times of poverty and depression, so gold and
silver are not likely to be worse paid for.
The price of gold and silver, when the accidental
discovery of more abundant mines
does not keep it down, as it naturally rises
with the wealth of every country; so, whatever
be the state of the mines, it is at all times
naturally higher in a rich than in a poor country.
Gold and silver, like all other commodities,
naturally seek the market where the
best price is given for them, and the best price
is commonly given for every thing in the
country which can best afford it. Labour, it
must be remembered, is the ultimate price
which is paid for every thing; and in countries
where labour is equally well rewarded,
the money price of labour will be in proportion
to that of the subsistence of the labourer.
But gold and silver will naturally exchange
for a greater quantity of subsistence in a rich
than in a poor country; in a country which
abounds with subsistence, than in one which
is but indifferently supplied with it. If the
two countries are at a great distance, the difference
may be very great; because, though
the metals naturally fly from the worse to the
better market, yet it may be difficult to transport
them in such quantities as to bring their
price nearly to a level in both. If the countries
are near, the difference will be smaller,
and may sometimes be scarce perceptible; because
in this case the transportation will be
easy. China is a much richer country than
any part of Europe, and the difference between
the price of subsistence in China and in
Europe is very great. Rice in China is much
cheaper than wheat is anywhere in Europe.
England is a much richer country than Scotland,
but the difference between the money
price of corn in those two countries is much
smaller, and is but just perceptible. In proportion
to the quantity or measure, Scotch
corn generally appears to be a good deal cheaper
than English; but, in proportion to its quality,
it is certainly somewhat dearer. Scotland
receives almost every year very large supplies
from England, and every commodity
must commonly be somewhat dearer in the
country to which it is brought than in that
from which it comes. English corn, therefore,
must be dearer in Scotland than in England;
and yet in proportion to its quality, or
to the quantity and goodness of the flour or
meal which can be made from it, it cannot
commonly be sold higher there than the Scotch
corn which comes to market in competition
with it.
The difference between the money price of
labour in China and in Europe, is still greater
than that between the money price of subsistence;
because the real recompence of labour
is higher in Europe than in China, the
greater part of Europe being in an improving
state, while China seems to be standing still.
The money price of labour is lower in Scotland
than in England, because the real recompence
of labour is much lower: Scotland,
though advancing to greater wealth, advances
much more slowly than England. The
frequency of emigration from Scotland, and
the rarity of it from England, sufficiently
prove that the demand for labour is very different
in the two countries. The proportion
between the real recompence of labour in different
countries, it must be remembered, is
naturally regulated, not by their actual wealth
or poverty, but by their advancing, stationary,
or declining condition.
Gold and silver, as they are naturally of the
greatest value among the richest, so they are
naturally of the least value among the poorest
nations. Among savages, the poorest of all
nations, they are scarce of any value.
In great towns, corn is always dearer than
in remote parts of the country. This, however,
is the effect, not of the real cheapness of
silver, but of the real dearness of corn. It
does not cost less labour to bring silver to the
great town than to the remote parts of the
country; but it costs a great deal more to
bring corn.
In some very rich and commercial countries,
such as Holland and the territory of
Genoa, corn is dear for the same reason that
it is dear in great towns. They do not produce
enough to maintain their inhabitants.
They are rich in the industry and skill of their
artificers and manufacturers, in every sort of
machinery which can facilitate and abridge
labour; in shipping, and in all the other instruments
and means of carriage and commerce:
but they are poor in corn, which, as
it must be brought to them from distant countries,
must, by an addition to its price, pay
for the carriage from these countries. It does
not cost less labour to bring silver to Amsterdam
than to Dantzic; but it costs a great deal
more to bring corn. The real cast of silver
must be nearly the same in both places; but
that of corn must be very different. Diminish
the real opulence either of Holland or of the
territory of Genoa, while the number of their
inhabitants remains the same; diminish their
power of supplying themselves from distant
countries; and the price of corn, instead of
sinking with that diminution in the quantity
of their silver, which must necessarily accompany
this declension, either as its cause or as
its effect, will rise to the price of a famine.
When we are in want of necessaries, we must
part with all superfluities, of which the value,
as it rises in times of opulence and prosperity,
so it sinks in times of poverty and distress.
It is otherwise with necessaries. Their real
price, the quantity of labour which they can
purchase or command, rises in times of poverty
and distress, and sinks in times of opulence
and prosperity, which are always times
of great abundance; for they could not otherwise
be times of opulence and prosperity