is somewhat better rewarded
than in France, the labouring poor seldom
eat butcher's meat, except upon holidays, and
other extraordinary occasions. The money
price of labour, therefore, depends much more
upon the average money price of corn, the
subsistence of the labourer, than upon that of
butcher's meat, or of any other part of the
rude produce of land. The real value of gold
and silver, therefore, the real quantity of labour
which they can purchase or command,
depends much more upon the quantity of corn
which they can purchase or command, than
upon that of butcher's meat, or any other part
of the rude produce of land.
Such slight observations, however, upon the
prices either of corn or of other commodities,
would not probably have misled so many intelligent
authors, had they not been influenced
at the same time by the popular notion, that
as the quantity of silver naturally increases
in every country with the increase of wealth,
so its value diminishes as its quantity increases.
This notion, however, seems to be altogether
groundless.
The quantity of the precious metals may
increase in any country from two different
causes; either, first, from the increased abundance
of the mines which supply it; or, secondly,
from the increased wealth of the people,
from the increased produce of their annual
labour. The first of these causes is no
doubt necessarily connected with the diminution
of the value of the precious metals; but
the second is not.
When more abundant mines are discovered,
a greater quantity of the precious metals is
brought to market; and the quantity of the
necessaries and conveniencies of life for which
they must be exchanged being the same as before,
equal quantities of the metals must be
exchanged for smaller quantities of commodities.
So far, therefore, as the increase of
the quantity of the precious metals in any
country arises from the increased abundance
of the mines, it is necessarily connected with
some diminution of their value.
When, on the contrary, the wealth of any
country increases, when the annual produce
of its labour becomes gradually greater and
greater, a greater quantity of coin becomes
necessary in order to circulate a greater quantity
of commodities: and the people, as they
can afford it, as they have more commodities
to give for it, will naturally purchase a greater
and a greater quantity of plate. The quantity
of their coin will increase from necessity;
the quantity of their plate from vanity and
ostentation, or from the same reason that the
quantity of fine statues, pictures, and of every
other luxury and curiosity, is likely to increase
among them. But as statuaries and
painters are not likely to be worse rewarded
in times of wealth and prosperity, than in