demand as fomewhat to raise the price of those metals in the CHA P. European market. THE quantity of brafs and iron annually brought from the mine to the market is out of all proportion greater than that of gold and filver. We do not, however, upon this account, imagine that those coarse metals are likely to multiply beyond the demand, or to become gradually cheaper and cheaper. Why fhould we imagine that the precious metals are likely to do fo? The coarfe metals indeed, though harder, are put to much harder ufes, and as they are of less value, lefs care is employed in their preservation. The precious metals, however, are not neceffarily immortal any more than they, but are liable too to be loft, wasted, and confumed in a great variety of ways. THE price of all metals, though liable to flow and gradual variations, varies lefs from year to year than that of almost any other part of the rude produce of land; and the price of the precious metals is even lefs liable to fudden variations than that of the coarse ones. The durablenefs of metals is the foundation of this extraordinary steadiness of price. The corn which was brought to market last year, will be all or almost all confumed long before the end of this year. But fome part of the iron which was brought from the mine two or three hundred years ago, may be ftill in ufe, and perhaps fome part of the gold which was brought from it two or three thoufand years ago. The different maffes of corn which in different years muft fupply the confumption of the world, will always be nearly in proportion to the respective produce of thofe different years. But the proportion between the different maffes of iron which may be in use in two different years, will be very little affected by any accidental difference in the produce of the iron mines of those two years; and the proportion between the maffes XI. I. BOOK maffes of gold will be still lefs affected by any fuch difference in the produce of the gold mines. Though the produce of the greater part of metallick mines, therefore, varies, perhaps, still more from year to year than that of the greater part of corn fields, thofe variations have not the fame effect upon the price of the one fpecies of commodities, as upon that of the other. Variations in the Proportion between the refpective Values of B EFORE the discovery of the mines of America, the value of fine gold to fine filver was regulated in the different mints of Europe, between the proportions of one to ten and one to twelve; that is, an ounce of fine gold was supposed to be worth from ten to twelve ounces of fine filver. About the middle of the last century it came to be regulated, between the proportions of one to fourteen and one to fifteen; that is, an ounce of fine gold came to be fupposed worth between fourteen and fifteen ounces of fine filver. Gold rofe in its nominal value, or in the quantity of filver which was given for it. Both metals funk in their real value, or in the quantity of labour which they could purchase; but silver sunk more than gold. Though both the gold and filver mines of America exceeded in fertility all those which had ever been known before, the fertility of the filver mines had, it feems, been proportionably ftill greater than that of the gold ones. THE great quantities of filver carried annually from Europe to India, have, in fome of the English fettlements, gradually reduced the value of that metal in proportion to gold. In the mint of Calcutta, I Calcutta, an ounce of fine gold is fuppofed to be worth fifteen ounces of fine filver, in the fame manner as in Europe. It is in the mint perhaps rated too high for the value which it bears in the market of Bengal. In China, the proportion of gold to filver ftill continues as one to ten, or one to twelve. In Japan it is faid to be as one to eight. THE proportion between the quantities of gold and filver annually imported into Europe, according to Mr. Meggens's account, is as one to twenty-two nearly; that is, for one ounce of gold there are imported a little more than twenty-two ounces of filver. The great quantity of filver sent annually to the Eaft Indies, reduces, he fuppofes, the quantities of those metals which remain in Europe to the proportion of one to fourteen or fifteen, the proportion of their values. The proportion between their values, he feems to think, muft neceffarily be the fame as that between their quantities, and would therefore be as one to twenty-two, were it not for this greater exportation of filver. BUT the ordinary proportion between the respective values of two commodities is not neceffarily the fame as that between the quantities of them which are commonly in the market. The price of an ox, reckoned at ten guineas, is about threescore times the price of a lamb, reckoned at 3 s. 6d. It would be abfurd, however, to infer from thence, that there are commonly in the market threescore lambs for one ox: and it would be just as abfurd to infer, because an ounce of gold will commonly purchase from fourteen to fifteen ounces of filver, that there are commonly in the market only fourteen or fifteen ounces of filver for one ounce of gold. ́ THE quantity of filver commonly in the market, it is probable,. is much greater in proportion to that of gold, than the value of a VOL. L certain M m - I. BOOK certain quantity of gold is to that of an equal quantity of filver. The whole quantity of a cheap commodity brought to market, is commonly not only greater, but of greater value, than the whole quantity of a dear one. The whole quantity of bread annually brought to market, is not only greater, but of greater value than the whole quantity of butcher's-meat; the whole quantity of butcher's-meat, than the whole quantity of poultry; and the whole quantity of poultry, than the whole quantity of wild fowl. There are fo many more purchaser for the cheap than for the dear commodity, that, not only a greater quantity of it, but a greater value can commonly be disposed of. The whole quantity, therefore, of the cheap commodity must commonly be greater in proportion to the whole quantity of the dear one, than the value of a certain quantity of the dear one, is to the value of an equal quantity of the cheap one. When we compare the precious metals with one another, filver is a cheap, and gold a dear commodity. We ought naturally to expect, therefore, that there fhould always be in the market, not only a greater quantity, but a greater value of filver than of gold. Let any man, who has a little of both, compare his own filver with his gold plate, and he will probably find, that, not only the quantity, but the value of the former greatly exceeds that of the latter. Many people, befides, have a good deal of filver who have no gold plate, which, even with those who have it, is generally confined to watch cafes, fnuff-boxes, and fuch like trinkets, of which the whole amount is feldom of great value. In the British coin, indeed, the value of the gold preponderates greatly, but it is not fo in that of all countries. In the coin of fome countries the value of the two metals is nearly equal. In the Scotch coin, before the union with England, the gold preponderated very little, though it did fomewhat, as it appears by the accounts of the mint. In the coin of many countries the filver preponderates. In France, the largeft fums are commonly paid in that metal, Sce Ruddiman's Preface to Anderfon's Diplomata, &c. Scotia. and and it is there difficult to get more gold than what is neceffary to carry about in your pocket. The fuperior value, however, of the filver plate above that of the gold, which takes place in all countries, will much more than compenfate the preponderancy of the gold coin above the filver, which takes place only in fome countries. THOUGH, in one fenfe of the word, filver always has been, and probably always will be, much cheaper than gold; yet in another fenfe, gold may, perhaps, in the present state of the Spanish market, be faid to be fomewhat cheaper than filver. A commodity may be said to be dear or cheap, not only according to the abfolute greatness or smallness of its usual price, but according as that price is more or lefs above the lowest for which it is poffible to bring it to market for any confiderable time together. This lowest price is that which barely replaces, with a moderate profit, the stock which must be employed in bringing the commodity thither. It is the price which affords nothing to the landlord, of which rent makes not any component part, but which refolves itself altogether into wages and profit. But, in the present state of the Spanish market, gold is certainly fomewhat nearer to this lowest price than filver. The tax of the King of Spain upon gold is only one-twentieth part of the ftandard metal, or five per cent.; whereas his tax upon filver amounts to one-tenth part of it, or to In these taxes too, it has already been obferved, . ten per cent. confifts the whole rent of the greater part of the gold and filver mines of Spanish America; and that upon gold is fill worfe paid than that upon filver. The profits of the undertakers of gold mines too, as they more rarely make a fortune, muft, in general, be ftill more moderate than thofe of the undertakers of filver mines. The price of Spanish gold, therefore, as it affords both lefs rent and lefs profit, muft, in the Spanish market, be fomewhat nearer to the lowest VOL. I. * M m 2 price |
