THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF ILLINOIS 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 33Z 
 
 3815
 
 Q 
 
 THE LAW J2- 
 
 AND 
 
 PRINCIPLE OF MONEY 
 
 CONSIDERED; 
 
 IN A LETTER TO 
 W. HUSKISSON, Esq. M. P. 
 
 BY JOHN RAITHBY, 
 
 •P UNCOLN'S INK, ESa. BARRISTER AT LAW. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED FOR T. CADELL, AND W. DAVIES, STRAND. 
 
 1811.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 When any person takes upon himself to 
 lay before the public an opinion upon a 
 subject of national importance, which con- 
 troverts an ancient, and almost univer- 
 sal, sentiment, it certainly becomes him 
 to assign a reason for the attempt. At the 
 same time, it will be remembered that 
 such a person has, in his turn, a claim 
 upon the public ; until ground for the 
 contrary appear, he is entitled to credit for 
 sincerity in his endeavour to ascertain the 
 truth ; and his arguments ought to be con- 
 sidered before they arc condemned. The re- 
 verse of this, however, has so often proved 
 the case, where the author has not possessed 
 the advantage of an established name, that it
 
 Imay not appear improper, in a case like the 
 present, to urge so just a claim. 
 
 The aim of this publication is, in the first 
 place, to ascertain the principle of money : 
 assuming that the writer has succeeded in 
 that attempt, it then proceeds to consider 
 the law upon the subject ; and concludes by 
 proposing certain measures for the establish- 
 ment of a paper money, in the room of 
 money of the precious metals. 
 
 In considering the theory of this scheme, 
 the author saw what he thought sufficient 
 ground to conclude, that a paper currency 
 might be established, which would perform 
 the part of measuring the exchangeable 
 Talue of commodities, without the aid of 
 any article of intrinsic value in exchange, 
 with which it should be constantly com- 
 pared ; and without any risk of convulsion of 
 property.
 
 Vli 
 
 In considering its practicability, he did not 
 forget that the precious metals had long been 
 adopted, by the common consent of society, 
 as the general medium of exchange, and that" 
 they have long been received, or considered, 
 by that consent, as a universal equivalent ; but 
 he could not, at the same time, avoid calling to 
 his recollection, that in proportron as the con- 
 cerns of the w^orld have grow n more nume- 
 rous, the use of paper has increased, and that 
 the bank restriction bill, and the experience 
 with which the measures consequent upon it 
 have furnished the country, have demonstrat- 
 ed, that its commercial existence and prospe- 
 rity do not depend upon a circulation of the 
 precious metals ; and he has, therefore, been 
 led to conclude, that if the industry and 
 ingenuity of the country have been (as 
 every corner of it plainly shews) excit- 
 ed, during the operation of those mea- 
 sures, in a degree hitherto unexampled, 
 it is no irrational expectation, that if the 
 precious metals be wanted in the country for
 
 Viii 
 the purpose of its foreign relations, or for 
 any other purpose, the adoption of a mea- 
 sure of the same principle with the restric- 
 tion bill, but of a more permanent character, 
 will be found not only practicable, but that 
 it will enable this country to maintain a suc- 
 cessful competition with every other country, 
 for the possession of any quantity of those 
 metals, it may deem necessary for its service. 
 
 This tract, it is confessed, contains little 
 more than the heads of the doctrines it is in- 
 tended to inculcate ; it is not meant to be 
 considered as an elaborate treatise, but 
 merely to awaken the attention of persons, 
 qualified, hy their situation and their talents, 
 to impress those doctrines upon the public 
 mind. 
 
 The motives, that have induced the author 
 to snatch a few hours from the repose which 
 other avocations demanded, are the follow-
 
 ix 
 ing; 1st, he is firmly convinced, after having 
 paid what he conceives to be due attentioii 
 to the eminent writers on the subject, of the 
 truth of the doctrines here deUvered, and 
 of their importance to the public welfare ; 
 — 2dly, that, although there are many pas- 
 sages in those waiters, which, taken singly, 
 might be shewn to have a tendency to corro- 
 borate those doctrines, yet, that the whole 
 effect of their writings has, in fact, pro- 
 duced a totally contrary impression ; — 3dly, 
 a serious apprehension, not only that the 
 principles inculcated by Mr. Huskisson, and 
 (meaning to speak with all possible respect) 
 by the report of the committee on the high 
 price of bullion, are fallacious, but that the 
 practical adoption of them w^ll eventually 
 involve the Country in great calamity. 
 
 There are other reasons, also, which have 
 induced this little publication, and which it 
 may be right to state.
 
 X 
 
 It is correctly observed by Mr. Huskisson, 
 that this ought not to be a party question ; 
 but it cannot, at the same time, be forgotten, 
 and it ought not to be disguised, that there 
 is, in this country, a set of men of small 
 account indeed in respect of rank, or fortune, 
 or honourable pursuit, but bold, busy, fac- 
 tious and intriguing ; attached to no ligiti- 
 mate party in it ; industrious in vilifying its 
 character, and decrying its resources ; the 
 secret and determined enemies of its honour 
 and repose. 
 
 In the hands of such persons, the doc- 
 trine, which ascribes to money of the preci^ 
 ous metals the powers of a universal equiva- 
 lent, is an instrument of dreadful mischief; 
 for, if it be true that money of the precious 
 metals is the universal equivalent, and the 
 foundation of our national currency and 
 wealth ; and if it be also true, as the pre- 
 sent circumstances of the country seem to 
 shew it is, that we cannot command a con-
 
 XL 
 
 stant and necessary supply of this money, 
 what, it may be asked, can be a more alarm- 
 ing symptom of derangement in the public 
 affairs, than such a deficiency of the public 
 treasure ? But, even if the doctrines of in- 
 trinsic value and universal equivalence be 
 false, which it is the business of this tract 
 to shew, yet, while they are upheld by many, 
 and beheved by the multitude, the scarcity 
 of money of the precious metals will not 
 cease to be a subject of triumph to the foe 
 without, and of exultation and foreboding 
 to the enemy within. 
 
 Nations, like individuals, may fail the vic- 
 tims of imaginary as well as of real disor- 
 ders. It is important, therefore, that delu- 
 sions, however highly sanctioned, which ha\e 
 a necessary tendency to unsettle the govern- 
 ment, and to agitate the people, should he 
 dispelled. Amongst the most powerful and 
 fatal of these delusions may be account<*d the 
 doctrine of the intrinsic value, anJ universal
 
 Xll 
 
 equivalence, of money. It tells the countiy, 
 that money of the precious metals is the 
 foundation of the pubUc wealth ; and, con- 
 sequently, that its safety lies in possessing an 
 undiminished currency in those metals ; and 
 yet it unavoidably admits the fact, that it is 
 the interest, and of course the disposition, of 
 every individual in the country to lessen the 
 quantum of that currency, by turning the 
 precious metals, w^herever he meets witli 
 them in the shape of money, into bullion ; 
 and at the same time points not out, for 
 what power on earth can point out, any sys- 
 tem of law by which that disposition can be 
 effectually restrained ? Such a conflict be- 
 tween the public good and private interest 
 is unnatural and dangerous ; it will, if it 
 continue, gradually undermine the general 
 confidence, and end at length in universal 
 ruin. 
 
 What man, thus viewing the subject, and
 
 Xlll 
 
 believing that there is a preventive against this 
 calamity, and feeling, also, that his own in- 
 terest must one day be overwhelmed in it, if 
 it be not prevented, ought to be deterred, by 
 any consideration of his own incapacity, 
 from endeavouring, to the utmost of his 
 power, to render that preventive effectual ? 
 In this situation the writer of the following 
 pages stands, in common, indeed, with the 
 rest of his countrymen ; but he sees the 
 danger ; he sees too, or thinks he sees, that it 
 may be averted, if the country could be 
 taught the important truth, that its money 
 is no part of its treasure ; that its resources 
 are to be found, not in its currency, but in 
 its govecfiment, in its soil, in its population, 
 in its industry, and in the public confidence. 
 
 If the contrary lesson be inculcated, if the 
 spirit of the country be bowed down, and 
 her energies withered and decayed, though 
 by the influence of imaginary terrors only ;
 
 XIV 
 
 if the system of confidence and commerce 
 that has exalted her above the nations, be thus 
 destroyed, of what avail v^^ill it be to know, 
 that they have been wantonly or mis- 
 takenly destroyed ? of what avail to discover, 
 that her resources are inexhaustible, after 
 she has parted, in despair, with every power 
 that could give effect to her resources ? to 
 recollect, that she might have remained a 
 glorious and a happy nation if she had un- 
 derstood her happiness ? To induce those, 
 with whom the power resides, to save their 
 country from regrets like these, at once im- 
 potent and disgraceful, the following tract is 
 published. Should the attempt prove suc- 
 cessful it will naturally be highly gratifying 
 to the writer ; should it not, the consolation 
 nevertheless remains, that he has exerted his 
 utmost powers, small as they are, to render 
 it effectual. 
 
 As this tract is written purely on the prin-
 
 XV 
 
 ciple just adverted to, the writer feels no 
 hesitation to declare, that if any man shall 
 think it worth his while to shew that he is 
 wrong ; and that the ancient money system 
 can be re-established with advantage to the 
 country, (but which be thinks must be 
 shewn by some other course of reasoning 
 than has been hitherto pursued) he will not 
 only rejoice in the conviction, but be ready 
 to confess his error, as openly as he has 
 endeavoured to propagate the doctrines he 
 has maintained. 
 
 Conscious of the httle weight his name 
 would impart to the disquisition, the author 
 had determined to publish his pamphlet 
 without it ; but, reflecting that it was not 
 very likely that many men would trouble 
 themselves to read what no man cared to 
 own ; feeling no reason to be ashamed 
 of the sentiments, contained in his work and 
 recollecting that, in times like these, when the
 
 pursuits of the industrious and the property 
 of the wealthy are equally at stake, it is 
 the duty of a man, if he speak at all, to 
 speak out, he has thought fit, with this apo- 
 logy, to present his name to the public. 
 
 J. R, 
 
 Lincoln $ Inn, 
 March 29th, 1811,
 
 THE LAW, 
 
 Sir, 
 
 I purpose to consider the question agitated by you, 
 in the first plaoe, merely as an abstract question, and 
 without any reference to its practical consequences j se- 
 condly, as affectint!: the internal trade of this country, a3 
 unconnected (which in a certain sense it is) with foreign 
 commerce ; thirdly, fn its practical effects, with respect 
 botli to the internal trade of the country, and its commerce 
 with foreign nations ; feeling, however, that by fai the 
 most important part of the sul)ject will have been discus- 
 sed, when the endeavour has been made to ascertain the 
 true principle of money. 
 
 The proposition, on which your reasoning appears to rest; 
 is stated by you in these words : " It is of the essence of 
 money to possess intrinsic value." Tlie proposition, on 
 which the conclusions to be found in the following pages 
 are built, is the following : " Money cannot possess in- 
 trinsic value ;" and to this I add a secondary proposition;
 
 that the doctrine, that " it is of the essence of money to 
 possess intrinsic value," is a doctrine in political economy 
 not only false, but highly inconvenient and dangerous. 
 
 It must, however, be admitted, that if your proposition 
 be correct, the reasoning which arises from it appears to 
 be unanswerable. You have brought the question to an 
 issue ; there is but one way to meet it, and that way is to 
 shew the validity of the proposition I have ventured to 
 lay down. 
 
 In discussions of this nature it is not only desirable, but 
 necessary, that terms should be clearly defined : 
 this you have omitted to do, in respect of the term mo- 
 ney. You call it, p. 2, a given quantity of gold or silver. 
 You afterwards, indeed, in the same page, call it coin ; but 
 this seems to be altogether extremely loose and unsatis- 
 factory. Money is thus defined by certain writers^ Ed. 
 Rev. Oct. 1808, p. 37. "Money, like other general 
 terms, denotes a certain combination, or large class of 
 objects, which are distinguished into various species or 
 subdivisions : thus, guineas are money, and so are shillings 
 and crowns, so are dollars and francs, so, too, are bank 
 notes, and cowries and bullion ; salt and nails are in some 
 places money, and sheep and oxen." But this definition 
 is not complete ; it, nevertheless, I appreliend, shews the 
 correct principle of money ; I adopt it, therefore, and 
 apply it to the following definition, subject to an ob- 
 servation to be made hereafter. Money is gold or silver, 
 or paper, or any other subject which, taking to itself, or 
 having assigned to it, a peculiar character, receives the 
 »tainp or authorit)' of the st^te, and bears upon the f£\ce
 
 of it, or is received by common obedience to that autho- 
 Tity, as descriptive of a certain denominative value, which 
 is the common measure and commou representative of the 
 value of commodity. 
 
 As there never was yet, I believe, a definition laid down 
 that was not quarrelled with, I do not expect this to escape 
 a fate so universal ; but to me, at present, it appears clear, 
 precise and satisfactory ; the result of it is the following 
 syllogism : 
 
 All commodity possesses intrinsic value. 
 
 Nothing but commodity can possess intrinsic value. 
 
 But money Is not commodity. 
 
 Money, therefore, cannot possess intrinsic value. 
 
 And here certain questions naturfilly present them- 
 selves. 1st. What is meant by commodity ? 2d. How is 
 money distinguished from commodity ? .Sd. What is 
 meant by intrinsic value ? 
 
 A great part, if not the whole of the error and obscu- 
 rity in which mankind haVe been so long wandering on 
 this subject, appears to arise from confounding njoncy 
 v, itii commodity ; subjects, of which it must be ob- 
 served, that they are of dIH'erent essences, and therefore 
 no more to be compared together tiian time and distance i 
 of the absurdity of which, a more happy instance cannot, 
 perhaps, be trivcn, than in tiie well-known vulgar ques-
 
 tion, how far is it from the first of August to the foot of 
 Westminster Bridge. 
 
 First, then, what is commodity ? The answer, in few 
 words, is this : commodity is every thing that nature pro- 
 duces, from the subtle fluid, air, to the heaviest mass of 
 ore that was ever dug from the earth j every tiling palpa- 
 ble, that is subject to the dominion of man, is commo- 
 dity. 
 
 Secondly. How is money distinguished from commo- 
 dity ? By the term money, I answer, nothing palpable is 
 described ; it is a word that merely saves a long periphrasis 
 that would state its character thus : " Money is a certain 
 mode of using commodity, or it is commodity to which. • 
 a certain office is assigned, which, while it is so used, or 
 performs that office, ceases to retain the essential charac- 
 ter of commodity, and takes, instead of that character, 
 tlie office of representing imaginary denominate values of 
 commodity." The essential character and quality of com- 
 modity are, ultimate possession, use, and enjoyment ; the 
 essential character and quality of money is to be fugitive^ 
 and consequently, to be incapable of ultimate possession, 
 tise, or enjoyment. 
 
 When, therefore, we say that money is gold, or paper, 
 or any other substance, we say so only to accommodate 
 the subject to popular understanding ; for gold and paper 
 are in their nature palpable and useful, and are, therefore, 
 commodity ; but when they are turned into what is called 
 money, it is clear that, although they remain gold 
 and paper still, yet that they lose the power of per-
 
 ^forming all tlie uses necessarily incident to gold and 
 paper, i. e. commodity, and become merely representatives 
 of the value of commodity. 
 
 That this is the true nature of money, put the case; — 
 suppose a small community or state to consist of three 
 persons, A. B. and C, each having separate and indepen- 
 dent interests, and each possessing a superfluity of com- 
 modity wanted by the others ; and then suppose a total 
 absence of the precious metals, and of every subject 
 adapted to the purpose of a circulating medium, but that 
 there exists complete credit or confidence amongst all 
 these persons ; then suppose B. to be in want of a cer- 
 tain commodity, and A. to want some of B.'s superfluous 
 commodity, but without himself possessing any superfluity 
 of the commodity wanted by B. suppose, then, C. to possess 
 a superfluity of the commodity wanted by B. and that upon 
 the assurance of B.thathe had given to A. a portion of his 
 superfluous commodity, and that he in return wanted a com- 
 modity which A. had not, but a superfluity of which he, 
 C. had ; he C. would give to B. the portion of that super- 
 flous commodity which he, B. wanted ; and, lastly, sup- 
 pose that C. wanted a commodity which B. had not, but a 
 superfluity of which A. liad, and that, upon the assurance 
 of C. that he had given to B. the commodity he, B., 
 wanted, A. should give to' C. the part of his, A.'s super- 
 fluous commodity, which he C. wanted ; would not the 
 oflice performed by this credit, be precisely the office 
 performed by the standard coin of this realm, and could 
 there be anyrcas. -::.i>le ground assigned for the introduc- 
 tion of the precious metals merely for the purpose of 
 being employed in an office stated by yoiu-self to be un-
 
 productive, and to be admitted only because necessary ? 
 Tract, p. 98. But it will be said that this interchange of 
 credit would soon become impracticable upon an en- 
 largement of the community, and that some palpable sub- 
 stantial token must be then introduced ; true, but then 
 certain observations arise out of this in support of my argu- 
 ment; 1st. it is clear that the credit amongst this community 
 had its foundation in the confidence of each of the parties 
 parting with' his commodity, that one or the other of the 
 remaining parties had commodity to answer, and that he 
 would therewith answer the demand created to him by his 
 parting witli his own commodity. 2dly. That the sub- 
 stituted symbol in no manner took away, or altered the 
 ■necessity for this foundation ; and that it was not the pos- 
 session of the symbol, any more than the possession of 
 airy and unsubstantial belief or credit (a subject im- 
 palpable, and, consequently, incapable of possession) but 
 the possession of the commodity that was still the ulti- 
 mate view and purpose of the transaction ; and, 3dly, that 
 the only reason of introducing a symbol, or palpable cir- 
 culating medium at all, would be the impossibility of 
 doing without it in an increasing society ; or, in one word, 
 convenience ; and, 4thly, that the law of convenience, 
 which thus produced the introduction of the symbol, 
 would necessarily, and in the same degree, operate in the 
 choice of the subject, whether of gold or paper, of which it 
 should be composed. 
 
 That there is this distinction between money and com- 
 modity appears, I think, abundantly clear ; that it has ne- 
 ver been attended to, might easily be shewn from every 
 writer on the subject ; that you have not const-
 
 dered it, is manifest, not only from the tenor of the 
 reasoning that runs through your tract, but from parti- 
 cular expressions, such as the following : " money, or a 
 given quantity of gold or silver, is not only the conmion 
 measure of all other co)iunodittes, but also the connnon 
 and universal equivalent," and yet this distinction is really 
 cardo cauace. 
 
 It is readily admitted, that expressions of the nature 
 above mentioned occur in almost every writer on the 
 subject, and that they are sanctioned by the language of 
 the report of the committee on the high price of bullion ; 
 this, however, you, on your part, must admit, that no 
 authorities, however respectable or numerous, can change 
 the essential and inherent nature of things. 
 
 That money is distinct from commodity seems, to 
 myself at least, to be already made clear ; but as many 
 minds rest more upon examples than upon abstract 
 reasoning, I will propose one or two instances further. 
 
 It has been laid down, and must be taken, for the 
 present at least, as incontrovertible, that commo- 
 dity possesses the power of intrinsic value, and that 
 that value can be determined by ultimate use only ;— now 
 it has been stated, that money is not capable of ultimate 
 possession, and use; and this distinction. I think, will fur- 
 ther appear, if we consider the following supposition :— A 
 shopkeeper has a parcel of flannel in his shop, of 25 yards; 
 it happens ll.^it his family want 5 yards of these 25 
 for a garment, and he cuts them off from the piece ; it 
 will not be denied, I suppose, that the character of tlie
 
 8 
 
 five yards, cut off for the family, and that of the 20 
 yards remaining in the shop to be sold, are completely 
 different ; that the one has the determinate and ultimate 
 use assigned to it, of being made up into a garment, and 
 that the other remains not only without any determinate 
 use, but utterly valueless, until the moment comes, in 
 which the shopkeeper is to part with it for money in 
 the way of sale, or for some other commodity in the way 
 of barter, and which, in its turn, derives its value, not 
 fiozn being ultimately used and enjoyed, but from being 
 parted with in other purchases, and so on in endless suc^. 
 cession ;— if this be so, can it be shewn that there is any 
 substantial distinction to be drawn between the character 
 of so many'guineas, as the 20 yards of flannel may be agreed 
 to be worth, and the character of the 20 yards of flannel, 
 while these 20 yards remain the subject or instrument 
 of barter, and not of ultimate use, or between the meat 
 that any butcher would give for the flannel and the same 
 guineas, while the meat is considered only as the instru- 
 ment of barter, and not of ultimate use and enjoyment, 
 except the superiority that the guineas have over the 
 flannel, and the meat, in point of convenience? and 
 is it not, therefore, evident that the value that belongs to 
 the five yards for the garment, is intrinsic, that is, fixed 
 and ultimate, and that the value that belongs to the 20 
 remaining yards to be sold is purely extrinsic and con^ 
 ventional, that is to say, that it will lay in the shop 
 until necessity or choice, will determine some butcher 
 to give the shopkeeper meat, or some lady to give him 
 money for itj the one as much meat, or the other as much 
 money^ (and no more) as they and the shopkeeper shall 
 agree upon ?
 
 9 
 
 So distinct are money and commodity from each other, 
 in their nature, that it may, I apprehend, be univer- 
 sally affirmed even of subjects of commerce, tliat they 
 never can be truly denominated commodity, but to the 
 consumer; that the intrinsic, that is, the determinate 
 value thereof, can only be known to him, and not even 
 to him, until the moment of ultimate use and enjoyment 
 arrives. To pursue fhis distinction in one instance 
 further : — Place a weary man under the dominion of a 
 law which forbids him to rest himself immediately on 
 the earth, and take from him the power of procuring a 
 seat, and then give him the possession of 20,000 guineas, 
 of the standaid gold if you please, but to be considered 
 only as money ; then suffer me to ask, what is the intrinsic 
 value of these 20,000 guineas ; clear it is, that the man, 
 in the midst of this supposed wealth, must at length die 
 of weariness ; but suppose the man is permitted to 
 consider these 20,000 guineas, not as guineas, but as 
 substances, wliich, by being put together in a certain 
 form, would make a seat, and he makes a seat, and rests 
 upon it, will he not then find, and will he find before, that 
 these substances are merely commodity, and tiiat they 
 then possess intrinsic value ? But in what character ?— as 
 coin ? No. It is only in the character of a scat that affords 
 him rest, that their intrinsic value is found ; and this will 
 be still more apparent, if more apparent it can be made, 
 when it is considered, that if a chair of the cheapest 
 wood, and a cushion on it, of the most homely manufac- 
 ture, were in his choice, he would gladly exchange for 
 these li: seat of gold, as possessing an intrinsic value of 
 a very inicrior order.
 
 10 
 
 ' 111 fine, as to this part of the topic ; food administers^ 
 pleasure and strength to a hungry man, water to a 
 thirsty man, garments to a naked man, and a dwelling, 
 shelter to an exposed man; but these are commodity, 
 and intrinsically valuable ;— but intrinsically valuable 
 only in proportion as they are able to satisfy these wants j 
 but gold and silver, while they remain money, cannot, 
 of themselves, perform any such oflice ; with the posses- 
 sion of any one of the former, life might be, more or less, 
 prolonged, or suffering averted ; but the greatest quantity 
 of the latter, that Imagination could conceive, would, of 
 itself, be utterly valueless for those important ends. 
 
 Having thus endeavoured shortly to shew how money 
 is distinguished from commodity, it will be necessary to 
 dispose of the remaining question before I proceed 
 to the discussion of your propositions ; that remaining 
 question is,-— '^ what is meant by intrinsic value ?" 
 
 The necessity of previous, severe definition was 
 never, I think, more strongly exemplified, than in the 
 mischiefs that the neglect of it, in this question of the 
 nature of money has occasioned ; mischiefs which maj-^, 
 one day, be as widely spread as the error in doctrine to 
 which it has given birth. 
 
 The term intrinsic value is very familiar, and it is the 
 misfortvme of familiar terms, that the idea of the necessity 
 of defining them seldom occurs ; it will not, therefore, 
 I hope, be imputed to any want of respect, if I say I sus- 
 pect that, notwithstanding the frequent and easy use of 
 tliii teim in your pamphlet, it has not occurred to you
 
 11 
 
 to have rery accurately considered either its grammatical 
 meaning, or its correct application; hut as it is impossible 
 to proceed with any certainty, without settling this ques- 
 tion, and as I do not find either that it has been done by 
 others, or that you have noticed it as not having been 
 done, I will take upon myself to attempt it. 
 
 The term intrinsic is, ex vi termini, descrip- 
 tive of certain qualities inherent in, and, as it 
 were, co-existent with a given subject, whether 
 of a corporeal, or incorporeal, nature ; the latter only 
 can, indeed, l)e truly said to possess intrinsic value, 
 e. g, justice, integrity, &c. ; since of these we can never 
 form an idea, without forming, at the same moment, 
 an idea of qualities actively useful to mankind ; and even 
 of these, (if the intrinsic value of a good conscience be 
 put out of the question) we must say, that the intrinsic 
 value is discoverable only in their effects on the condi- 
 tion of society, as in decorum, good faith, &c. Of those 
 of a corporeal nature, and with which only, on the present 
 occasion, we have to do, it may, 1 think, be universally 
 affirmed, that, abtractedly speaking, tiiey have not within 
 them any valne at all; they may be more correctly 
 described, as having qualities that indicate the capa- 
 bility of intrinsic value. 
 
 It may be useful to illustrate this by an example 
 or two :— -A piece of wood buried ip a bog, in Ireland, 
 is, while buried there, quasi, a mere caput mortuum ; 
 but it has ca]>al)ilities; — dig it out. and handle it, and 
 it may be a staff to sup|X)rt the traveller, or a club to 
 defend the otherwise defenceless; cut it, and gi»e ii
 
 shape, anl it may serre for a post to mailc out the way, 
 or a beam to support a house, or a chair to sit upon j 
 but yet, it is clear that, without the aid of extrinsic 
 circumstances, it can never be of any use, tliat is, of 
 any vahie. The air I do not breathe, the light that is 
 too far from me to minister help to my powers of vision, 
 these possess, to me, no intrinsic value, for 1 cannot 
 use them. Suppose a man walking in the Strand, 
 the day bright and clear, and all the usual indications, 
 that tlie sun is shining every where else; arid sup- 
 pose that, notwithstanding all this, the whole county 
 of Surrey, unknown to the man, is covered with dai'k- 
 ness, how is he (not knowing of this) inconvenienced ? 
 and if not inconvenienced, it is clear, that the light 
 which he sees, and the air which he breathes not, do not 
 possess, as to him, any value. Suppose a house built 
 with every convenience for habitation j but which, by 
 the operation of some inevitable law, no man could in- 
 habit, would that house, because it was built of tlie 
 most valuable materials, be pronounced valuable ? Would 
 not the universal language, on the contrary, be,— that is, 
 indeed, a fine house ; biit of what value is it, since nobody 
 can live in it ? Further instances will scarcely be neces- 
 sary. 
 
 Intrinsic value in substances may, then, be defined to 
 be latent qualities, inherent in those substances capable 
 of development, \^ ultimate possession, use and en- 
 joyment only. 
 
 But, further, these qualities must not only be inhe- 
 rent, they must be fixed and determinate, and the pos-
 
 session, use and enjoyment by which they are to bo. 
 developed, must be fixed and determinate also. 
 
 1 will explain my meaning by some further examples : 
 One inherent quality of iron is hardness, and that, also, 
 is a quality fixed in its nature, because it is capable, 
 amongst many others, of one fixed, determinate and 
 ultimate mode of use and enjoyment ; e. g. a plough- 
 share ; but the plough-share unused is no plough-share ; 
 }t is nothing ; it has no value j — put it into the ground, 
 cause it to be moved there in a certain direction, and 
 then, and not till then, its ultimate use, and, conse- 
 quently, its ultimate value, is ascertained ; for to cut the 
 earth, and assist in turning it up to tlie air, is its fixed 
 and ultimate destination:— there is not, nor can there be, 
 in the mind of the man, who means to use the piece "of 
 iron as a plough-share, any purpose beyond the enjoyment 
 which the use of it, in that shape, affords him ; and its 
 intrinsic value is commensurate, and commensurate only, 
 with the degree of completeness (if 1 may so speak) 
 with which it fulfils its office. Take the same piece 
 of iron, divest it of its character of a' plough-share, and 
 turn it into a knife and fork ; the determinate, and ulti- 
 mate enjoyment of these is, in the one case, to cut, 
 and, in the other case, to as'sist in conveying to the 
 mouth certain articles of food ; and it is only, as in the 
 former case, that the intrinsic value of these subjects is 
 thought of, when they are to be emplbyed in tlie per- 
 formance of those offices. 
 
 Intrinsic value is, also, determined by the neces- 
 sity of the modification of the substance, in which
 
 u 
 
 it resides, for a given use ;— for instance, the intrinsic 
 value of a cup or a spoon, consists in its capability 
 of holding liquids -, and these instruments are, more or 
 less, intrinsically valuable, only as they, moje or less 
 conveniently perform this office; it follows, therefore, 
 that, whether the cup, or the spoon, be of gold, or sil- 
 ver, or tin, or pewter, or wood, it is a matter of per- 
 fect indifference, as to the supposed superior intrinsic 
 value of the metal : an instance will shew how little, 
 indeed, that circumstance has to do with intrinsic value : 
 Sujipose a man oppressed with thirst, at the side of a well, 
 with no means of getting the water but by the use of one 
 of two buckets, the one made of the most ordinary wood, 
 the other of the purest gold ; the wooden vessel capable 
 of holding the water, the golden vessel incapable ; is it 
 necessary to ask which of these vessels possesses intrin- 
 sic value, and in \\hat the intrinsic value of that of the 
 two vessels^ which does possess it, consists ? It is true, 
 by and by, and under other circumstances, he finds a 
 greater value put upon the golden vessel, than upon the 
 wooden vessel ; but it must first have parted with its 
 character of a vessel, and then it will be considered only 
 as so much commodity in another shape, as bullion or 
 ftherwisej and, like all other commodities, will fetch 
 its price accordingly as it is wanted. 
 
 I should weary your patience, and my own, to pro- 
 long tliis preparatory part of the discussion; but the 
 importance of clearly understanding what v/e mean 
 by these terms, money and intrinsic value, must be 
 obvious.
 
 15 
 
 The argument that has ))een urg:ed, and the instances 
 that have been put, on tlie former propositions of my 
 syllogism, seem to render it superfluous, if they are 
 conelusive, and useless if they are not, to urge many 
 considerations on the last of these propositions, — 
 namely, that money cannot possess intrinsic value ; but a 
 moment, or two, may not be misapplied in considering the 
 source and extent of the contrary notion. 
 
 The power of separating real from imaginary quaKtics, 
 and of assigning to real qualities their just estimation 
 is either very seldom possessed, or what is much the 
 same thing, is seldom exercised ; and the consequence 
 is an almost universal confounding, not only of qualities 
 that are naturally distinct, but what is, perhaps, still 
 Miore extensively mischievous, a confounding of means 
 wfth ends. Another consequence is, that the error that 
 is first generated by ignorance, oc indolence, strengthens 
 and multiplies, as it rolls on from generation to gene- 
 ration, in a strictly geometrical proportion ; and those 
 doctrines, which, if they had been caily questioned, 
 Trould have been exposed as fallacious and absurd, aif. 
 received, after the lapse of ages, as holy sayings. 
 
 Now, of all the subjects of discussion, to which these 
 observations apply, that of money is amongst the chief. 
 Scarcity and exterior beauty are qualities calculated -to 
 excite, not only a powerful desire of jwssessipn, but false 
 impressions of excellence ; these qualities eminently 
 belong to the precious metals ; and when to these wen; 
 added, the practice of giving them for other cominodi- 
 tifs, at)d the convenience that attended s\ich a mode ul
 
 exchange, in the early ages of commerce, it is not won- 
 derful that mankind should affix to them the highest 
 notions of value, or that the tale of their homogeneous- 
 ness, their divisibility, their incorruptibility, and so forth, 
 which has been truly told, but falsely applied, by writer 
 after writer, should have been so greedily heard, and 
 unskilfully believed ; or that it should have led men to 
 look upon an instrument apparently so powerful, towards 
 a certain end, as the very end itself, which it was merely 
 destined to effect. 
 
 The principal source of this misapprehension was 
 ignorance, — an ignorance, however, of which, it may 
 be observed, mankind need not be much ashamed, since 
 there was scarcely any power adequate to dispel it, but 
 experience, and experience of such a nature, could ar- 
 rive at maturity only, when the commerce of mankind 
 bec?ime far too vast and extensive, to have its value 
 adequately represented by the precious metals ; — an 
 event, of which it ck)es not seem unsafe to say, at once, 
 that it is but yet even in its birth, and of which we may 
 believe, that the early traders of the world, notwith- 
 standing all we are told of their industry, ingenuity 
 and wealth, had no idea. 
 
 Nor is it wonderful, that this ignorance should have 
 prevailed, or that, like the shades of the morning, after 
 the sun has arisen, its bewildering influence should still 
 hang upon the human mind, though the dawn of com- 
 mercial knowledge is rising with strength and splendor. 
 The severe and practical studies, li!;e the lighter and 
 amiable sciences, go hand In hand ;— poetry, eloquenccj
 
 17 
 
 painting, statuary, and all the other departments of ele- 
 gant and polished life, have, many ages since, been 
 explored ; but of what nation of antiquity, whose his- 
 tory has reached us, have we learnt, that it ever attained 
 the far grander, and more momentous science of man, 
 and of the learning that belongs to his happiness in 
 stable government, in the administration of justice, and 
 in the knowledge of the things in which its .true wealth 
 and power consist ? Even in our own country, the only 
 • country upon earth in which these noble arts have been 
 known, it is but lately that their genuine principles have 
 been closely investigated, or their power felt, or under- 
 stood. 
 
 In this debasement and obscurity, it is not sui-prlsing 
 that the doctrines of political oeconomy have been equally 
 involved; it is only under free, and generous, and pow- 
 erful governments, that they can be well learnt ; inge- 
 nuityand subtilty, indeed, may at once embellij»h and pur- 
 plex them, but I know not whether ingenuity be not one of 
 the most unprofitable, and, perhaps, mischievous qualifi- 
 cations that can belong to a political oeconomist. The 
 poverty, rapacity and tyranny, on the one hand, and the 
 ignorance and consequent narrow policy, on the other, 
 of the states of Europe, have combined to teach their 
 subjects, willing enough to be taught, the unwhole- 
 some and unprofitable lesson, that the precious metab 
 are the fotmdation, or the test, at least, of national 
 wealth. 
 
 But, extensive as this doctrine of the intrinsic value of 
 money appcarJ to b« in its influeuccs, 1 question whether,
 
 18 
 
 in fact, it is much tliought of. practically, beyond the 
 sacred pale that incloses the small and select body of 
 philosophers, who have of late enlightened, or attempted 
 to enlighten the world on tliis profound subject. It is 
 true, should you gravely tell a man with twenty guineas 
 in his pocket, that they have no intrinsic value, he would 
 laugh, and shake his . head, and his pocket, at the same 
 time, in defiance, as it were, of so unheard-of a propo- 
 sition ; yet, if you were to ask him in what the value 
 consists, he would give no answer, but the instinctive - 
 one, '' they will buy for me what I want ;" anc^ I believe, 
 I might very safely appeal to every man and woman in the 
 city of London, if the same sentiment would not be as 
 powerful of a piece of paper, provided they were as 
 certain, that for that piece of paper, they could procure the 
 commodity they want. Whether that certainty can be 
 communicated to paper, belongs to another part of the 
 discussion, and shall not, therefore, be dwelt upon here. 
 I have adverted to it only to observe, that gold, 
 converted Into money, has not, in any common appre- 
 hension, intrinsic value; or that if it should, for the 
 sake of the argument, be allowed to possess intrinsic 
 value, yet that paper money must be admitted, pari ra^ 
 tione, to possess intrinsic value also. 
 
 I now proceed to shew, tliat to maintain that it is of 
 the essence of money to possess intrinsic value, is to 
 maintain a doctrine highly inconvenient and dangerous j 
 and the views of the subject, Into which these considera- 
 tions will lead me, will necessarily embrace many of the 
 observations that occur in your work.
 
 19 
 
 And, first, amongst tlie numerous inconveniences and 
 mischiefs to which this doctrine necessarily gives birth, 
 subtilty and obscurity, where all would otherwise be 
 simple and clear, are very prominent. 
 
 Applying myself first, and indeed principally, to the 
 internal trade of this country, — for I think I have your au- 
 thority, page 49, 50, to say the question has not much to do 
 with foreign commerce, I observe that, had the good sense of 
 this country taught it long ago, that, which it is beginning 
 to teach it now, namely, that the possession of any indif- 
 ferent substaftce, marked with a clear, certain denomina- 
 tive value, that the law should stamp with its authority, 
 and the people, obeying the law, should universally re- 
 ceive, and that should be called money, would serve to 
 entitle the possessor to commodity of an equally deno- 
 minative value ; that the substance, so stamped and ac- 
 cepted, would have operated upon the industiy and inge- 
 nuity of the country, in an equal manner, whether it 
 had been made of paper, or wood, or lead, ur gold ; and 
 that superior convenience, in the choice of any of these, 
 or of any other substance for currency, would naturally 
 have been the only regulator : and had the choice fallen 
 wisely or foolishly on any other substance than the pre- 
 cious metals. Gold and Silver would then have remained 
 the subjects of Commerce, like any other commodity, the 
 intricacies of the money unit would have had no exist- 
 ence, and men would have arrived by a plain and 
 simple path at that end, namely, the supply of 
 their wants, to which they are now destined to jour- 
 ney through the dark and puzzling mazes gf j^olitical 
 c 2
 
 20 
 
 speculation, haunted by the gaunt spectres of mint and 
 bullion prices, and tormented with the demons of depre- 
 ciation of paper and national bankruptcy. 
 
 Had this been the case, as I trust it will one day be, 
 there would have been no complication in the most 
 extensive dealings, beyond that to which all human affairs 
 are liable from mismanagement, or knavery. The pub- 
 lic paper could have sunk below its denominative 
 value in one case only, and that would have been the 
 very case in which every other species of possession 
 must have lost its value, the instability ol^ the govern- 
 ment itself ; and the inexplicable science of exchanges 
 which, however it maybe solved, appears to owe its exist- 
 ence to this doctrine of intrinsic value, would not scarcely 
 have been heard of. What perplexity hangs about this 
 doctrine of exchange may be weli learnt, I think, from 
 your own confession, that the state of it, between 
 this country and the countries on the continent, is no 
 even now known, and may be learnt, too, from the opinions 
 and the evidence that appear on the report of the select 
 committee. 
 
 It may, I think, upon the whole, be safely affirmed, 
 that if there be any intricacy in the science of money, 
 h has entirely sprung from this notion of the intrinsic 
 value of money ; for where, it may be asked, is the diffi- 
 culty about any other subject of trade ? all other subjects' 
 find their level by the influence of the only proper 
 rule, the wants of mankind. Had gold and silver 
 |)een suffered to keep their character of com- 
 modity, their value would have been estimated aud
 
 21 
 
 governed by the same nile ; or had they (if mankind found 
 it convenient to employ them as money,) not affixed 
 to them a value, which, it must be taken for tlie present, 
 is a false value, a value that, in fact, cannot belong to 
 them in that character, all would liave been well ; in the 
 former case by far the greater part of these metals, that 
 have been drawn from the bowels of the earth, and used 
 at such an enormous expense of the happiness of man- 
 kind, would have slept there for ever ; in the other, they 
 would have moved about freely in the world, as the inno- 
 cent, and so far as the comparative insignificancy of their 
 quantity would enable them so to be, the useful instruments 
 of commerce. But, under the influence of this notion 
 of intrinsic value, an idea is generated, that the original 
 simple nature of trade is altered ; buying and selling is 
 considered as something essentially different from barter, 
 or the exchange of one commodity for an other, when, in 
 truth, it remains precisely the same in its nature, 
 and accessible to the most moderate understanding ; 
 the concerns of trade being no more altered in 
 their nature by their magnitude, than the simplicity of 
 multiplying twice two is lost in the multiplying twice two 
 thousand, or twice two million. Much varied knowledge 
 may be requisite, as the species of goods dealt in may 
 be varied j and a greater number of hands, it is obvious, 
 must be employed in an extensive dealing than in a 
 restricted one ; but the simple ])ritu'iple of barter is at 
 the bottom of the wliole, and remains unaltered. 
 
 How embarrassing to those, who think closely upon 
 the subject, is the idea, that in buying and selling, we 
 exchange the commodity we sell for the gold and silver
 
 22 
 
 we receive^ but it is embarrassing, because it is fallacious j 
 look upon the metals as the instruments only, which is 
 their real character, and not as the subjects of the 
 exchange, and the difficulty is gone. Further, a very 
 correct idea of the embarrassments, which have been 
 created on the subject of money by this doctrine of 
 intrinsic value, may be formed by a perusal, which may 
 also be a very cursory one, of the various remedies that 
 have been proposed for difficulties that never would 
 have had birth, but for this very doctrine, and that would 
 not necessarily arise, even if the commerce of the world 
 were ten thousand times greater than it is. Of the indis- 
 tinctness, and the impracticability of some of these pro- 
 posed remedies, and the contradiction that attends them 
 all, no man can form an adequate idea, who has hap- 
 pily wanted the inclination, or the power, to peruse the 
 numerous works that have been written on the subject. 
 
 A great confusion has also arisen from this doctrine, 
 from the numerous writers upon it, without any variation, 
 ascribing certain qualities to the precious metals, as 
 rendering them peculiarly useful for money, which either 
 are qualities that are of value only, as those metals are 
 considered as the subjects, and not the instruments of 
 commerce, i. e. as commodity ; or are qualities which 
 iriaybe found in effect in paper, as well as in the pre- 
 cious metals : from this their readers have been, natu- 
 rally enough, induced to ascribe to gold and silver, as 
 coin, a value which can only belong to gold and silver 
 as commodity ;— but of this I purpose to speak more 
 particularly by and bye.
 
 23 
 
 Another mischief that remains to be considered as 
 arising from the doctrine of intrinsic vahie, is what is 
 described as an absurd anxiety on tiic part of the state, 
 to keep within it a due quantity, in other words, 
 as much as it is able, of the precious metals. 
 Upon this head one cannot but remark, by the bye, 
 that the cliarge of a questionable policy, made by 
 those who propagate the doctrine of intrinsic value, 
 against any state, which, believing that doctrine, endea- 
 vours to keep the precious metals in the shape of coia 
 Nvithin it, is not much less liable to the imputation of 
 absurdity, than the laws themselves that are made for 
 that impolitic purpose. 
 
 Of many of these laws, it may be observed that their 
 weakness is of a double kind ; arising, in the first place, 
 from a mistaken view of the value of the article they 
 propose to keep within the country, and which renders 
 them, therefore, unnecessary ; and, in the next place, 
 from the impossibility of confining an article, whicli, if it 
 be really as valuable as it is represented to be, the com- 
 mon and invincible desire of mankind, for the possession 
 of it, will continually attract, by an irresistil)le influ- 
 ence, from the confines of any particular country, and 
 which renders them, therefore, impracticable. 
 
 By what rule, it may be asked, can a law be measured, 
 that gives inn-keepers a power, nay, that obliges them to 
 search their guests, lest they should convey gold and 
 silver out of the realm, 9. E. S. st. 2. c. 11. See also, 27. 
 E.3. St. 2. c. M.j and by what principle is one to account 
 for tin- iiiililTerence with which this refined age appears to
 
 24 
 
 acknowledge, at the distance of five centuries, and under 
 such change of circumstances, such a law to be the 
 law of the land. Yet, it seems clear that such a law 
 cannot safely be pronounced to be wholly absurd, if 
 it be of the esserce of money to possess intrinsic value, 
 , or if it be true, that the standard coin be the foundation, 
 or the test of our currency, or wealth. 
 
 The difficulty lies in this, that a subject, the possession 
 of which all nations are taught, by the notion of its 
 intrinsic value, to covet, is held out to be the foundation 
 of the currency, or wealth, of any particular nation ; in 
 confounding together things, which, by the operation of 
 a primary law of nature, are distinct, and in choosing for 
 the instrument of commerce, a rare, and an expensive 
 subject, against the grand and leading rule of commerce, 
 that, provided instruments are efficient, they ought to 
 be procured at the cheapest rate. 
 
 Under this head of mischief may be classed, also, that 
 branch of the criminal law, which includes the offences 
 of clipping, washing, rounding, filing, &c. which, by 
 making gold and silver, exclusively, the money of the 
 country, have been greatly multiplied, both in number 
 and severity. 
 
 Springing from this, and naturally and closely con- 
 nected with it, is the doctrine of a standard of coin. 
 It will here naturally be asked, is the coin of a country 
 to have no standard ? I answer, none, in the sense in 
 which the word is used by the writers on political oeco- 
 nomy. If the argument I have used to shew that 
 money possesses a denominative value only, be well
 
 25 
 
 founded, it will follow, of course, that nothing more is 
 requisite in money, than that that denon)inativc value be 
 clearly understood and carefully preserved ; and, there- 
 fore, when a piece of paper marked \l. , or a piece of 
 gold marked 1/. 1.9., or a piece of silver marked 5^. or 
 1*. receives the sanction of the government, as money, 
 it remains only, 1st. to take care that the denominative 
 value be not altered but by the law of the land; and, 
 secondly, to issue such quantities of these as the wanfs 
 of the country demand. In any other sense, there can 
 be no standard for the value of this money, whether of 
 gold or silver, or of any other subject; because, the 
 moment you attempt to fix your standard, you treat your 
 money as a commodity, and you want to impart to that 
 particular species of commodity, exclusively, a virtue 
 which is no more natural to it than to any other spcfies 
 of commodity ; and which, I will be bold to add, it is 
 not possible to impart to any commodity, namely, to 
 be a common and universal equi\ alent. 
 
 To constitute equivalence, I apprehend, there must 
 be a common nature between the subjects, the equiva- 
 lence of which is predicated, that is, they must he sus- 
 ceptible of a value of the same nature one with the other ; 
 gold cannot be an equivalent for virtue, for there is no 
 common measure of their nature, and money, I have en- 
 deavoured to shew to be of a nature distinct from commodi- 
 ty; so that equivalence can subsist only he ween commo- 
 dity and commodity, and then there must be a stand- 
 aul value to all the commodities of the world. If I say 
 a guinea is worth 2ls. it is evident that this is merely 
 urbitrary, because there is no law of its nature which
 
 26 
 
 demands that any sucli value should be affixed to it ; 
 but if, I still say, that is its standard value, and that the 
 standard value of one guinea, or of twenty one shillings, 
 is equal to the value of one hundred turnips, it is equally 
 clear that before I can pronounce upon that equivalence 
 of value, I must have ascertained some standard for the 
 value of each of those turnips also, and so of every other 
 commodity for which, or for a combination of which, 
 this guinea, or these twenty one shillings are pronounced 
 to be an equivalent ; but here is the difficulty and the mis- 
 chief^you affix^this standard value, this universal power of 
 equivalence to the money, the coin, the guinea, and not 
 to the piece of gold j because, if it were affixed to the 
 gold as a commodity merely, the gold might, like any other 
 commodity, if not wanted, not be an equivalent to half a 
 dozen turnips. The law, therefore, while it contem- 
 plates the intrinsic value of the precious metals as coin, 
 considers that value, and fixes the standard, of what ? 
 of a subject (money), which, is not susceptible 
 of any value beyond its convenience ; while all the rest 
 of mankind are affixing a value to it as a subject capable 
 of value, namely, as commodity. 
 
 Of a standard of intrinsic value, then, I think it may 
 safely be pronounced, that it is merely sounding in words ; 
 that there is no such thing to be found ; a clear and 
 well- understood d enominative value being in truth the 
 only rule. If money be what I have endeavoured to 
 shew it to be, then it is cleai- there can be no standard for 
 the value of money, as money ; if it be what you contend, 
 that is, the universal equivalent, then, it is not contended 
 by any body that all commodities can have a fixed stand-
 
 27 
 
 ard value, and, consequently, there can Ijc no equivalence 
 as fixed by a universal standard : there being no law better 
 ascertained than this, that every ^hing is uortli only what 
 it will fetdi, and that what any thing w^ill fetch must 
 depend upon the wants and the caprices of mankind, a 
 standard for which may surely as rationally be souglit, as 
 a standard for the swellings and hcavings of the ocean. 
 
 Can any thing set this mischief in a clearer light, 
 than a consideration of the restless activity there is 
 amongst mankind to treat gold as a commodity, while 
 the law says it is not commodity, or if commodity, that 
 it shall be treated differently from every other commodity ? 
 The law says there shall be no selling or expor- 
 tation of coin : yet, considering the comparatively small 
 quantity of the precious metals in general, and in this 
 shape in particular, it maybe safely said, that all mankind 
 are conspiring to break these laws j in other words, they 
 are struggling to trade in this commodity; notwithstanding 
 the office of money assigned to it by the law, as they will 
 for ever struggle to trade in every commodity ; for it is little 
 less a law, if I may so speak, of man's nature, to 
 desire to trade than to desire to breathe. Yet, if it be 
 true that gold is the foundation of our currency or our 
 wealth, in a peculiar sense, and as distinguished from all 
 other commodity, can one blame a state that imagines 
 this for, endeavouring to keep that foundation as much 
 together as possible ; and it appears to be a clear proof 
 that gold is in no such sense the foundation, or test, of 
 ni'.rional wealth, that the only mode which can be 
 , 'i'tcd for this purpose, is a mode hostile in its princi- 
 ples, and in its operations, to the original, natural, and
 
 28 
 
 mevltable law of commerce, namely, by laws seeking to 
 restrain that which its very nature impels to a ceaseless 
 struggle to be free. 
 
 It is not meant to be asserted that any system of 
 municipal laws can, amidst human imperfections, be so 
 constructed as to be universally conformable to this 
 law of nature ; but, I believe, no doctrin'e of legislation 
 is more true, or more important, than that which teaches 
 that that law ought never to be lost sight of; and that 
 the more nearly any system of laws complies with its 
 dictates, the more efficacious it is likely to prove. 
 
 To shew that this nation Is at length beginning to 
 discern its true interests on this subject, one has only to 
 peruse (amongst others of a similar nature) the act of 
 the 49. G. 3. c. 109. which repeals eitherwholly, or inpart, 
 no less than eight and thirty acts of parliament laying 
 down rules for the woollen manufactures, and most of 
 which had remained on the statute book for more than 
 two centuries. Yet, of these repealed laws it may truly 
 be said, that tl>ey all breathe the spirit of anxiety for 
 the well-being of commerce, an anxiety which was then 
 doubtless as sincere as the anxiety for the preservation 
 of the precious metals is now; and the futility of 
 which, either in their very inception, or under a change 
 of circumstances, affords a wholesome lesson how to 
 place reliance on opinions which possess a fancied value 
 for their antiquity, but which ought only to be estimated 
 as they are founded upon experience. Nothing, indeed, 
 indicates more clearly the infancy of the human under- 
 f tanding, whether in states, or in individual men, than
 
 29 
 
 the attempt to apply minute regulations to subjects that, 
 in their nature, can be subjected only lo general rules. 
 
 The next mischief I shall notice as arising from this 
 doctrine of intrinsic value, is hoarding. Over the disposi- 
 tion of mankind to hoard the precious metals in the shape 
 of money, no writer, whether eminent or insignificant, 
 has failed to lament ; yet it is a curious subject of obser- 
 vation, I had well nigh said of ridicule, that they 
 who are the loudest in their complaints on this score, are 
 the very persons who the most strenuously proclaim the 
 intrinsic value of money. What ! first tell a man that 
 there is something in tlie precious metals, when put into 
 the shape of money, so valuable that the national pros- 
 perity itself depends upon the possession of it, and then 
 expect thatjfeeling as every man must feel the perpetual fluc- 
 tuation of human affairs, the man should not be anxious to 
 secure to himself a portion of this summum honum, this 
 unknown power, which is to stand him in stead, when almost 
 flesh and heart shall fail ! What ! lay down a doctrine by 
 which the nation is publicly taught to lock up its millions, 
 (for every guinea that is coin is, in fact, a quantity of gold 
 hoarded) and then affect to lament that a great aggre- 
 gate of individuals are privately hoarding their thou- 
 sands. 
 
 No ; until men are taught that gold and silver, like 
 other commodities, are worth no more than they will 
 fetch; and that, like all other commodities, they will 
 fetch nothing until they are wanted for ultimate posses- 
 sion and use, e.g. to make goblets, or to gild weathercocks, 
 that, when made into money, they have no value but in
 
 30 
 
 their convenience to be parted with ; and that, in this 
 respect, if paper be more convenient, paper is exactly in 
 that ratio more valuable ; that if the laws be umvhole- 
 some, and the state unsound, money of gold will be of no 
 more use to them than money of paper: until, I say, men 
 are taught lessons such as these, be the mischief of 
 hoarding never so great, tlaey will be hoarders,— and, if 
 the doctrine of intrinsic value be true, they will be justi- 
 fied in being so by the great law of self-preservation. 
 
 It must, nevertheless, be admitted, that while this doc- 
 trine is accepted and acted upon, the mischief of hoarding 
 is great ; for if it be true that Bank paper be necessarily a 
 contract with every individual, who is legally possessed of 
 it, to pay the amount of its denominative value, in a corre- 
 sponding denominative value ia the precious metals, 
 there is, by hoarding, a heavy pull back indeed, created 
 upon one of the most important functions of the govern- 
 ment, and a heavy responsibility too upon those who are 
 the means of this disorder in the state ; but then the 
 observation deserves to be repeated, that the doctrine of 
 intrinsic value is the sole cause of the evil. When once the 
 precious metals shall be restored to their legimitate rank 
 amongst the commodities of the world j when, instead of 
 ascribing to them an extravagant, unfounded power, 
 mankind shall learn that, like every other production 
 of the earth, they are valuable only as they are ultimately 
 necessary ; when the state will say of them, as it says in 
 effect of every other commodity,— if individuals want 
 them not, the state does not want them ; then, and not till 
 then, the true value of the precious metals will be accu- 
 rately understood } and then, and not till then, individuals, 
 
 I
 
 31 
 
 in particular, as well as the country at large, will cease to 
 be hoarders, or wliat will be the same thing, hoarding will 
 cease to be a public mischief. They who imagine that 
 gold and silver will be a passport to existence in the day 
 of extremity, may then, if they please, hoard at their 
 leisure, without offence to the law or detriment to the 
 state ; and when they find, for find they will, that their 
 store becomes cumbrous, useless, or mischievous, 
 they will, like all other disappointed monopolists, bring it 
 forth for the best purchaser they can find amongst the 
 public. 
 
 Having thus endeavoured to point out the means, either 
 to prevent hoarding, or to render it harmless to the coun- 
 try, I proceed to review, shortly, another mischief that 
 inevitably results from the doctrine of intrinsic value. 
 
 A false estimate of national wealth is another and a 
 grievous mischief that springs from this source. This, 
 very naturally, induces the question, " what is na- 
 tional wealth ?"— a question which, at this time of day, 
 one would not think could remain unsettled ; yet, when 
 one reads amongst others the following passage, one is 
 led to think tiiat it is a question by no means settled. 
 
 Adam Smith says, it would be ridiculous to go about, 
 seriously to prove that wealth does not consist in 
 money, or in gold and silver, but in what money purchases, 
 and is valuable only for purchasing; and, it is to be ob- 
 served of liis editor, Mr. Playfair, and, indeed, of almost 
 every preceding writer on the subject, that they uni- 
 formly, cither in terms, or by inference', class money
 
 amongst the articles of national wealth. This clearly 
 shews, that the subject of national wealth is not deter- 
 mined ; because, even they who ascribe the most 
 valuable qualities to coin of the precious metals, and 
 who describe it as a part of the capital of the country, 
 admit that it is unproductive capital; a term of which, 
 either in itself, or with reference to the sentiments of 
 writers on political oeconomy above referred to, one cannot 
 very well understand. 
 
 National wealth, then, appears either not to be clearly 
 understood, or to be incapable of strict and simple defi- 
 nition. I agree with those who have gone before me, 
 that roads and bridges, and so on, are a part of national 
 wealth, in this sense, that no nation can be said to be 
 rich without them ; — but then it is equally true, that there 
 maybe many roads and bridges, &c. &c. in a country, 
 and those too of a very magnificent description, and yet, 
 that of that country it may, nevertheless, be safely pro- 
 nounced that she is poor ; and most emphatically may it 
 be said that a country may abound with the precious 
 metals and be poor indeed. — To set forth examples would 
 be considered ridiculous, when it is stated by Mr. 
 P. that at the time of the commencement of the 
 revolution in France, there was a circulation amounting 
 to fifty millions. 
 
 Clear then it is, that when we have said of a country that 
 she has roads and bridges, — canals and money, — we have 
 not necessarily said of that country, that she is wealthy j to 
 say this, -we must say that she has all these things, 
 and that she has also a constitution, by the force of
 
 33 
 
 vvliioh there is a universal power in the people to dispose of, 
 and to enjoy those things ; in other words, a free circulation 
 of wealth, and a government in which the people con- 
 fide ; and to which, and not to a currency of fifteen or 
 twenty millions of guineas, they are taught to look up 
 against the hour of trial. This appears to me self- 
 evident, and I cannot l)ut wonder, therefore, you should 
 have thought Sir J. Sinclair's observation on this point, 
 and indeed on many others, worthy of so little attention. 
 
 National wealth, then, consists not wliolly even in 
 commodity, much less in money, at least, if it should be 
 strictly held so to be. (See Mr. Piayfair's sup. p.) It 
 must be held to consist in the mere sound ; the source 
 of it will practically be found to reside in good 
 laws. Now the doctrine of intrinsic value is calcu- 
 lated to destroy this (as it appears to me ) just and 
 generous sentiment ; it goes directly to divert the atten- 
 tion of the people from this legitimate source of na- 
 tional wealth, and to fix it upon the acquisition of 
 money : it says to them, almost in express words, your 
 safety lies not in the constitution of your country, 
 but in the possession of specie ; it inculcates, neces- 
 sarily, the low, selfish, debasing spirit of self-preserva- 
 tion as contra-distinguished from a manly confidence in 
 the public, and in the government ; that confidence, 
 indeed, it insidiously undermines, and thence its 
 direct and inevitable tendency is to chill the ardor of 
 enterprize, to destroy hope, to create a cliildish dread of 
 imaginary evils, and to convert the glowing hearts of 
 patriotic subjects, into receptacles of feelings fit alone 
 R)r slaves.
 
 34 
 
 Had the contrary learning been taught, by those In 
 whose hands are held the lessons of political wisdom, 
 we should not have heard the foolish, but dangerous, 
 clamours for gold, which have from time to time so un- 
 necessarily agitated the country ; we should not have be- 
 held in England, on every idle rumour of invasion, the 
 disgraceful diligence of hiding money, that has blotted 
 her reputation. Had it been taught that money is that 
 only which the state makes it, that even commodity has 
 its substantial value in the assurance of the laws alone, 
 that these, and not the little lurking places that belong 
 to, and are fit alone for the pusillanimous spirits of 
 hoarders, are the only safe-guards of the national 
 wealth 5 invasion, or tumult, would then have lost all 
 the imaginary terrors with which they have thus been 
 clothed; the real evil would have been discerned to 
 consist not in the loss of a few pieces of gold and silver, 
 cut and trimmed, and milled and stamped; but in 
 the loss of the constitution : such an evil as this, as it 
 is fit for the appreciation of men, would have been met, 
 on its approach, with the spirit of men ; it would have 
 found "not beings depressed with fear, and creeping 
 into corners to save the current coin of the realm, 
 but men, not regardless, indeed, of their money or their 
 property, but who knew that their money and their pro^ 
 perty would for them, at least, have existence only 
 with the constitution, for which they would be ready to 
 shed their blood. 
 
 But this heroism, it will be said, which looks so handsome 
 upon paper, must all vanisli before the simple fact, that 
 upon the happening of invasion or of any event, that might
 
 35 
 
 threaten the safety of the government, paper money 
 wouhl fall to nothing, while the legitimate currency of 
 the realm would universally retain its value -, and as 
 this seems to be a fact, the happening of which, on such 
 an event, is pretty generally agreed upon, it deserves, 
 and shall have a few minutes consideration. 
 
 In the case of invasion, one of two things, it is obvious, 
 must necessarily, and ultimately happen ; the enemy will 
 either succeed and establish himself, or he will fail and 
 go back again, or perish. The question tlien is, what is 
 to be done during the intermediate time ? I answer, that 
 during that time, the law of war, that is of force, 
 must prevail. On the landing of the enemy there will 
 not, nor cannot be, any such thing as private property, 
 the state will compel men to be sellers or givers, re- 
 serving indemnities, and considerations of a similar na- 
 ture, until the expulsion of the enemy be effected. A 
 state then must be deplorably destitute of good laws, and 
 of good subjects too, that should be unable to support 
 itself, or should be refused support, unless it went to 
 market with gold and silver In its hand. Whatever was 
 the common currency of the country in its hour of 
 safety, must, a fortiori^ be its common currency in the 
 hour of peril ; and it appears to me a speculation of the 
 closet, indeed, or rather of the clouds, that the people 
 would, in such a case, be bandying about opinions upon 
 relative values, mint and bullion prices, and depred- 
 ated currency. 
 
 But, for the sake of the argument, I will admit the 
 fact, that the bank of Enirland notes for one pound
 
 36 
 
 (although I wish the case to be considered with reference 
 to paper money of the country only, ) would not he 
 worth one shilling ; in other words, that the public cre- 
 ,dit was gone,'and that government was obliged, in its own 
 defence, to produce coin sufficient for its Avants ; or, if 
 that was not to be had, to supply those wants by the arm 
 of power, is it to be imagined that government would 
 permit its wants to remain uns applied, that it would not 
 possess sufficient energy to prevent this unjust advan- 
 tage, attempted by the hoarders of the precious metals, 
 that if gold and silver were necessary to the state, 
 the government would remain unpossessed of it, 
 wherever it was to be found ; or, if the contest of value 
 between the precious metals, in the shape of coin, and 
 the paper of the Bank, or of the country, arose in such 
 an hour, can any man delude himself into the belief 
 that the government would not end the contest, by 
 obliging those who had any thing to sell, to take Bank 
 notes, aye, or any other species of money which it chose to 
 sanction with its authority ? Can it be supposed, even, 
 if such measures of the government were resisted, that, 
 amidst the anarchy that would follow, any man would 
 be permitted to draw forth and enjoy his hoards in peace, 
 or that any particular statute, or any notion of individual 
 rights, would, in such a moment, protect him in this 
 enjoyment ? No ; such persons may be assured that 
 they would be, as they would deserve to be, amongst 
 the first, and the most marked, of the sufferers in such a 
 conflict. 
 
 From the doctrine of intrinsic value arises this mis-
 
 37 
 
 taken notion of the foundation of national wealth ; anJ 
 from this notion have, from time to time, arisen tlic 
 distresses which have so unnecessarily •embari'^.ssed the 
 trading part of the community, and tended to spread sel- 
 fishness of principle, and distrust of the government' 
 throughout the country j and it seems, I think, difficult to 
 shew, Jiow the country can be secure against a recur- 
 rence of these difficulties, until the nature of money 
 be clearly understood, and mankind are satisfied that 
 the only value that belongs to it is convenience. 
 
 But, to conclude on this point, in this state things 
 /nust remain during the existence of the conflict. Now 
 let us view its termination : Is the enemy victorious ? 
 The country is then subjugated, another order of things 
 arise, and the question is gone. Is he defeated and 
 expelled, and the ancient order of tilings restored ? what 
 other result from this can there be, but that public 
 credit will revive, and revive with renewed vigom-.? One 
 would suppose that authors thought public credit to be 
 like thejnselves, and many of their works, subject to 
 death and eternal oblivion. On the contrary, it may 
 be wounded mdeed, but its wounds are, like the wounds 
 of Homer's gods, soon closed, and tlic spirit of its 
 immortality rc-appears. 
 
 That this must be the course of things on such an 
 event, will appear, if one further considers the nature 
 of public credit. Public credit appears to be, first, a 
 confidence of the people in tiie stability of their govern- 
 ment ; and, secondly, an universal intcrcimnge of con- 
 fidence amongst the people tlicmselves. Public credit
 
 38 
 
 then, in that sense of the word, to which only my 
 reasoning applies, can exist under a good government 
 only ; but under such a government it must exist and 
 flourish. It seems as though many writers really 
 thought that public credit was merely a subject of com- 
 pact, ^o be created and withdrawn at the mutual will of 
 the parties. Nothing", I apprehend, can be more remote 
 from the truth than this idea. That public credit may 
 be moulded and adapted to circumstances between the 
 government and the people, must be admitted ; nay, 
 further, that, on particular occasions, the public con- 
 fidence may be withdrawn from the government ; but 
 then it must be remembered that these acts do not 
 aflFect the question ; what is the nature of public credit ? 
 for, in the latter case, if confidence be withdrawn from a 
 government, and the government, in consequence, 
 perish, a new government must be founded, and the 
 foundation of that government, if it be good for any- 
 thing, must be laid in public credit, and this not by 
 any imaginary consent of parties, not in consequence of 
 any supposed agreement between the government and 
 the people, but by the inevitable law of human exist- 
 ence. A government that cannot command confidence, 
 like a government that cannot command obedience, is 
 no government ;— a people, amongst whom there is no 
 interchange of confidence and credit, may be correctly 
 said, I think, to be no people. 
 
 From this statement, which bears upon the face of it 
 the indisputable mark of its strength or its weakness, it 
 appears, that the question of the depreciation of paper
 
 39 
 
 money, and of the superior value of coin of the pre- 
 cious metals, in the hour of national distress and con- 
 vulsion, is an idle question, well enough calculated, 
 perhaps, for an hour's amusement, during the piping 
 time of peace, but can never be discussed at the mo- 
 ment when its supposed importance would arise. But 
 the remark ought not to be omitted, tliat if any doc- 
 trine can avail to produce, or to cherish, this dangerous 
 and disgraceful inclination to seek for safety in the 
 gold and silver currency, rather than in the legitimate 
 government and credit of the country, it is this doctrine 
 of the intrinsic value of that currency. 
 
 Permit me to ask you, whether you believe that 
 any man, who has read or tliought upon this subject, has 
 been able to rest completely satisfied with this principle 
 of intrinsic value, and with the conclusions that neces- 
 sarily arise from it ? Do not ambiguity, difficulty and 
 perplexity, meet one at every turn ? Are not nice dis- 
 tinctions, ingenious evasions, dexterous explanations, and 
 the rest of the little armory of words resorted to, 
 rather than plain, fundamental, broad and manly rea- 
 soning, of which the subject, simple as it is, and con- 
 nected with the highest interests of mankind, is pecu- 
 liarly susceptible, and with whicli only it ought to be 
 treated ? 
 
 I well know how easily the best informed men slide 
 into the most erroneous conclusions when once they 
 have prevailed upon themselves to adopt or assume a false 
 principle ; but in this case I venture to ask, even you, 
 whether, assuming as you have, that money has intrinsic
 
 40 
 
 Gallic, you have not, nevertheless, been startled at the 
 little progress that has been made towards any stable con- 
 clusion from this principle ? whetlier you have not some- 
 times observed, and felt, the difficulty that has arisen from 
 the discordance that has prevailed— at the odd positions, 
 and continual embarrassments which it has produced, — 
 at the various futile, and frequently ridiculous, remedies, 
 that have been proposed for those embarrassments-— and 
 above all, at the utter confusion to which experience, 
 that furnace which decomposes and destroys all false 
 principles, has put some of the leading axioms of the ablest 
 men, who have written on this subject, from the time of 
 Petty down to the present hour ? That no Stable conclusion 
 has hitherto been drawn from this principle, that such 
 embarrassments and mischiefs, as I have alluded to, and 
 many more have proceeded from it, that no effica- 
 cious remedy has hitherto been found for them, and that 
 experience has baffled and confounded, and continues 
 everyday to baffle and coiifound, this doctrine of ifiiinsic 
 value, 1 think one may venture to assert without the 
 fear of contradiction ;— and feeling this, one may surely 
 venture further to assert, that if it be doubtful whether 
 the doctrine 1 have attempted to lay down be right, it is, 
 ut least, clear that the doctrine I oppose, is wrong. 
 
 I rioViT apply myself to some of the leading observations 
 of your book as they arise. Supposing for a moment 
 that I have succeeded in demonstrating the principles 
 above asserted, it would be unnecessary, were I ad- 
 dressing only iinderstandings like your own, to say an}-- 
 thing further; and, indeed, you yourself confess, that 
 if this principle of intrinsic value could be successfully
 
 41 
 
 tlenied, almost every thing you l\avc written must be 
 without effect ; — but as 1 wish, though I must confess I 
 liave not much hope on the subject, that my little book 
 in its turn sliould be perused by the public ; that is, by 
 understantlings of every stature, so it will be necessary, 
 in order to satisfy many of those understandings, to 
 attack conclusions, although the reasoning upon which 
 they are founded, may have been completely demolished. 
 
 The question that appears first to arise out of tlie 
 pi'eceduig discussion is, whether money be any part of 
 the capital of a country ? If I am i ight in my position, 
 that money has not intrinsic value, it follows, of course, 
 that money of gold and silver is only gold and silver cur- 
 rency ; as money of paper is paper currency ; and the 
 lesult is, tliat money or coin is not more a part of th« 
 capital of a country than money of paper: and this 
 position will be illustrated, perhaps, by examining a little 
 the nature of capital and of profit. 
 
 It is of the essence of capital to produce profit ; and it is 
 of the essence of profit first to be ejxtsdem generis widi 
 capital ; and, secondly, to be capable of ultimate posses- 
 sion and enjoyment ; as thus : Nothing can l^e conectly 
 stated to be the profit of a trader that is necessarily 
 employed by him, in and for the purposes of his trade ; 
 that is, of producing profit : this profit ulliinately appears 
 (and which is its only real appc^arancc) in the shape of 
 houses, lands, household goofls, &c. iu greater abundance, 
 or of a more costly and elegant fabric, than tlie trader 
 possessed before the profit was made, and of the stock, 
 that remains at the winding up of his trade; but, clearly.
 
 i2 
 
 it can never rest in money, whether of the precious 
 metals, or of paper. When a man, therefore, is said to 
 have made 10,0001. by his trade, we do not mean that he 
 has heaped together so many guineas, &c. as amount to, 
 or is worth the denominative value of 1 0,000/. ; we mean 
 that he has got as much commodity as currency, whether 
 of paper or the precious metals of a corresponding 
 denominative value, has been the medium of obtaining. 
 Money, therefore, is neither capital nor profit, but the 
 means or instrument by which the one is turned into the 
 other. I will endeavour to put this more clearly : suppose 
 a gardener to be in want of a spade or a hoe, for which 
 he is to pay currency of the denominative value of half- 
 a-crown, and he is possessed of the half-a-crown in 
 standard silver, but, unfortunatelj', no spade or hoe can 
 be obtained : he turns his half-a-crown about; he finds it is 
 not wanting in homogeneousness, &c. and, in short, no 
 man would be bold enough to deny or doubt it was half- 
 a-crown : in the mean time the garden runs to waste : 
 in what sense can so useless an article as this half-a-crown 
 be called capital ? Even the spade or the hoe can scarcely 
 be called capital, primarily necessary as they are, for they 
 are but the instrument by which the commodity, i. e. 
 the soil of the garden, which is in truth the capital, is 
 put in motion, so as to produce profit ; and the difference 
 between one set of instruments, that is, currency, money, 
 coin, call it what you please, and the other set of instru- 
 ments, that is the spade or the hoe, is this ; namely, that 
 the latter has an intrinsic value as being a commodity j 
 the ultimate possession and use, and absolute necessity 
 of which are immediately discernible, while the former
 
 43 
 
 is only incidently useful as an instrument for the pur- 
 chase of that commodity ; since it might have happened 
 that a garden basket, or a ladder, or a bill hook, might 
 have been more readily taken in exdiange for the spade, 
 or the hoe, than some uncertain commodity involved in the 
 medium of coin, or currency, called half-a-crown. 
 
 That the subject is not felt to be free from doubt, that 
 there is some consciousness, as it were, that money, i. c. 
 coin, cannot unequivocally be declared part of the capital 
 of the country, is pretty apparent : 1st, from the expres- 
 sions that frequently occur in almost every writer on 
 the subject of money being unproductive capital ;. 2dly, 
 by the anxiety manifested to keep, instead of dis- 
 persing it, a conduct at perfect variance with every 
 maxim by which capital has, in every other instance, 
 been dealt with ; and 3dly, by the tenor, as well as the 
 letter of the law of this country, which, it is worthy of 
 observation, considers paper money, and money of the 
 precious metals, equally as no part of the capital, or 
 property of individuals, out of which any substantial 
 security, either for their debts or good conduct arises j 
 since although no less than five sorts of execution 
 may be awarded to give effect to such security, yet, not 
 one of them is ever against his money, but, according 
 to the circumstances of the case, they are, 1st, against 
 his body ; 2nd, against his goods and chattels ; 3d, 
 against his goods, and the profits of his lands ; ^th, 
 against his goods, and the possession of his lands ; and 
 5th, against all three, — his l)ody, lands and goods.
 
 4i 
 
 Further it will appear that money cannot be capital, 
 if the nature of trade be considered. 
 
 It appears to be assumed that the intervention of 
 money has, some how or other, though how has not, I 
 think, been any where very satisfactorily explained, been 
 the means of introducing some new principle into the 
 nature of trade ; and certainly this is the case, if 
 it he true that money is the universal equivalent ; but 
 I apprehend, if this part of the subject be more narrowly 
 looked into, it will be found that trade still remains in 
 substance, though rot in form, as merely arwi simply 
 barter, as it ever was, even in the earliest and most un- 
 refined state of mankind ; and that the same principles, 
 which influenced it in the remotest ages, govern it now. 
 
 In the times of simple barter the tnmsactions that 
 arose out of that species of traffick were marked with a 
 character, apparently diflfcrent from the character .which 
 marks tlie transactions of the present mode of com- 
 merce by buying and selling. First, the early barterers 
 bargained to supply immediate necessity; whereas the 
 buyers and sellers of the present day bargain, not only 
 for their own immediate use, but for the use of others, and 
 thence, for profit to themselves. Secondly, the com- 
 modity, sought for by the parties, was immediately inter- 
 changed between them : now there is no interchange of 
 commodity, cjnsdem generis, between the buyer and 
 seller; but the seller gives his commodity to the buyer, 
 and the buyer gives him, in retuin, that which was 
 once commodity, but wl.i. h is now destined to be only 
 the representative of commodity, that is, money.
 
 45 
 
 But now, to see whether tliere be any substantial 
 cllstinction lietween these modes of commerce : when 
 the merchant buys and sells for profit, as well as to sup- 
 ply his immediate wants, what is the ultimate desti- 
 nation of that profit ? Is it not just as much to supply 
 desires or wants, arising either from a real, or a fancied 
 necessity, as the first transaction of the Indian is to 
 supply desires or wants? The Indian wants but wood 
 for his hut, or his canoe; the wealthy trader wants many 
 articles for many houses and many ships ; he wants 
 lands, horses, carriages, and so forth. But is it not plain 
 that the profit of all the buyers and sellers in the world 
 resolves itself into the possession of commodity, of the 
 same nature with the commodity sought for by the 
 barter of the Indian ; and that it can resolve itself into 
 nothing else ; tliat if it were kept in the shape of guineas 
 and shillings, all of standard weight and fineness, it 
 would presently be found, instead of supplying desires 
 or wants, to be a most intolerable burthen ? 
 
 The result of the transaction, then, whether it be b\ 
 an exchange of commodities as by barter, or by tlif 
 more circuitous but more convenient, route of money, 
 is, nevertheless, nothing else, and can be nothing else in 
 substance, but exchange of commodity. 
 
 If it were possible to imagine a time when the 
 whole world liad arrived at a thorough knowledge of 
 commerce, and had derived profit from it in such a way 
 as that every individual enjoyment, as it were, could 
 spontaneously produce itself; if houses, parks, gardens, 
 and all the conveniences and luxuries of life, sprung up
 
 46 
 
 for the use of man; let me ask, would not this be 
 the ultimatum of profit ? and let me further ask, would 
 the precious metals, in the shape of coin, (except, per- 
 haps, as articles of rarity) be ever thought of? It is 
 needless, surely, to anticipate the answer to these ques- 
 tions, or to add this further question : How do the 
 number, or the variety of wants vary the original nature 
 of desire, or of the aim that is proposed in its gratifica- 
 tion ? 
 
 If, then, the end of barter be to acquire commodity 
 we want, and if to acquire commodity we want be the 
 ultimate end of buying and selling ; if, whether I receive 
 commodity immediately for the commodity I have 
 parted with, or that which must, of necessity, be em- 
 ployed in the purchase of commodity, be the same thing, 
 which I do not see is, or can be, disputed ; it follows, 
 that the introduction of this vehicle, or instrument, 
 makes no alteration in the principle of commerce, 
 any more than the introduction of a more convenient 
 plough would make an alteration in the nature of 
 the land it was employed to cultivate. 
 
 It may be said that I have taken pains to prove what 
 has not been denied; but I must observe, that to assert 
 that money possesses intrinsic value, and tliat it is an 
 universal equivalent, which is the foundation of your argu- 
 ment, is the same thing as to assert, that the principle 
 of trade by barter is distinct from the principle of trade 
 by buying and selling.
 
 *7 
 
 Tlie principle of commerce, then, remaining unaltered, 
 tlie nature of capital, and, consequently, of profit, must 
 continue the same. Now, in simple barter, the capital 
 and produce consisted of commodity, and could, indeed, 
 consist of nothing else ; and by whom has it ever been 
 demonstrated, that the intervention of money, a tiling, 
 as has been proved, of a nature and use essentially 
 different from commodity, can, in the nature of the 
 thing, have become itself capital, or have effected any 
 alteration in the nature of that subject which, it appears, 
 could alone have been capital ? It, therefore, I think, 
 remains for those, who call money capital, to shew ; first, 
 what is meant by unproductive capital ; and, secondly, by 
 what hitherto unheard-of accident, or unascertained 
 law, that subject, which, strictly speaking, is not evea 
 an instrument for the employment of capital, and can 
 only be used, and is not universally, necessarily used 
 in the purchase of instruments for the employment of 
 capital, lias acquired the right and the power of 
 capital. 
 
 When we speak of the capital of a country, of national 
 trade, and so on, we ought to remember that these are 
 terms calculated to convey very false impressions, to 
 those who enquire little beyond sound and sight, tliat Is, 
 the multitude ; men are the slaves of words and terms : 
 when a national debt Is spoken of, because, in the con- 
 cerns of private life, debt is considered as usually allied 
 with difficulty and poverty, so, without stopping to enquire 
 into the nature of this alleged debt of the country, how 
 it has been incurred, who is the debtor, and who the 
 creditor, the idea of national debt, national poverty, and
 
 48 
 
 national bankruptcy, all run on together, leading the 
 disordered imagination into friglitful fancies, and ulti- 
 mate despair. When national capital, and national 
 trade are the theme, something, though no man can 
 tell what, is imagined of a huge trader, and of an enor- 
 mous stock in' trade, which like the giants of Thomas 
 Hickathrift, are governed by some law, which mortals 
 of less magnitude cannot understand, and of which 
 they dare not ask for an explanation. 
 
 Sir W. Petty explains this very well, where he says, 
 *' tlie whole nation is but many particular men united." 
 The national capital, therefore, (pul)lic works, and 
 they, perhaps, not strictly, excepted) is nothing more 
 than so many capitals of so many individuals, of which 
 the cobler's bench and lapstone are as clearly a part, and 
 are governed by the same principle as the cargoes of the 
 most extensive merchant. The national trade is nothing 
 more than the individual dealings of individual traders j 
 no monstrous, shadowy form of co)nmerce, subject to 
 some unknown law, and governed by some mysterious 
 inexplicable principle; the nation has no imaginary 
 commodity; the commodity it deals in is to be found only 
 in tlie shop of the tradesman, and the warehouse of 
 tl\e merchant, and of which the sale will be strictly 
 commensurate with the wants of the rest of the world. 
 The vending of English commodity, says Sir W. Petty, 
 doth not depend upon any other thing but tlie use and 
 need which foreigners have of them; Quant. Ans. ta 
 Qu. 1 2. To this, however, may be added, that that use 
 and need, being in a great degree artificial, may be excited
 
 49 
 
 and enlarged by tlie nature of the commodity, the beauty 
 of the workmanship, and so on. 
 
 I will detain you with but one illustration 
 more of this position, that money is not any part 
 of the capital of a country, and this is drawn partly 
 from your own statement, and partly from the nature of 
 the facts included in it. While a guinea is standard 
 weight, that is, while it is money, it is never gold com- 
 modity; the law will not permit it to be sold; so 
 that it is preserved as 'an instrument, of great supposed 
 convenience indeed, but from the use of which no 
 profit (to say nothing of dead and certain loss,) can by 
 any possibility arise ; but the moment it falls, by whatever 
 means, below that weight, and not before, it becomes 
 capital ; that is, it loses the character of money altogether, 
 and becomes, ex necessitate rei^ gold commodity, and pro- 
 ductive of a certain source of profit. 
 
 The above considerations are very few of those that 
 crowd upon one, on this part of the subject; but from 
 them, duly weighed,! think it appears manifest, that money 
 cannot correctly be denominated part of the capital, pro- 
 ductive or unproductive, of any country. 
 
 With this view of the subject, another and a most im- 
 portant position is maintained by yourself, in conunon, 
 I think, with all other writers on this subject, and 
 which appears, in varied forms of expression, throughout 
 your work. I will select three or Pmr of these cxpres- 
 
 F
 
 50 
 
 s'nonsj as they casually occur: "^ The law has secured 
 to every creditor, public or private, the payment of eu 
 pound weight of standard gold for every 46/. I4s, 6d. 
 whereas, if bank notes were made a legal tender, each 
 of those creditors would be obliged to accept, in full 
 liatis faction for that just demand, about 10^ ounces, or 
 not more than 17^. in the pound, with a prospect of 
 a still further reduction in every year." P. 11. " Gold, 
 therefore, is the test by which the value of bank notes 
 must be tried." P. 24. " That it(namely, the denominative 
 value of bank notes being paid in gold, &c.) is "a 
 question of good faith, can any man doubt when he con • 
 siders, that the stamp affixed to our coin is nothing' 
 more than a guarantee, given by the sovereign; that 
 in weight and fineness the money of this country is in 
 exact conformity to the standard fixed by law." P. 7^- 
 " Does it not follow," you say, '' that any contrivance, 
 which, under the same denomination of money to which 
 the guarantee applies, should compel any individual to ac- 
 cept, in payment of a legal debt, a smaller quantity of 
 gold than is certified by the stamp to be contained 
 in such denomination, would be a violation of the public 
 faith ?" P. 77- " In truth," you proceed : " there is but one 
 security for the maintenance of the public faith of a 
 country in this respect, and that is to preserve the stan- 
 dard of its currency immutable and inviolable." P. 77» 
 
 If the reasoning be conclusive, that because the law^ 
 acting more, perhaps, upon habit and precedent, thar^ 
 upon sound discretion, has, notwithstanding the change 
 ^)f circumstances tliat has been silently, but not in-
 
 51 
 
 sensibly, taking place, displayed in the 13th cen- 
 tury, the same anxious care and fondness for this un- 
 productive capital, which it manifested while it was yet 
 in the twilight of its understanding ; and that the law 
 has, therefore, fixed an irrevocable bargain with the pub- 
 lic, that the holders of bank paper shall consider them- 
 selves entitled, at their will, to call for the denomi- 
 native amount of that paper in the pre(?ious metals of 
 the standard weight and fineness ; certainly, it is not easy 
 to deny that there has existed, and that there now exists^ 
 a gross violation of the public faith. 
 
 But this is an idea so pregnant with mischief, so easily 
 to be turned to worse than party purposes, and so 
 adapted to rapid and wide dissemination, that it de- 
 serves to be examined ; and it will, therefore, be fit to 
 see whether the public faith be pledged to the per- 
 formance of any contract on this head; if it be, then to 
 ascertain the nature of that contract. 
 
 The law, it is to be observed, cannot, from its nature, 
 form any specific contract ; its essence is to command ; 
 and as good laws can command nothing to be done but 
 what is fit to be done, and possible to be done, so will 
 tliey, at the same time, command that to be done which 
 ought to be done ; and, amongst other things, it com- 
 mands the performance of all moral and possible con- 
 tracts. 
 
 Tiie law-makers, in their capacity of legislators, 
 are, in this respect, identified with the law itself ;— they 
 b2
 
 52 
 
 cannot, in that capacity, make contracts, for contracts, in 
 tlieir very nature and terms, imply two voluntary parties. 
 Now they to whom the law is delivered, and who are 
 to obey it, are not, in this sense, voluntary parties ; 
 their consent, in a certain sense, is not asked ; that is, it is 
 not asked as to the execution of the law : as it is the 
 province of the law to command, so it is their duty to 
 obey. This, as it must be taken to be universally 
 true J so it must be taken to be true in respect of the 
 subject before us. The law gives the sovereign a 
 prerogative, in respect of the precious metals, which is 
 peculiar and confined to them ; (and this, by the bye, I 
 take to be the tme reason of some of the laws which 
 are to be found in our statute book, respecting gold and 
 silver, in merchandize, as well as coin :) the sove- . 
 reign, therefore, by force and virtue of that law, and the 
 law, with him, affix this stamp, and assign this value, 
 and these qualities of fineness, and this circumstance of 
 weight, to coin made of the precious metals. But this is 
 a command; the law might alter it, although, by our happy 
 and noble constitution, the sovereign of himself, and 
 without or against the law, could not j— and that alte- 
 ration, also, being a law, must in its turn be obeyed. 
 The policy of such a law is another question : it is, there- 
 fore, I think, very incorrectly that you speak, when you 
 say, p. 76, this stamp affixed to our coin is nothing 
 more than a guarantee, by the sovereign, that, in weight 
 and fineness, the money of the country is in exact con- 
 formity to the standard fixed by law. There is nothing in 
 it of the guarantee ; a guarantee, in the first place, can 
 be made effectual (and if not effectual, then it is no
 
 53 
 
 guarantee) by tliose only who have power to make it 
 effectual. Now, I apprehend, the sovereign alone has no 
 power to make such a guarantee ; but suppose he had, 
 a guarantee is in the nature of a benefit to the per- 
 sons to whom the possession and enjoyment of some 
 given subject is guaranteed ; it is something over and 
 above the compact ; but, in the first place, it appears, that 
 there can be no compact between the sovereign, or the 
 law, and the subject ; and in the next, the parties to a 
 guarantee are, like the parties to a compact, voluntary 
 parties, but with this remarkable distinction beyond, 
 that the parties guaranteed may discharge the guarantee, 
 upon the universal principle, that the benefited may 
 always refuse the benefit meant to be conferred upon 
 him. But in this new species of guarantee, none of 
 these ingredients are to be found; this stamp may not, and 
 ought not to be rejected. 
 
 The law, therefore, it is clear, in this sense, has not en- 
 tered into any express stipulation, that the notes of the Bank 
 of England should be paid on demand in the precious metals 
 of a concurrent denominate value; for in this the contract 
 and guarantee you advert to must,end; and it need not be 
 stated, tliat the treasury, or any other efficient part of the 
 government, have not entered into any such agreement ; 
 lor they are neither literally, nor by any necessary infe- 
 rence, parties to the agreement. It comes then to be seen, 
 whether the bank note for 20s. is an agreement to pay in 
 cash ; and if it be, whether the public faith is pledged 
 to the performance of that agreement in any other sense 
 than it may be said to be pledged to see that all legal 
 agreemiiits shall be performed, or compensation for the 
 breach of them made in damages.
 
 54 
 
 I am ready to admit, that from tlie care taken in the 
 Acts 37, G. 3. c. 45. 91, that Bank notes should not be 
 out and out, if I may use the expression, a legal tender 
 for a dftbt ; in other, and more technical language, that 
 though the debtor, tendering bank notes, should be there- 
 by saved from mesne process, yet that he is not thereby 
 saved from execution upon a judgment obtained at law 5 
 that the idea of parliament was, and must now ^be taken 
 to be, that the promise on the face of a bank note to pay 
 upon demand is to pay in coin of gold and silver upon 
 demand ; and I am ready also to admit, that the agree- 
 ment, or promise, upon the face of the note, ought to be 
 construed in favour of the bearer, if it can be shewn that 
 he took the bank note upon no other condition, than that 
 he should have the denominative amount of it paid to him 
 in coin at his will. 
 
 When, too, the language of the bank note is consi- 
 dered, it is clear that the most essential words there, 
 the very words creating the promise or contract, 
 must he construed to have no meaning at all, or else 
 they must mean to pay in coin; for that the notes 
 themselves were not coiisidered as nipney is clear ; and 
 ^o pay in any thing but money seems an absurdity. 
 I apprehend, therefore, it must be clearly admitted, that 
 it was the original intent and meaning of bank notes, 
 that the bearer should be paid by the bank the amount of 
 tlie note in coin on demand ; and it must also, I imagine, 
 be admitted so to have literaily (but, perhaps, less and 
 less practically and substantially) remained up to the 
 Bank restriction bill ; but, I think that bill essentially 
 ^altered the state of the case : whether the measure of 
 passing that bill were a janeasure of justice and wisdom^.
 
 55 
 
 or the contrary, it was, rw?vertheless, a dictate of the 
 law, and to be obeyed. Now a law may be obeyed either 
 willingly or unwillingly; and it is by this, and 1 think this 
 alone, at least in England, that the peoples' opinion of 
 its justice or injustice can be accurately measured; and 
 by this rule I am willing to go in the present case. 
 It is, I believe, by some said of this law, that it was 
 felt to be unjust, but that necessity, " for gods themselves 
 too strong," compelled the enactment of it : if this 
 be so, the question is, where are the murmurers against 
 it to be found ? Had the people felt in fact, what is so 
 speciously urged in argument, that in being for a time 
 deprived of their demand of coin they had been deprived 
 of wealth, and consequently of the means of acquiring 
 it, the consternation and the resentment would have 
 been instant, universal, and overwhelming ;— or if it be 
 urged, that the people might not at once perceive tliq 
 extent or force of the mischief, then it may be answered, 
 that fourteen years have passed away, and no sign of dis- 
 content appears. I agree that it is a subject upon which 
 discontent may be excited, because, if the validity of 
 these notes be made to depend upon the solvency of the 
 bank, and If the solvency of the bank be (with or withouf 
 reason no matter) brought into doubt, (which, however, 
 they must ha\'e read very little of your book who would 
 charge you with doing) of course, they who hold such a 
 doubtful security as a Bank of England note would then 
 be, would naturally and justly feel a degree of discontent, 
 at being com[)elled to trust to paper, which, having nu 
 stamp or authority of the government, could not be called 
 money, r.nd which, unlike the precious metals, consi- 
 dered its ;; commodity, would be foimd to possess a, value 
 too low to be brought into any computation.
 
 56 
 
 But this in tmtli is not the case, or pretended to be the 
 case : no man seriously doubts the solvency of tlie'i;Bank, 
 nor, I suppose, its immediate power to call in and give 
 gold and silver of the standard for all its notes, if that, 
 and that only, were the end in view ; and, therefore, the 
 real question is, whether the substance of the promise 
 of the Bank, as expressed on the face of their notes, 
 is not to pay or give to the bearer on demand, the amount 
 of the denominative value of the 'note in coin at such 
 a time as the law of the land shall declare it fit to be 
 done ? 
 
 The truth appears to be, that the parliament of that 
 day meditated a measure which, whilst it was of the 
 most beneficent principle, must be confessed to have 
 militated against universally-received, and very ancient 
 opinions, of the sacredness of the precious metals ; and 
 which, therefore, could not, consistently with the wisdom 
 that belongs to a British House of Commons, be made 
 that complete and perfect measure which the necessity 
 of the case most certainly demanded. 
 
 So far, however, as it has gone, it suspended the fuU 
 filment of the agreement on the part of the Bank to pay 
 in coin ; and it has substituted, or rather added, to the 
 coin of the country, a paper currency ; and for fourteen 
 years, I repeat, the measure has been acquiesced in on the 
 part of the people ; and the only remaining question is, 
 Vi'hether, under these circumstances, there lias been any 
 violation of the public faith ? 
 
 In thinking as I do, that the public faith has not been 
 violated, I bear in mind the string of evils you present m
 
 57 
 
 pp. 19. 84. and will shortly notice them ; but it will be 
 well first to consider further, for a moment, to what it is 
 the public faith has been pledged on this occasion. 
 
 By the public fiiitli is meant, I suppose, an assumed, 
 implied engagement on the part of the law, to which 
 universal confidence is given ; for the law, though it cannot 
 jenter into express compacts, tacitly and necessarily engages 
 to do justice, and enforce rights ; this I apply to the case 
 before us, and say that the engagement of the law was to 
 give to the holder of every Bank note an available 
 security for the amount mentioned in it against the Bank. 
 The eflicacy of this security, as against the Bank, is 
 indeed suspended, but then for that suspension the law 
 has given a compensation ; namely, it has given the 
 Bank note, pro tempore^ its stamp and sanction, by making 
 it, for all the practical and useful purposes of life, of 
 equal value with the coin, or, in other words, to a sufficient 
 extent for those purposes, a legal tender ; and as it is 
 essentially incident to all agreements that the parties 
 may waive them, provided in so doing they injure none 
 but themselves, so I contend, that the public might be 
 said to have waived, for the present, the agreement 
 of the Bank to pay their notes in cash upon demand. 
 
 The evils you mention, and to which I have above ad- 
 verted, I do admit, like almost the whole of the reason- 
 ing of your book, cannot be denied, if your positions be 
 admitted ; but as they appear to me to hang entirely upon 
 tho§e positions, and as I liave already taken up so much 
 time in investigating them, I will not fatigue you, or
 
 58 
 
 myself, with fresh arguments, to shew that those evils 
 cannot have existence. 
 
 By the operation of the 57 th of the king, the origi- 
 nal contract of the bank, to pay in coin upon demand, 
 has also become, pro tempore, an impossible contract ; 
 the law, therefore, pro tempore, is disabled from compel- 
 ling the performance of it ; for the law cannot be at va- 
 riance with itself} and the ground of rendering that con- 
 tract impossible, for a time, is acknowledged by all to 
 be a good ground ; namely, the necessity of the case. So 
 that here, I presume, there cannot be room for the charge 
 of a breach of the public faith : the public, too, I have 
 observed, have received a compensation for this suspen- 
 sion of their rights ; they have not shewn any sense, or 
 feeling of hardship or injustice, which, as before observed, 
 would presently have appeared, had any such arisen by 
 the passing of that law. 
 
 It appears, therefore, 
 
 1st. That the notes of the Bank of England contain 
 an original express contract to pay the amount in cash 
 upon demand. 
 
 2nd. That the law engaged to give the holder of the 
 note his remedy against the bank, in the usual and 
 accustomed course of justice. 
 
 3rd. That the law has upon proper grounds suspended 
 that remcdv.
 
 5& 
 
 4th. That in so doing, under the circumstances of the 
 case, the public faith has not been violated. 
 
 I have said so much upon tliis head, not because 1 
 think you distinctly hold the measure of suspending the 
 l)ank payments to be unjust, but because there are not 
 wanting persons to disseminate such notions, and because 
 I do not observe tliatyou or any other person of eminence 
 have distijictly opposed that idea. 
 
 As to making the act of the .37th of the king perpe 
 tual, I must distinctly say I fear no mischief so greatly 
 »s I do the mischief that, I think, would result fromtha. 
 measure, except it be the mischief that I fear will one day 
 arise, if, from a continuance in the present doctrines of in 
 trinsic value, the legislature should pass a bill, commanding 
 the bank to resume their payments in cash, unless such a 
 measure were confined to tlie notes then in circulation; for 
 though I think, and should not at all fear coming to the 
 proof, that tlic prosperity of the country, during these iden- 
 tical 14 years of the suspension of cash payments, 
 has been unexampled, and though I firmly believe that 
 that prosperity has been owing in a great degree to that 
 measure, yet, inasmuch as it is professedly, and in its very 
 nature, but a temporary, and incomplete measure, as it 
 would be a strange anomaly in law and government, to 
 give perpetuity to such a measure, as it is beneath tlie 
 dignity of this country, that it should owe even its pros- 
 perity to a law of such a nature, and as I think, too, that 
 by far a still larger share of prosperity would be atten- 
 dant upcui a settled, dignified, and well-digested system ot 
 paper money, so I should be sorry to see a law made
 
 60 
 
 perpetual, of which, as it was meant by the framers as 
 a temporary measure only, it will not I hope be thought 
 disrespectful to say, that it does not possess those cha- 
 racteristics that belong to a settled system, in a degree 
 sufficient to encourage any rational expectation of last- 
 ing and ultimate benefit to the country from its conti- 
 nuance. 
 
 Having thus examined the measure of the 37th of the 
 king, and endeavoured to shew that there was no injustice 
 in the spirit of that measure, I purpose now to see whe- 
 ther any injustice or mischief has, in fact, arisen from it 
 in respect of the assumed depreciation of the substituted 
 paper currency, and of the rise in the prices of commo- 
 dity ; premising, that I am aware that these may be 
 classed amongst the evils that are stated by you to have 
 arisen from the state of the coin, and of which I have, in a 
 page or two before, promised that I would not take up the 
 time in investigation ; but as these subjects stand singly 
 and prominently in your book, and as they have long 
 been presented to the consideration of the public, through 
 a false and dangerous medium, it appears fit to oifer a few 
 brief considerations respecting them j and first as to the 
 asserted depreciation of the currency. 
 
 The depreciation of that part of the currency, which 
 consists of the precious metals, is simply to be accounted 
 for J 1st by the wear of standard gold and silver coin ; and this 
 depreciation may be called a depreciation in respect of 
 quantity, and commences the moment the coin is issued 
 from the mint, and perhaps is pot strictly depreciation ; but 
 that is not of importance ; — 2nd,by clipping, filing, wash-
 
 61 
 
 iug, &c. J and this is also to be classed with depreciation^ 
 in respect of quantity j —and, 3rd, by the introduction of 
 a given quantity of base metal, into a given quantity of 
 the precious metals, above the alloy allowed by law ; and 
 this is depreciation of quality and what only is strictly to 
 be called depreciation ; and these are the only ways, as it 
 appears to me, by which a depreciation of the coin of 
 a country, which, for the sake of precision, I will call 
 depreciation in the abstract, can be effected. 
 
 There is another and a distinct species of depreciation ; 
 and that is when the public opinion of the efficiency 
 of the money offered in the market is lowered, and con- 
 sequently a greater quantity of that money is wanted 
 for the purchase of a given quantity of commodity, tlian 
 at any given time before ; and this may occur as the con- 
 sequence of one or other of the first above-mentioned 
 causes of depreciation, when the currency is coin of 
 the precious metals, and of want of credit when the cur- 
 rency is paper. 
 
 In looking' at tliis part ef the subject, one cannot but 
 be forcibly struck with the embarrassment arising from 
 the unnatural connection between money and commo- 
 dity, which is forced by the doctrine of intrinsic value ; 
 the depreciation which 1 have called depreciation in the ab- 
 stract, belongs to the precious metals, and to them only 
 in their character of commodity ; that is, in the first two 
 instances there is less of the precious metals in the 
 pieces of coin called guineas and shillings, than there 
 was at the time they were issued from the mint; and, 
 in the last instance, there is less of those metals in tho^e
 
 5^ 
 
 pieces ot coin, than is universally understood to be in 
 what is called a good guinea, and a good shilling j but 
 there is practically no depreciation, while these pieces of 
 coin will fetch in the market a guinea's worth, or a shil- 
 ling's worth of commodity. The first three states of 
 \vhat is called depreciation would be each of them more 
 correctly defined, to be a state of the coin which ought„ 
 to produce, or which may or will produce depreciation j^ 
 for if any of these states be considered practically as a 
 state of depreciation, and of depreciation of the precious 
 metals as coin, and not as commodity, it will be diffi- 
 cult to say, independently of any positive regulation, 
 when money of the precious metals, from the moment of 
 its issuing, is not depreciated : but it M'ill be said the law 
 has fixed the boundary of a guinea, say at 5dwts. 8grs. 
 It has so ; but why at 5dwts. 8grs. ? why not at 5dwts. 7grs. 
 or 5. G. this is merely arbitrary, and matter of conveni- 
 ence, as a boundary must be fixed somewhere ; but is it 
 not clear that if, notwithstanding this law, a guinea, 
 weighino' only 5. 7- will in the market purchase as much 
 commodity as a guinea which weighs 5. 8. that so long 
 ^as this continues, there is no practical depreciation of the 
 precious metals, as coin or money, although th^re is un- 
 deniably a depreciation of them as commodity ? And has 
 not this for many years past been the case, since, with the 
 increase of business, people have found more profitable 
 employment than weighing guineas ? 1 do not go through 
 the investigation of this point, because I do not pei'ceive 
 that your alleged depreciation goes further than the de- 
 preciation of paper mosiey j but I thought it right to say 
 what I have said, because you have not, 1 think, made the 
 wature of depreciation clear ; because it appears to me
 
 63 
 
 to Illustrate very forcibly tlie distinction I have endea- 
 voured to demonstrate between money and commodity, 
 and because too it seems material to the discussion of 
 your alleged depreciation of the paper currency to whIcU 
 I will now address a few observations. 
 
 If my statement of the causes of depreciation be cor^: 
 rect, it is clear that those causes relate to the subject 
 they aftect in its capacity of commodity only ; and then 
 it is equally clear that none of these causes can have 
 affected paper money, for the original value of the paper, 
 printing, &c. is too low to admit of depreciation to any 
 extent. 
 
 Is the next cause of depreciation, namely, the public 
 opinion, an operative cause to produce depreciation of 
 bank notes ? That it is the only cause tliat can, and that 
 it possibly may, produce such a consequence, is admitted j 
 but suffer me to ask, is it not a fact, open and noto- 
 rious, that public opinion lias not hitherto produced that 
 event ? Whether the reasoning adduced from this fact, as 
 to the policy of making the restriction law perpetual, be 
 correcl, or not, the fact upon which it is founded is not 
 the less a fact ; and that fact is, that I can go into the 
 market to purchase commodity with bank notes only in 
 my hand; and whatever haggling there may be, whether 
 at a butcher's stall, or in the merchant's counting-house, 
 about the price of the commodity, it never so much as 
 enters into the seller's head to ask for gold ; and it is, I 
 conceive, no answer to this obsenation, that bank note? 
 sjrc for the present, and to a certain extent, good pay-
 
 64 
 
 ment, by the law of the land, or that no gold is to be 
 got, because, in tlie first place, if gold cannot be got, 
 all argument for a recurrence to the standard is in vain ; 
 But secondly, you yourself observe that gold may be got, 
 and I conclude, therefore, would be got if it were 
 wanted ; and, to repeat an observation I have before 
 made ; thirdly, because the law would long since have 
 ceased if either injustice, or serious inconvenience, had 
 been found to result from the continuance of it. It there- 
 fore, I think, follows incontrovertibly, that bank notes are 
 not depreciated in the sense in which I have used the 
 term practical depreciation :-— but so much has been said 
 on this point by others, and the fact so clear, that it is 
 imnecessary to pursue it any further. 
 
 Bank notes, then, not labouring under any of the fore- 
 going descriptions of depreciation, I should have found 
 it difficult to imagine any other species of diminution of 
 value, to which it could be subject, on wliich any se- 
 rious argument could be urged, had I not found in the 
 writings of political oeconomists, arid in your book, two 
 other causes of depreciation assigned. 1st, In the compa- 
 rison of value between those notes and coin. 2nd, Tn the 
 excess of their issue;— both of which (it may be ob- 
 served,) must at last resolve themselves into that 
 great and universal cause of value— public opinion. 
 
 " Gold," you say, p. 24, (and I have noticed it before,) 
 ^^ is the test by which bank notes must be tried;" and, to 
 a certain extent, I agree to tliat test. I agree to it so far 
 as a bank note is an engagement for the payment of a 
 specified quantity of money ; and if it were, in fact, and
 
 65 
 
 practicr, and by the operation of the restriction law, as I 
 agree it is in the abstract, no more tlian tlmt I should be under 
 the necessity of wholly agreeing to it. But, in considering 
 bank notes only as such an engagement, you appear to 
 come short of describing their true character ; and your 
 reasoning, therefore, from such narrow premises, must 
 be inconclusive ; for all practical purposes, by force 
 of the restriction bill, bank notes have parted, pro 
 tempore, from their character of an engagement to 
 pay money, and have acquired the character of money, 
 and are to be taken and accepted, and of course reasoned 
 upon, as money itself. In this observation, with the rea- 
 soning that springs from it, will be found the answer I 
 should give to the question you ask, in p. 22. " If a one pound 
 note does not represent twenty shillings of the metal 
 at the coinage price, what does it really represent?" Ac- 
 cording to its original character, and before the act of tlie 
 37th, it did not represent any thing else :— since the pass- 
 ing of that act, it has represented, and now represents, so 
 much commodity as is universally agreed to be worth its de-, 
 nominative value, and that it represents, and can represent 
 nothing else. If this be so, as there can be no comparison 
 between a given thing and itself, which I say, not losing 
 sight of the comparative value between money of gold, 
 and money of silver, but which, in truth, is only the 
 comparative value between two dilFeient commodities, 
 so can there be no depreciation of a bank note, under 
 its present circumstances, in tlie sense in wliich there 
 might be depreciation of a bank note, if it were true 
 that it is an engagement to pay, a certain quantity of 
 moncv, and notiiing more.
 
 66 
 
 'J'lie evidence of Mr. Chambers before the commilte •, 
 or rather that particular part of it adverted to by you' 
 in page 21, appears, for the purpose for which you have 
 introduced it, to go quite beside the point of depreci- 
 ation : that part of the evidence must be read 
 with the context; and that context is to be found in 
 almost every other part of his evidence. It is impossible 
 to dwell upon this, without running into too great length ; 
 and besides, it has been sufficiently commented upon 
 by others ; perhaps, therefore, it will be sufficient to state 
 that, in p. 102 of the report, the same page from which 
 your extract is made, that gentleman is asked the following 
 question : " Is it your opinion, that the currency of Eng- 
 land is depreciated?" (namely paper currency.) The answer 
 is " certainly not." Read witli this context, it is impossible 
 to ascribe such a consequence, as depreciation of bank 
 notes, to the testimony adverted to by you ; but that such 
 a consequence cannot with propriety be ascribed to that, or 
 to any other testimony, is clear, (putting aside all other 
 considerations,) from the nature of the thing itself, the 
 surest ground and test of all reasoning ; and by 
 that I will try it ; and it lies in the following proposi- 
 tion : The quantity of commodity that currency of a 
 certain denominative value, as a guinea, or a bank note 
 for 20s. will purchase in the market, cannot be a test of 
 its, that is the money's, real value being equal to its deno- 
 minative value ; first, because, if I am correct in my 
 reasoning upon money, monej', of whatever subject it 
 may be composed, has no real value, and of course there 
 can be no ground of comparison in respect of money be- 
 tween its denominative value, which is its only 
 value, audits assumed real value, which, according to that 
 argument, does not exist. 2nd. Because the denomina-
 
 tive value of money is, as the term necessarily imports, 
 descriptive only of a given number of symbols, e. g. 
 pounds, crowns, francs, &c. upon which mankind have 
 agreed as signs of value, and which it, therefore, repre- 
 sents, but which has not, and cannot have, any refe- 
 rence to the value of tlie commodity of the purchase 
 of which it is .an instrument; at least not until the bar- 
 gain is concluded ; the value of the commodity having 
 no standard but the want of ths buyer, the necessity of 
 the seller, the beauty of the workmanship, or some 
 other exterior accident. This may be seen more clearly 
 by an example ; suppose a man, with a bank note of 20s. 
 wants to buy gold or indigo, or any other commodity, 
 on a given day, or in a given market ; and on that day, 
 and in that market, he procures for his 20s. note, a 
 given quantity of the commodity in question;— and sup- 
 pose, on another day, or in another market, he goes with 
 his 20s. note, and procures a greater quantity of the 
 same commodity for that note, would any one argue that 
 in the latter case, the 20s. note was worth more as a 
 representative of value than 20s. or in the former case 
 less ? Is it not on the contrary clear, that these subjects 
 have no reference whatever to each other, and that con- 
 sequently no such effect as depreciation of the currency 
 could possibly be the result of such a transaction ? If any 
 thing besides this testimony, arising out of the nature of 
 the subjects themselves, were wanting to shew that this is 
 so, I venture to assert, that its corroboration may be found 
 almost uniformly throughout the evidence contained in 
 the report of the committee ; and if the truth cannot be 
 elicited from such sources, the search for it, I think, musft 
 for ever be in vain.
 
 68 
 
 The next of these two latter causes of depreciation 
 is excess of issues j but as this turns wholly upon the 
 assumption, that bank notes are merely an engagement 
 to pay money, i. e. cash, and of course, without any 
 reference to their character of money j it seems unne- 
 cessary to enter upon any formal discussion of that 
 point J since, if these notesremainmerely in their charac- 
 ter of engagements to pay money, it must be admitted 
 that there may be a remote chance, possibly from want of 
 integrity, or from some other cause, not made very appa- 
 rent, of an over-issue ; and if taken as money, it is ad- 
 mitted by yourself, and indeed like every other part 
 of this subject, carries with it its own evidence, that 
 there cannot^ in fact, be any such thing as an over issue 
 of money. Aix observation or two, therefore, shall suffice. 
 
 Treating Bank notes, for a moment, for the 
 5ake of the argument, as mere engagements to pay 
 money, they differ nothing substantially from any other 
 individual bill of exchange, or promissory note. They 
 may, indeed, be more readily taken In the market, as 
 the public opinion of them may be higher than of other 
 similar securities ; but they are an available security 
 against the parties, and nothing more. The arguments, 
 therefore, that tend to shew that tliere cannot, ultimately, 
 be an over-issue of bank notes, will shew, also, that there 
 cannot, ultimately, be an over-issue of any other legal 
 ■paper security. What! mean by ultimately, will appear 
 presently. 
 
 I take it for a fact,, that legal available securities never 
 get into the hands of third persons, without a corres -
 
 69 
 
 ponding security in commodity arising. For instance;, 
 an accommodation bill for 1000^ at two months, is 
 manufactured Letween A and B, for the purpose of sus- 
 taining their credit ; in other words, of raising the amount 
 in money, or money's-worth ; this bill, while it remains 
 unnegotiated, (no matter how many persons are partie.'^ 
 to it, as a mere accommodation bill) is but blank paper; 
 for, though at law it might be available against the 
 acceptor, yet, in equity, an injunction would issue ; but, 
 when an innocent indorsee arises, the parties to the 
 bill become liable. Now this must be the case with all 
 the available paper in the kingdom, if the transactions 
 be between solvent and fair-dealing persons, because 
 value has been given. If it rest as an accommodation bill, 
 it is plain that no value can have been given or intended, 
 as between the original parties to the bill ; but either 
 previously to, or immediately upon, the bill becoming 
 effective, value must arise ; so that here is a double 
 check upon an over-issue of all paper securities. 1st. in 
 the ultimate responsibility of the parties to the security, 
 and 2diy, in the prudence of the person about to become 
 the indorsee of a bill, or payer of a promissory note ; 
 who, it may be presumed, before he parts with com- 
 modity, will take care to have its value, or what he 
 imagines to be its value, in some shape or other. 
 
 It is tnic, the original parties to much of the paper 
 in this country are needy persons, taking the chance 
 of speculations, and to some degree careless about the 
 consequences ; inasmuch as they cannot, it may be said, 
 be much wois • off, perhaps, should the security be 
 enforced ag-.iiii-si them, than they were befor*^ ir was
 
 manufactured. It is true also that, practically, many who 
 give value for private paper are deficient in proper 
 attention to the security they accept j but, I think, it may 
 he very fairly argued, in the first place, that these are rather 
 exceptions, which are evidences of the existence of 
 tlie general rule, than, as themselves, forming such gene- 
 ral rule; 2dly. that these instances of misconduct, 
 Jiowever numerous, have no concern with, or relation to 
 the public welfare ; in any other sense, than that abstract, 
 metaphysical sense, in which we should say, that inas- 
 much as the public is composed of many individuals, 
 and the public welfare is the welfare of many individuals, 
 so the destruction of the welfare of one individual is, 
 pro tanto, the destruction of the public welfare ; 3dly. 
 that this is an evil, which, from the constant desire of 
 every man to take care of his own interests, is con- 
 stantly regulating and curing itself; and 4thly, that 
 laws imposing restraints upon men's agreements and 
 liabilities are not only necessarily inefficient, and con- 
 sequently absurd, but they are also impolitic, as tending 
 to check the free enjoyment and use of property; to 
 cramp that enterprising spirit by which, whatever con- 
 sequences the exercise of it may produce to individuals, 
 the nation of which they are subjects, and the world at 
 large, are essentially served ; and are inconsistent with 
 the genius of a free, enlightened, and powerful commu- 
 nity. 
 
 There seems an almost universally prevailing disposi- 
 rion amongst mankind, to consider the alternative of 
 life as an alternative of positive good or positive evilj 
 whereas, in truth, the alternative is constantly between
 
 71 
 
 a greater and a lesser evil. Hence we may observe, that 
 constant aptitude to engage in schemes of political 
 good, too high for attainment, and of a texture too 
 delicate to endure the ^ough usage of business and 
 active life, and hence too the aptitude of some, when 
 sober regulations for alleviating the inconveniences of 
 life are proposed, if they happen, as must always be 
 the case, to leave some inconveniences, or to introduce 
 others in the room of those they remedy, to fix the 
 attention on the mischiefs that remain, and not on 
 the benefits that are introduced; so, in the present 
 case, because some mischiefs result from an imprudent 
 use of paper securities, those mischiefs alone are 
 regarded, and, perhaps, magnified, while the extensive 
 advantages which the free use of those securities has 
 produced, are disregarded or forgotten. 
 
 To the speculative, enterprising part of society it is 
 that commerce is indebted for all that gives it life and 
 strength ; but this class is to be found, with some excep- 
 tions, amongst the needy ; and who, if they cannot have 
 credit, cannot act. Talk to such men of the mischiefs 
 arising from the state of paper credit, and they will 
 laugh in your face, and with reason. Tell them, that they 
 must go to market with coin of the standard alone, and 
 they would tell you, that you were destroying the market. 
 To limit the credit or the chances of such men for 
 success, under the vain, and permit me to add, the 
 childish hope, of introducing stability into men's trans- 
 actions, is to limit the nature and utility of commerce, 
 which aie ns boundless as the stores of the earth from
 
 wLIch they spring; and-until the excess of these can be 
 foundjtheexcessof paper will surely remain undiscovered. 
 
 What should v/e think of a legislatoi-, who should 
 propose a law, by which it was enacted, that every man 
 should take care of himself ; that no man should, under 
 grievous penalties, be found running his hand into the fire, 
 or walking upon precipices. And yet it appears evident 
 that every law that should lay any restriction upon paper 
 Credit, (save so far as a restrictron might collaterally arise 
 by fair duties on the property affected to be disposed 
 of by the transaction) would be precisely this law. Pro- 
 vided no attempt be made to transgress existing laws 
 under thp covert of paper credit, it ought not to be 
 represised ; it is the only channel by which the wealth, 
 with which nature abounds, can be raised and dis- 
 tributed to mankind. 
 
 The error of the reasoning seems to lie in this doctrine 
 of intrinsic value and universal equivalence, in this 
 inveterate belief in the magic power of the precious 
 metals ; we should never hear of excess of paper, but 
 for its causing the exportation of the gold coin, p. 27- 
 But, could men be once convinced, tbat if gold be 
 •wanted, it will, like every other commodity, find its way 
 to the most powerful, the most industrious, and the 
 freest states, they would soon see the futility of the 
 assertion, that excess of paper caused the exportation of 
 gold. Is it admitted, that industry, ingenuity, and a free 
 government are the great supports of commerce; 
 then it may be asked, has an unlimited circulation of 
 paper securities ever been found, where these are not ?
 
 73 
 
 Has It not, on the contrary, been the handmaid and com- 
 panion- of the rising industry and spirit of this country 
 for the last century ; and is there any excess of tliese 
 feared ? Then by what rule can it be demonstrated, that 
 excess of paper, is to be feare'd ; or that gold, if wanted, 
 can be driven or kept from such a countiy, any easier 
 than it can be demonstrated, that it can be kept there if 
 it be not wanted ? 
 
 The truth is, and will become every day more apparent, 
 a new icra of commerce is (if I may use the expression) 
 struggling for its commencement; and it will be forced 
 into its birth by the irresistible propensities of its own 
 nature, combined with the all-powerful necessities of 
 jnankind. The precious metals, as they are called, 
 will, like all other commodity, be, or cease to be, precious, 
 by that sober, steady rule of common sense, which 
 estimates the value of every thing by its utility, and not 
 by the wild hypotheses of ancient ignorance, or unsub- 
 dued imagination. 
 
 Excess of paper, then, if my reasoning be not wholly 
 erroneous, is not reasonably to be feared; not that [ 
 have urged a twentieth part of the topics that attempt to 
 force themselves upon me in corroboration of that rea- 
 soning. But I must remember I am writing a pamph- 
 let and not a book, and that I set out with declaring, as 
 the truth is, that it was meant rather as a collection of 
 hint*, than as an elaborate treatise. I will proceed, there- 
 fore, to consider for a few minutes the remaining point 
 that springs •; ii of this topic of depreciation, — the price 
 of cojnmuil'u.
 
 74 
 
 By the term price we mean, I apprehend, nothing 
 more than the value of one thing which is given for 
 another ; but when it is considered, that the value of the 
 thing given, as well as that of the thing bought, depends 
 upon the necessity there is for it, upon its aptness to the 
 end for which it is ultimately destined ; and upon many 
 other circumstances of an extrinsic nature, all too of a 
 fluctuating and capricious character, it appears clear 
 that price can be reduced to no rule. If, there- 
 fore, the prices of some articles are usually more sta- 
 tionary than the price of others, this cannot arise from 
 any positive regulation of law, but must arise solely 
 from the nature of the thing; that is, the desires of man- 
 kind are, from habit, or other circumstances, more regular 
 for one species of commodity than for another. It is 
 evident, I admit, that tliis is practicallysubject to exceptions, 
 and that excessive prices may for a time be introduced ; 
 but as all aberrations from the general laws of existence 
 can be but transient, and as all excessive prices are 
 artificial prices, so artificial prices, as they are the result 
 either of unwise and inefficient laws, or of a forgetfulness 
 of the ultimate purpose of every purchase, namely, the 
 utility of the thing purchased, will always return, sooner 
 or later, to a due subjection, to that unerring rule, 
 which a proper recollection of that utility will alway$ 
 furnish. 
 
 Looking at the subject in this view, and reflecting on 
 what has before been said, I cannot but think that all price, 
 whether considered as natural or money price, must at 
 last resolve itself into natural price, and that natural 
 price is and must be arbitrary and capricious. And that
 
 75 
 
 all restraint (subject, perhaps, to particular exceptions, 
 arising from particular circumstances), upon price, and 
 all lamentations over its wanderings, are as pernicious and 
 as futile as laws would be to restrain the innocent 
 caprices, the natural wants, or the lawful desires of man- 
 kind. 
 
 Neither can there be, I apprehend, any other rule for 
 what is called the market-price, than what is furnished 
 by those wants and desires, that market-price being nothing 
 more thr.n the result of a rule, arising out of a sort of 
 tacit consent of the majority of buyers of a given article 
 in the general market, e. g. the Exchange in London or 
 Bristol ; or of a'neighbourhood round a particular market, 
 e. g. Newgate, Leadenhall, or Spitalfields markets ; the 
 ultimate market being the real market, and that ultimate 
 market being no other than the particular scene of each 
 particular bargain : — for although it cannot be denied that 
 the spirit of the general market, if I may so express 
 myself, presides over this ultimate and particular market, 
 that is, over every bargain ; yet the influence it exercises 
 is but an influence, sub modo, and the price agreed upon 
 will, in its exact amount of /. s. d. be at last the subject 
 of a particular compact, which, as it had its inception in 
 the free will of the parties, so must it be carried on and 
 concluded by the same influence, the terms of the bar- 
 gain only taking their character of dearness and cheap- 
 ness from a reference to other prices, which again had 
 their origin in extrinsic and accidental circumstances, 
 attending the bargains which were made at those other 
 prices.
 
 76 
 
 In casting about with great care for tlic principle upon 
 which bargains must necessarily be made, I am not able 
 to discover any other than the principle I have just ad- 
 verted to 5 whether only one bargain were made in the 
 world, or a thousand bargains, or a million ; whether the 
 bargain be in the chandler's shop for an ounce of tea, 
 or on the exchange for the cargoes of a West India fleet : ' 
 whether in this country, by buying and selling, or in 
 remote regions by simple barter : price is value given for 
 value, and the extent of that value must at last be judged 
 of by the individuals concerned In the bargain, and deter- 
 mined by their individual will. 
 
 This being the case, there cannot possibly be any such 
 a thing as a system of undue or excessive price. The' 
 whole world is composed of individuals, the majority of 
 whom are deeply interested to prevent the existence of 
 such a system, and who will and must, by force of the 
 secret and irresistible law of their nature, for ever and 
 successfully oppose it. 
 
 Dearness and cheapness, or high and low prices, appear, 
 therefore, in the 1st place, to be merely relative terms, 
 and to be also but convertible terms, with much money 
 or little money; and these again are but convertible 
 " erms, with industry and idleness, enterprize and supine- 
 ness, which themselves spring out of the will and incli- 
 nation of a people, excited and carried into effect in 
 precisely the same degree as is the degree of freedom and 
 facility with which they are enabled to act in the disposal 
 of their property, and ,the security that is afforded to
 
 11 
 
 ibera ill the enjoyment of it, by a mild and staljle 
 government. 
 
 Price must be the result either of positive regulation, 
 by the letter of a law, or of regulations arising out of 
 the tacit consent I have before spoken of ; the former 
 is forced, and is, therefore, unnatural, can never become 
 a system, and mischief must always be produced in the 
 attempt to make it one ;— the latter, whilst it supports 
 a degree of regularity in prices necessary for the pulilic 
 convenience, leaves them to the government and opera- 
 tion of their natural and best legislators— the wants and 
 inclinations of mankind. 
 
 Thus much for the theory— if the practical doctrine 
 of prices be examined, it will be found to correspond 
 with that theory tluoughout. If it be urged, as it may 
 safely be urged, that high prices are the unequivocal 
 sign of a high state of population, of enterprizc, of 
 wealth, of demand, it may as safely be stated, that whilst 
 the price of every article of necessity in this country i'i 
 double what it was thirty years ago, e. g. bread, leather. 
 &c. the demand or use is double. 
 
 I'hirty years ago, a man got a good tight pair of shoes 
 for six shillings, or six and six-pence; I believe I might go 
 below that sum : now, a pair of shoes, of the same quality 
 and workmanship, are not to be had under from twelve 
 to thirteen shillings ; and yet, what do we see ? men walk- 
 hjg about barefoot, and assigning as a reason for it the 
 high price of the article ? On the contrary, wonderful as It 
 may aj)pcar, there is scarcely a man in London, or in an>
 
 78 
 
 town of note in England, from the lowest order$ of the 
 middle rank upwards, that is not, every day of his life, 
 wearing at least two pair of shoes, and more, at once, at 
 thirteen shillings a pair, in the shape of a pair of half- 
 boots.— -Port wine is now five shillings a bottle, instead 
 of two shillings ; yet an immense class of the people, who 
 j^n the time of its cheapness never thought of wine, 
 or thought of it as an unattainable luxury, now drink it 
 every day.— The price of tallow and oil have increased in 
 nearly a similar proportion ; yet the use of those articles, in 
 candles and patent lamps, both in public shops and in 
 private houses, is, I will venture to say, more than doubled. 
 It would be a waste of time to extend the instances one 
 might easily produce from buildings, from dress, from 
 furniture ; in short, from every department of life: it is bet- 
 ter, perhaps, to put it as a general truth, that the use of 
 commodity enlarges in pretty nearly the same propor- 
 tion as the price of it rises. 
 
 It must indeed be admitted, that there is a numerous 
 class of sutFerers by the rise of prices in this country ; I 
 mean persons of fixed and settled incomes, such as 
 annuitants, small stock-holders, persons in the public 
 offices, &c. and no one would more heartily rejoice than 
 myself at any remedy being applied that their case, or the 
 welfare of the state, would admit; but then, of these persons 
 in general, it must, at the same time, be remembered, that 
 if they are not enabled to meet, without difficulty, the 
 exigency of the times, they are free from its labours and its 
 risks ; if they have but a morsel of bread, that morsel 
 of bread they can eat in peace ; it is not, therefore, I think, 
 quite correctly, that you say, p. 14, '^ the durable prosperity
 
 79 
 
 of the mercantile class cannot be built upon the distress of 
 the otlier classes; the cases are not parallel; the enjoymentfi 
 of the one class are procured by labour and risk ; the 
 enjoyments of the other arise spontaneously ;— it is assum- 
 ed of the one that it is prosperous, and of the other that it 
 is distressed." There is no foundation for such an assump- 
 tion ; they are both prosperous in their spheres ; the one 
 more ostentatiously, the other more quietly ; and I believe 
 there are many who would prefer the quiet enjoyments of 
 a moderate income to the uncertain magnificence, and 
 sounding profit of mercantile speculation and bustle ; it 
 being also recollected, that there is no law to prevent the 
 annuitant, if other circumstances do not restrain him, from 
 acquiring the prosperity, if he chuses to enter upon the 
 fatigues and uncertainties of commerce. When all the cir- 
 cumstances of their case, therefore, are taken into consi- 
 deration, I think it will appear that from that case no argu- 
 ment can arise, with effect, against the principle I have 
 just laid down. 
 
 But put this evil of high prices, if it be one, in its 
 utmost extent; two questions very naturally arise; first, from 
 whence it comes ; and, secondly, where the remedy is to be 
 found. That excessive prices are a mischief is admitted; but 
 that is because every thing excessive is mischievous : but 
 prices are not necessarily excessive because they are what 
 is called liigh ; the rate of price, as before observed, being 
 called high or low only in comparison with former or otlier 
 prices. In excessive prices only, then, is the evil to be 
 found ; and it must be admitted, that in particular dis- 
 tricts, and on particular occasions, paper may be found a 
 ready engine to create, for sinister purposes, an excess of
 
 80 
 
 price in certain articles ; but if the prices thus raised, 
 are really excessive, and not merely high, then arises the- 
 second question, where is the remedy ? All men seem 
 pretty well satisfied that the remedy is not to be sought 
 for in particular laws of restraint ; trade is abhorrent of 
 " restraint ; it shrinks and withers beneath it ; and laws, tha* 
 would fix prices, are peculiarly dangerous ; even of those 
 that appear the most beneficent, laws that go to restrain com- 
 binations and monopolies, it is clear, that even they ought 
 to be as few in their number, and as circumscribed in their 
 duration, as possible ; and, perhaps, in no case to extend 
 to articles beyond the first necessity; and even of such laws 
 as these, whose tendency is to enlarge and unfetter trade, 
 we may say, — 
 
 Quicquid id est, timeoDanaos ct donaferentes. 
 
 Does the remedy appear, then, in the restoration of the 
 coin of the precious metals ? That restoration can only be 
 ad eundem, as in 1797> previous to the restriction bill ; 
 namely, to its share only of utility as circulating medium ; 
 for paper, long antecedent to that period, had its share, 
 and an increasing share too, in that office ; and it would be 
 no difficult task to shew, that a mixture of this-dirculating- 
 medium of coin was no defence against occasional large 
 and oppressive monopolies and consequent excessive prices. 
 But supposing the circulation of the country to be wholly 
 performed by the precious metals, it may reasonably be 
 demanded, what is there in the nature of the instrument, 
 called n:joney, separated from its value as commodity, to 
 prevent excesL-ive prices, whether it be gold or paper, 
 {Seeing the end of the monopolizer is to attain for himself, 
 an undue proportion of that money, which, as I think, I
 
 81 
 
 have shewn, Is merely a passport to tlio ultimate pos- 
 session and enjoyment of commodity. 
 
 The truth is, the evil is inherent in the natuie of man, 
 and the inseparable attendant on commerce ; that it may 
 be restrained in some particular cases, and under some 
 particular circumstances, may be true ; tiiat no ultimate 
 remedy can be found is certainly true ; not, at least, until 
 we shall have found an ultimate remedy for' ambition, 
 avarice, and the other passions tliat infest and disturb 
 human life. When these break not out inta?7j«/a in se, 
 but vent themselves in merely instigating men to ask in 
 the market more for commodity than they ought to ask, or 
 to keep the article from the market till the public comply 
 with their exorbitant demands, the true policy in genera^ 
 seems to be, to suffer this monopolizer, and the puldic, to 
 use a vulgar phrase, to fight it out ; since there appears 
 very little doubt that the victory will remain with the 
 country. 
 
 From tl>e whole it appears ; first, that there is no ground 
 for anxiety on the score of prices; that such anxiety there- 
 fore is^' dball events, useless, and may, in many instances, 
 prove pernicious j useless, because the inevitable law 
 of life ordains them to be free, and because no j)articular 
 regulations can long controid that law ; and pernicious, 
 because in the struggle trade may in many cases be 
 cramped, individuals injured, and the revenue dinvinished 
 Secondly, that prices cannot have any proper relative value 
 in the sense in which 1 understand you to use that t( rm, 
 p. 145 ; and that, at last, the only standard for price is to
 
 82 
 
 be found in tlie circumstances attending every individual 
 bargain throughout the world. 
 
 Much more readily occurs on this and on the other . 
 topics I have discussed ; but it is consistent with the de- 
 sign of this performance, that I should here desist fron> 
 any furtlier investigation of the theory of my subject, and 
 proceed tOM^ards the conclusion, by some short considera- 
 tion of its practical influence and effects ; first, however, 
 shortly retracing the path I have trodden. 
 
 In looking back on what I have written on the nature 
 of money, and considering the conclusions to which my 
 doctrine of non-intrinsic value necessarily leads, it appears 
 that, although I distinctly differ from you, and all preced- 
 ing writers, in that doctrine, and, consequently, in some 
 material conclusions, yet that, as to others, it maybe said, 
 rather that I escape from some difficulties to which they 
 are exposed, than that we actually disagree in other con- 
 clusions ; for instance, when money is treated by you and 
 other writers as capital, there is a necessity for resorting to 
 a subdivision ; and Adam Smith and others call it circula- 
 ting capital ; but they are at last obliged to agree that it is 
 unpi'oductive capital. Of the incurable perplexity of these 
 terms, (and I select these out of many others merely for 
 example) the writers themselves seem to be aware, by 
 their total abstinence from all attempt to render them intel- 
 ligible. Why money is called circulating capital, as distin- 
 guished thereby from all other capital, it seems difficult 
 to understand, when it is considered that it is the very end 
 of all capital to produce profit, and that no profit 
 can be produced by capital, without its being used or circu-
 
 83 
 
 lated ; the very counter and shelves of a tradesman's shop, 
 apparently the most stationary part of his capital, being 
 in truth in a constant course of wear and use, and con- 
 sequently of circulation. But the difficulty increases 
 greatly indeed, when money is called unproductive capi- 
 tal ; since, if it be true that money is unproductive capi- 
 tal, there must be a prodigious error in striving to keep 
 and increase unproductive capital; and if it be false, 
 then it remains to be shewn, (for I do not recollect 
 that it any where appears) in what manner gold and 
 silver, confined to the use of a country in the shape of 
 coin, have ever been found to be productive cai)ital. 
 
 That I am right in my theory of money will, I think, 
 appear to every one, who will be at the pains to see how 
 irreconcilcable many of the positions of that great luminary 
 of political oeconomy are, with the idea of money having 
 intrinsic value, and to what awkward dilemmas the most 
 capacious minds are ever and anon reduced, by their not 
 even suspecting the utter unsoundness of this univer- 
 sally-received, and universally-perplexing doctrine. It 
 were vain to refer my readers for instances ; to those 
 who have studied such writers they must be familiar, 
 and to those who have not, the extracts would be nume- 
 rous and long, without, perhaps, being, after all, sufficient- 
 ly clear to illustrate the subject. I cannot forbear, how- 
 ever, referring to one passage from Locke, as it is cited 
 by Adam Smith, vol. 2. p. 140, as a remarkable proof 
 of the dominion of long-received notions over the most 
 vigorous understandings, and of the contrast between 
 the wisdom that is conspicuous in general principles, 
 and the weakness that appears on this particular subject
 
 81 
 
 of national wealth. The passage, in Adam Smith, is 
 as follows : Mr. Locke rcii;arks a distinction between 
 money and other moveable goods. " All other moveable 
 goods," he says, " are of so consumable a nature, that 
 the wealth, which consists in them, cannot be much 
 depended on, and a nation which abounds in them one 
 year, may, without any exportation, but merely by their 
 own waste and extravagance, be in great want of them 
 the next : money, on the contrary, is a steady friend, 
 which, though it may travel about from hand to hand, 
 yet, if it can be kept from going out of the country, is not 
 very liable to be wasted and consumed !" 
 
 I now proceed, shortly, to set forth the practical con- 
 sequences of my own doctrine ; viz. that money cannot 
 in its very nature possess intrinsic value. 
 
 The first consequence is, that after due regard to 
 popular prejudices on the subject, the only consideration 
 that a state need attend to, in the choice of its cir- 
 culating medium, or money, is convenience ; and that 
 no regard is to be paid to the value or qualities of 
 that portion of commodity which is destined to 
 sustain the character of circulating medium, except 
 with reference to that consideration ; and it is, therefore, 
 to be enquired, whether the precious metals or paper 
 be the more convenient for that purpose. 
 
 If I have satisfactorily shewn that money is not a 
 subject of intrinsic value, it does not seem necessary 
 to enter into any argument in support of the proposition, 
 that convenience is only to be attended to in the choice
 
 85 
 
 of a circulating medium, but it will be necessary to 
 look a little into the degrees of convenience that may 
 attend the converting ditl'erent commodities into money, 
 and to elucidate the principle that must direct the choice; 
 in doing this a repetition of some former observations is 
 una>oidable. 
 
 The wealth, or rather all the subjects that are capable 
 of being turned into the wealth of a nation, consist rn 
 every article that the soil of that country is able to 
 produce ; and this is wealth in the truest sense of tlie 
 word ; since it canaot, in any sense, be said to cost 
 the country any thing. Tlie labour, by which the soil is 
 made productive, and by which the produce is made 
 capable of enjoyment, is only a certain mode of employ- 
 ing time and powers, which we acquire by no purchase, 
 and which, by the inevitable law of our existence, we are 
 compelled in some way or other to employ. But as it has 
 been shewn, that these subjects arc not strictly entitled to 
 be called wealth, because they possess no value until they 
 are reduced to enjoyment, so may it be stated, tiiat the more 
 freely and variously these subjects are enjoyed, the greater 
 does their intrinsic value become, and the more extensively 
 is mankind benefited. 
 
 Now experieoce has taught us, that where a country 
 is highly civilized and numerously inhabited, the pro- 
 duce of the soil cannot be circulated, and, consequently, 
 not reduced into enjoyment amongst the inhabitants 
 with sufficient celerity and convenience, by the means 
 of barter, or the immediate exchange of one part of 
 that produce for another, in the very corpus of it ; yet
 
 86 
 
 to effect this exchange of one part of that produce for 
 another in the very corpus, and no other, is the end of 
 every bargain, and there is only one way of effecting 
 this, namely, by fixing upon some universal token, or 
 denomination of value, which may be applied to the 
 commodities that are the subject of the bargain ; and 
 this must be done by a selection of some particular com- 
 modity, out of the general mass of commodity, which is 
 to be invariably marked and preserved, with its marks of 
 denomuiative value, and received by the inhabitants 
 throughout the country, as a t(jken, that he who produces 
 it has parted with some commodity of an intrinsic value, 
 equal in amount to the denominative value of tliat token, 
 and, consequently, that he has a clear, unquestionable 
 right, by the law of the community, to call upon any 
 other person, offering commodity to sale, to take from 
 him, as he has before taken from others, that token of 
 denominative value in return for commodity to be deli- 
 vered to hun of an intrinsic value, equal in amount to 
 the denominative value of that token; and the com- 
 modity so selected and appropriated to this ofhce of 
 description, or representation of value, and by which 
 selection it is incapacitated for any other use, is what 
 is coimnonly called money ; and I put it unequivocally 
 as a proposition, tlu't it is of the essence of money to be 
 incapable of any other use or character than being a 
 describer. or representative of value. 
 
 To enable this commodity, so selected, steadily and 
 uniformly to perform its office, the universal consent, 
 as manifested by the law of the land, is absolutely 
 necessary ; but it is by that consent and authority, and
 
 87 
 
 not from tlie influence of any qualities inherent in itself, 
 that it derives the sanctity of its denominative value. 
 If that law be capricious and absurd ; if, under its influ- 
 ence, the tenure of the subject in his property, i. e. 
 commodity, of which that money denominates or repre- 
 sents the value, be uncertain, then, in the proportion of 
 that undue influence may the value of the money be 
 said to vaiy ; that is, more or less of this denominative 
 value will be required to describe the intrinsic value of the 
 commodity of the value of vdiich it is the representative, 
 but the nature of this variation sufficiently demonstrates, 
 that the change of value is not in se, but of a nature 
 wholly relative to, and dependent upon, and exactly cor- 
 respondent with, the variation of that subject, which 
 alone is capaljleof variation in value; namely, the com- 
 modity it represents. 
 
 If this be so, it next occurs to consider the principle 
 upon which a state must necessarily act, if it act wisely, 
 in the choice or selection of a part of the commodity 
 of a society, thus to pass from hand to hand, without 
 ever resting, throughout the society, as the representative 
 of the value of the rest of the commodity destined to 
 their use and enjoyment. 
 
 In the first place, the subject that is selected must be 
 palpable and substantial; small of bulk, light of carriage, 
 and either durable, or easily renewed. And one would 
 suppose that, when these qualities were ascertained, 
 which all come within the general principle of conve- 
 nience, that the expense of this vehicle would next 
 be the subject of consideration, and then that tJie com-
 
 88 
 
 modity riiost easily obtained, and, of course, the cheapest, 
 would be the cojnniodlty the state would fix upon for 
 the purpose of money. One would not have imagined 
 that the government of any ^i-ountry v.ould have been 
 sedulous to select a commodity, the rarest and most 
 expensive in the world ; that, instead of considering the 
 utility, merely, of the qualities of this commodity, 
 those of beaury and value should have been held, not 
 only as indispensable, but as of primary consideration ; 
 qualities which are at total variance with the end designed, 
 inasmuch as they naturally lead men to desire the pos- 
 session of that, as a subject of ultimate enjoyment, which 
 is of use only as it passes away quickly, and which may 
 be considered as a source of certain loss to every man, 
 while it remains in his possession. 
 
 This seems, when properly considered, an error so fatal 
 in political oeconomy, that one would have concluded that 
 the precious metals, which come within the above descrip- 
 tion, would never have been selected as a circulating 
 medium, but in ages destitute of all true political know- 
 ledge : and this, in fact, appears to be the case. Gold 
 and silver, wherever they could be found, M'ere eagerly 
 seized by all the early nations, for the purpose of money, 
 with a total disregard, M'orthy of those days of commer- 
 cial ii;norance, of the vital and eternal distinction 
 between real or intrinsic value, and representative, or 
 denominative value, between the office of representation, 
 and the subject represented ; and the consequence was 
 such as migiit be expected— a fatal notion that the wealth 
 of a country consisted in its circulating medium ; not, 
 indeed, because it was the circulating medinmj but
 
 89 
 
 because that circulating mcr^ium consisted of tliose beau- 
 tiful metals, a consequent reliance upon that circulating 
 medium, rather than upon the laws and government, and 
 soil, of the country ; and ihence a natural ana invinciljle 
 desire, in every individual, to acquire and keep the posses- 
 sion of it, clearly at his own expense, as well as at the 
 expense of the public. 
 
 The consequence of the propagation of this error 
 is, that commerce has hitherto been lirtle un.'crstood, 
 that there has been an unmeaning and unintelligible 
 anxiety in all countries, to acquire and keep witliin 
 themselves as much of the precious metals as artifice 
 and rapidity could procure, regardless of the lessens 
 held out by the very nations, which, at one tinx , had 
 aliftost the exclusive possession of this ijr.oginary wealth, 
 of the insuflicien'cy and futility of the possession of it. 
 How it has liappencd that this error has so long preserved 
 its dominion, and that it reigns triumphant even now, 
 when experience has enabled the philosopher, the his- 
 torian, and the intelligent man of business, to take a 
 long retrospect of national poverty, unwholesome laws, 
 unavailing anxiety, pernicious restraints on trade, and 
 inextricable perplexity, all springing from this mistaken 
 doctrine ?— how it has happened, I say, that this eiror 
 is even yet supported, can only be accoimted for by the 
 force of habit, which preserves its dominion over nations, 
 as forcibly as over individuals,— by the reluctance of 
 men to take the pains to discriminate, — and by the influ- 
 ence of tlie rarity and beauty of the commodity they have 
 selected for money.
 
 90 
 
 In justification of tills choice, writer after writer has 
 reiterated the praises of the precious metals, their 
 homogeneousness, divisibility, durability, &c. These 
 praises we have heard so often repeated, that there is 
 scarce a school-boy to be met withwlio has not heard the 
 tale J and the tale, which does not often fall to the lot of 
 popular tales, is true. The qualities, thus, ascribed to the 
 precious metals they certainly possess ; but then, it seems 
 not to be reinembered, that these qualities are valuable 
 only as the precious metals are the subjects of purchase, 
 and of ultimate use and enjoyment ; that is, as they are 
 considered and treated as commodity; and that these 
 qualities . either have nothing to do with the precious 
 metals in their character of money, or, if they have, 
 will be found to be useless so soon as it can be shewn, that 
 corresponding qualities exist in a commodity of infinitely 
 less value, as commodity, and better fitted, in all other 
 respects, to sustain the character of money or circulating 
 medium. 
 
 This commodity is paper ; an instrument of commerce, 
 which, to any extent of utility at least, seems to have 
 been utterly unknown amongst the ancients ; and of the 
 convenience of which, for sustaining the character and 
 office of money, I now proceed to consider. 
 
 Paper, so far as it is a commodity fit for the office of 
 money, is substantial, small of bulk, and light of 
 carriage ; and it is evident that its want of durability is 
 effectually supplied by the facility of its renewal ; that it 
 has neither rarity, beauty, nor intrinsic value to recommend 
 it, is admitted 3 but, if I am not wrong throughout, it is
 
 91 
 
 to the want of these qualities it owes its excellence : 
 this, perhaps, will a|)pear clearly, on tlie compa- 
 rison between pa[H'r and gold, illustrated by an 
 ijistance or two. (iold is heavy and solid ; paper, thin 
 and light ; gold, in iVesh coin, is shining, and strikes 
 the eye ; papei is dull, and attracts no notice. Suppose 
 then a country were obliged, by some law, to cloose 
 inevitably between gold ar.d paper for its circulating 
 medium, would there, in tlie mind of a provident n»an of 
 business, be the least hesitation which to tix upuu ? 
 Would he not recollect, that every day would bring- its 
 necessity of carrying about, or transmitting to uistant 
 parts of tlie country, conslderabie quantities of this c.-iu ; 
 and that, consequently, its ^'eight would be personalty in- 
 convenient ; the numi)ers of pie*.es that woidd be requisite, 
 would consume time, almost without limit, in counting; and, 
 from the necessity of keeping it up to the standard, in weigh- 
 ing, also ; that from carelessness t)r accidents in package, 
 its glittering appearance and real value as a commodity 
 would prove a constant temptation to robbers ? Now, 
 what part of these inconveniences, and many more of a 
 similar nature needless to mention, can arise from tlie use 
 of paper ? If a trader had to send 5001. or lOOOi. and the 
 laws above referred to operated, he must send so many 
 pieces of the precious metals ; the bulk, weight, and num- 
 ber of which must necessarily produce every species of 
 anxiety and inconvenience ; whereas, a slight piece of 
 paper, bearing the stamp and authority of the govern- 
 ment, exciting no attention by its bulk, affording no 
 temptation by its appearance, and consuming no time in 
 coui^tuig, weighing, &c. would safely convey a certain puss-
 
 92 
 
 port to the possessions of commodity to the greatest 
 amount, and to parts the most remote. 
 
 Take, further, the common instance of a banker's 
 collecting clerk ; liow utterly impossible It would be for 
 such a person to go a round of a fourth, or sixth part of 
 this vast metropolis, with one, two, three, perhaps, four, 
 thousand guineas in his pocket, will appear upon the very 
 mention of such a circumstance ; and the facility of car- 
 rying the same, or ten times that sum, in paper, is 
 equally apparent. To multiply instances, or to dilate on 
 those adduced, is equally unnecessary : it seems manifest 
 that, as far as mere convenience is concerned, nothing 
 could be more inconvenient, nay impossible, to be 
 used than a ciiculating medium composed wholly of the 
 precious metals ; while, on the contrary, nothing could 
 be found more convenient than a circulating medium 
 composed of paper. 
 
 For it must be remembered, that the proposition, 
 in order to be maintainable, must be universally and neces- 
 sarily true ; that is, it must be universally and necessarily 
 true, that the precious metals are the only known subject 
 fit for money ; inasmuch as that which is the fittest 
 Subject, is the only subject that ought to be used for that 
 purpose. Now, without entering further into any discus- 
 sion of this in the abstract, it will be necessary only to 
 observe ; 1st, that any exception to a proposition prevents 
 it from being universally true ; 2nd, that many excep- 
 tions to the proposition, just adverted to, are to be found 
 in the history of circulation. I need, however, insist 
 only upon that which the last fourteen years' experience
 
 93 
 
 of our own country has afforded; for It will not, I suppose, 
 be denied that, during that long period the internal 
 trade of this country has been uniformly higher, that 
 there have been more private speculations, and public 
 works carried on and completed, that a greater number 
 of persons have been consequently employed, and tiiat 
 the circulation of currency has been therefore greater, 
 than during tlie same number of years in any other period 
 of our history, even when gold coin was in most abun- 
 dant circulation ; nor will it be denied, for indeed hinc 
 ilia luchrimcef that the gold coin, at least, has almost 
 wholly disappeared; and yet I believe it may be asserted, 
 that no man has complained of inconvenience ; indeed, 
 the facts above stated are necessarily at variance with 
 any very extensive ground of such complaint. It appears, 
 therefore, manifest, that the precious metals are not 
 indispensably necessary, as the fittest known subject 
 for money, and that paper, so far as the question of con- 
 venience is concerned, is equally applicable to that 
 purj>ose. 
 
 From tliis it follows, that the quality of equivalence 
 or intrinsic value in the circulating medium, or money 
 of a country, is not a necessary ingredient ; and if that 
 be not a necessary ingredient, it further follows, tliat the 
 cheaper the commodity is, which is destined to fulfil the 
 office and duty of money, the better it will be for the 
 country, that commodity possessing all the requisites of 
 convenience. 
 
 When, therefore, it is considered, and I caanot lielp 
 again pressing this on the attention of the reader, that
 
 9i 
 
 it is entirely owing to tliis notion of the necessity of con- 
 stituting money of a commodity so rare as the precious 
 metals, in the first place ; and in the second place, to the 
 exaggerated and unfounded powers ascribed to those 
 metals, that so many laws have been made, which, even 
 the greatest admirers of money of the precious metals 
 confess to be vain. When, too, it is considered, that to 
 this notion alone is owing an abstruseness about the 
 doctrine of money, which arises upon no other subject of 
 commerce; when, above all, it is considered, that to this 
 notion alone have been owing those absurd and disgrace- 
 ful attempts, on the part of almost every government, to 
 add to the denominative value of the good money, or to 
 assign a value, which is said to belong only to good, to 
 spurious and adulterated coin : I say, when these things 
 are considered, and when it is further considered, that 
 paper, as a commodity, is, in comparison with the pre- 
 cious metals, utterly vaiueless, and that it cannot 
 therefore excite any desife to divert it from its office of 
 money; surely upon the subject of convenience there 
 can be little reason to doubt of the superiority of paper 
 over gold. 
 
 But it will be said, the convenience of paper cur- 
 rency, or circulating ci<edit, has never been denied, nor 
 is it sought to do it away ; all that is required is, that it 
 have a foundation, and that inasmuch as that paper repre- 
 sents so much money, i. e. so much of the precious 
 metals in the shape of coin, so the foundation of that 
 paper currency is, and can be, no other thing than that 
 coin ; but here we meet again with the old difficulty, only, 
 I think, in a more palpable shape than ever; — it is con-
 
 95 
 
 tended, that the qualities of durability, divisibility, &c, 
 ascribed to the precious metals, are qualities that pecu- 
 liarly tit them for being the circulating medium, or 
 money of a country; and It is in this light we arc now 
 considering it. How odd then must it sound, that paper, 
 i. e. circulating credit, should have for its foundation, 
 money, i. e. circulating medium, it never having been 
 established in argument, that by circulating medium 
 any other subject is meant but a subject of represen- 
 tative value ; although I again admit, it is a commonly 
 received opinion, and distinctly stated by you, p. 3, 
 that money alone is the universal equivalent, and that 
 paper currency is the representative of that money ; but 
 without any reasoning in your book, or in any other 
 that I have met with, in the least capable of sustaining 
 such a proposition. 
 
 In this light, too, I imagine, the subject is considered, 
 when we meet with the statements with which the writ- 
 ings on this subject are interspersed, of the imprudence 
 of governments, which have issued paper money, without 
 what is called funds to make good the amount of that 
 paper money ; and when instances are adduced of the 
 ruinous effects of what is asserted to be so short-sighted 
 and precarious a system, and of the confusion that has 
 been produced in poor and despotic states by tyrannical, 
 but unavailing endeavours, to compel their subjects to 
 accept such paper money. 
 
 But when the subject is thus considered, it seems to 
 be taken for granted, that there cannot practically be 
 any paper money, but what necessarily contains an express
 
 96 
 
 or implied contract to provide the amount of its deno- 
 minative value in the precious metals, that these alone 
 are the funds to Mhich the holder of paper money is 
 to look. With a pervcrseness of vision, for which there 
 is no accounting, nothing is great, or capacious, or beau- 
 tiful, but the precious metals ; and in estimating their 
 value and their power, and the value and power of paper 
 money, all distinctions between despotic states and free, 
 poor states and rich, ignorant states and enlightened, 
 are overlooked or forgotten : because the unformed and 
 untutored community of America, the besotted and 
 tottering governments of Austria and Russia, the mili- 
 tary, restless, and uncommercial power of France, could 
 give no effect to paper money ; countries in which neither 
 the rights of property, nor the true interests of trade, 
 are understood : because, in such countries, paper 
 money has been attended with mischief and danger, 
 it is at once concluded, that in England the same 
 mischiefs and the same dangers must ensue j as if 
 there were no difference in the very nature of the paper 
 money, that owes its existence and its power to the 
 laws of a free and powerful nation, and of the paper money 
 of a country, unversed in the generous and enlightening 
 lore of political freedom, devoid of the genuine means 
 of wealth, and inhalMted only by tyrants and slaves. 
 
 In perusing your work, I own I felt surprized to 
 find that even your mind seems not to be free from this 
 unworthy restraint, and that you have suffered yourself 
 to look at the spirit of enterprize, that has animated 
 the people of this country, as productive of mercantile 
 delusion, wild adventures, and abuse of credit. P. 134,
 
 note, and p.p. 130, 137, and that to the excess of the hank 
 issues ; in other words, to paper credit these evils are 
 to be attributed. That tin's spirit of enterprise has been, 
 in some instan es, niir-guidcd, and tluit much individual 
 calamity has attended many of the speculations to which 
 you' allude, is admitted; but, tl)at the calamity is individual, 
 must, 1 appreliend, be also admitted ; that it owes its birth, 
 perhaps, in every instance, to individual imbecility, in one 
 shape or other, may be asserted ; and it may be asserted, 
 too, that such calamities necessarily produce nelt'-.cr national 
 poverty nor national distrust; witness the renewed eagerness 
 with which every fresh opening for trade, however unpro- 
 mising or precarious, is seized by the British mer- 
 chants ; witness, in these times of almost universal war 
 and confiscation, the splendor of our mercantile esta- 
 blishments, public and private, the vastness of the capi- 
 tals daily engaged, and the extent and boldness of our 
 adventures. 
 
 And besides, if it were not so, that mode of argument, 
 which has its foundation in recent comparisons, is not 
 to be admitted on such a subject as this ; that trade is dull, 
 that there is a great falling off in exports, or imports, &c., 
 as compared with a mouth or two, or a year or two since, 
 is a view of the case so narrow, and the deductions fiom 
 it so erroneous, tliat I should not have noticed it, but 
 because the multitude is very apt to be nn'sled by it, and 
 others of more enlarged views, for certain purposes, to 
 give into it. 
 
 Further, admitting it to be true, that the bankrupt- 
 cies and failures which, it must be confessed, have
 
 98 
 
 of late been very numerous, are evils that result frorri 
 an abuse of credit. Does it follow, that the remedy is to 
 be found in measures tliat go to restrain the use of 
 credit ? As well might it be said, because people, by 
 an indiscreet use of the sun and air, catch colds and 
 fevers, that the remedy would be found in restrictions 
 to be put upon the rays of the sun, or the motion of the 
 atmosphere, or that acts of parliament should be made 
 to reform the misuse of those elements ; for what they 
 are to the natural life of man, credit is to his commer- 
 cial existence. As in the case of natural disease, so it is 
 in the case of commercial disorder ; each case must 
 be considered upon its own circumstances ; the sufferings 
 of imprudent individuals are to be lamented ; and the 
 rather, because even prudent and wary persons are some- 
 times vmavoidably compelled to be sharers in those suffer- 
 ings. But, I apprehend it is in the experience, arising 
 from those sufferings, that the remedy is to be found, 
 and not in 15 or 20 millions of currency of the pi-ecious 
 metals. 
 
 For what, after all, is the disease that is so lamented, and 
 tlie state of recovery from it that is so ardently sought? The 
 disease is described to be mercantile delusion, originating 
 in paper credit, occasioning wild adventures, and an 
 abuse of credit ; the state of recovery is a spirit of a 
 more prudent and circumspect trading. Now, it is clear, 
 if what has been before advanced be correct, that a 
 trading nation, labouring under a mercantile delusion, &c. 
 is nothing more than a great number of individuals, 
 labouring under a mercantile dvlission, each of them, 
 be their number ever so great, having interests.
 
 99 
 
 more or less distinct, and separate from the interests of all 
 other men J pursuing, separately, those interests, and feel- 
 ing, separately, the consequences of their own folly, in 
 the deterioration of those interests. This being the case, 
 and I do not see how it can be otherwise correctly repre- 
 sented, does it not appear somewhat singular, that, 
 instead of looking for the source of better conduct in 
 the instinctive sense which all men have for their own 
 prosperity, in the ever-active and powerful desire, that 
 all men have for the acquisition of riches, we should be 
 taught to seek for it in laws and statutes, and money of 
 the precious metals ? 
 
 If does not appear to have occurred to you, nor to any 
 Other writer, so far as I have seen, to notice the distinc- 
 tion between the nature of bankruptcies, in a country like 
 England, and of bankruptcies, in poor and despotic 
 states ; but 1 think a distinction does arise l)etween these, 
 and that it is worthy <>f being attended to. The situa- 
 tion in which a man must be before he can be a bank- 
 rupt, in the sense in which we are now using tliat word, 
 namely, the situation of a trader, is a situation in which, 
 to be sure, all men who are in it, in any country, are 
 placed by the same motive, the desire v'i support and 
 profit; but the bankruptcy of a trader, under a poor and 
 despotic state, will frccpiently, and, indeed, for the most 
 part, be found to result from undue exactiojis, restraint of 
 credit, and other causes of a similar nature, all owing 
 their existence to pubHc ignorance, and to the ungenial 
 n:itureof the government and tlie laws. Tlie bankruptcy 
 of ihe trader, imdi r a free, rich, and pov.erful govern-
 
 100 
 
 ment, (and I stop a moment to ask, where upon earth 
 with one exception, perhaps, is this government to be 
 found, but in England ?) on the contrary, is frequently, 
 nay I believe I may say always, to be found in a bold, 
 active, and entei-prisine; spirit; mismanaged, indeed, and 
 perhaps, tempted too far by the numerous opportunities 
 chat in such a country present themselves for acquiring 
 wealth, but unduly restrained by no political measures 
 of the government. 
 
 And it appears important to make this distinction for 
 two purposes ; first, because it will shew the futility of 
 applying remedies of the same nature to diseases appa- 
 rently the same, but essentially different, as originating 
 in causes essentially different : the remedy may well be 
 in the former case, by some public interposition, inas- 
 much as the source of the evil is of a public nature; in 
 the latter case, the remedy, as I have shewn, must*be 
 found in individual suffering and experience, as the dis- 
 ease has originated in individual weakness and miscon- 
 duct. Secondly, because, in this distinction, we shall 
 discern the absurdity of auguring, from the wild specu- 
 lations, bankruptices and failures of individuals, who 
 are the subjects of a free commercial government, the 
 instability or downfal of the national credit, and shall 
 find freedom from a delusion far worse than mercantile ; 
 I mean the delusion In which they would lead us, who, 
 not from conviction, but for unworthy purposes, would 
 persuade us, that every list of bankrupts in the gazette, 
 and every failure on the stock-exchange, is the evidence
 
 101 
 
 of national poverty, and the harbinger of public 
 
 It may, however, be objected, that the bankruptcies, 
 in the former descriptions of states, are compara- 
 tively few, and that in the latter they are numerous ; and 
 that inasmuch as bankruptcies nc\er fail to spread dis- 
 tress around them, it is better to have a small, restrained 
 and safe trade, than a magnilicent and extensive, but, at 
 the same time, an uncertain and a perilous commerce. 
 Be it so ; in the closet this may be unanswerable, — but 
 men of the world will look for, and find an answer in the 
 vast and voluntary, and not forced (p. 135) speculations of 
 the merchant, and in the unceasing emulation of expense 
 and variety, in the shop and stock of the tradesman. 
 
 But you will say, I have not fairly, or at least not com- 
 pletely, described this disease, You describe it, p. 1-49, by 
 inference, at least, as having a connection, also, with 
 foreign nations; and I admit that it is of the greatest im- 
 portance, that foreigners should consider us to be a na- 
 tion of strict integrity, and possessing the eliaracter of 
 being rigidly adherent to good faith, in all our engage- 
 ments. P. 150. It is of equal importance, too, that 
 foreigners should consider us as having the power, as 
 well as the inclination, to sustain tliis character ; that is, 
 as having ample resourc(;s; for it may be with nations, as it 
 sometimes is with individuals, to be so poor as to be obliged 
 at times to appear dishonest, when they are not really 
 inclined to be so. All this I admit; — but then I say, 
 that foreigners have not now to learn the lesson, that 
 our resources do not lie in our currency. They have been
 
 102 
 
 shewn some usel'ul examples of our wealth, and some 
 tenibie examples of our power, long since the day of the 
 asserted depreciation of our currency : they have seen, 
 and they at this day see, with fear and envy, that the en- 
 terprize of our merchants, the activity of our tra- 
 ders, and the ingenuity of our workmen, are in a state 
 of excellence far too high to permit the resources of 
 tins country to be doubted, or to encourage the vain and 
 ignorant -hope, that they hang upon a currency of 15 or 
 20 millions of guineas. 
 
 How, indeed, can any foreigner of intelligence, who 
 has examined the internal state of this country, who has 
 contemplated its vast external dominion, who has beheld 
 the complete prostration of all the other maritime powers 
 of Europe at its feet, suppose, for a moment, that such 
 a nation can depend for its resources upon its gold and 
 silver circulation. Will it not rather be apparent to him, 
 that, except for the necessary convenience of managing 
 its concerns, the circulating medium, be it composed of 
 what materials It may, is no part whatever of its re- 
 sources 5 and that it has, in fact, nothing to do with them ? 
 that these resources are to be found in a rich and ex- 
 haustless soil, in an active and a skilful management 
 of the productions of that soil, in a free, and, conse- 
 quently, rapid circulation of those productions, in a nu- 
 merous, intelligent, and independent pojiulation, at once 
 protecting, and protected by a govern-nent, happily 
 formed to give effect to these resources? will he feel, in the 
 midstof such contemplations as these, room for theungene-
 
 103 
 
 rolls supposition, that such a nation will be waatlug iti 
 that good faith to itself which It has never ceased to shew 
 towards other countries ? will he not rather conclude, that 
 when such a nation makes a great and important change 
 in its money system, it is a change which that nation is 
 powerful enough to introduce, and to sustain, and which 
 other nations ought to regard for no other purpose but 
 to imitate ? 
 
 Tire change in our money system, however, and to 
 which you allude, p. 149, remains yet to be made ; it is 
 by that change alone, by which the extent of the riches 
 .of the earth can be discovered, commerce and its inte- 
 rests well understood, and piofitably pursued, and which it 
 is fit that this country, excellent as it is in true political 
 power and learning, should, by first exliibiting the noble 
 effects of it in herself, teach the surrounding nations to 
 adopt. 
 
 That change is the adoption of a paper currency, in 
 the stead of a gold currency, and consequently having 
 no reference to any other thing, (as a currency ought not) 
 ihan to the commodity, the value of which it represents ; 
 but as it is no part of political wisdom to introduce 
 changes, even of the most excellent nature, which 
 may appear to be Innovations on the public opinion ab- 
 ruptWj so it is obvious that a change, like this, ought, if 
 adopted, to he introduced so gradually as to prevent all 
 surpri/e, or appearance of haste, and to be accom- 
 panied bv such other measures of an explanatory 
 jiatuiv, M-. will tend to soften down iinj)roper, but Ii)'
 
 104 
 
 nocent prejudices, while they vender unavailing the 
 artfu! insinuations of more determined and less disin- 
 terested opponents. 
 
 Somewhat of this nature is tlie measure of the re- 
 striction bill, which may be asserted to have produced, 
 but which not even by you has been proved to have pro- 
 duced, any disastrous effects ; but as that has been ad- 
 mitted to be a temporary measure, as it created no paper 
 money, in the proper sense of that term, as it must be 
 taken as a measure meant to end in cash payments, and as 
 it may be insisted, not without apparent, though, I think, 
 without much real ground, that bank notes are the more 
 readily taken, inasmuch as it is believed they will one 
 ^lay command their corresponding denominative amount 
 in cash ; so ought the country, at whatever expense, as 
 soon as the nature of the thing will admit, to pay off 
 these notes in cash, either wholly, or to such an extent 
 as will completely satisfy the popular prejudice. Suppos- 
 ing, then, for a moment, this to be effected, it remains to 
 mention very generally a plan, by which the alterations 
 in the national currency should be carried into effect. 
 Upon the payment in specie above recommended, it 
 is proposed, that a bill should be brought into par- 
 liament for the purposes of vesting, in the crown, a power 
 to issue in payment a paper money, designated as the 
 paper of the state. This power, of course, to be as large, 
 and, at the same time, clothed with the responsibilities 
 that naturally attach themselves, by the very force of the 
 British constitution, to all powers that tend to enlarge 
 the prerogative and influence of the crown, and which.
 
 105 
 
 of course, would be specified in the bill, plainly and at 
 large. 
 
 The bill sliov-ld then enact, that such further coinage 
 of gold and silver, beyond that already supposed to be 
 in circulation, for the purpose of the payments in cash, 
 as might be necessary, should be issued, and that all pro- 
 per enactments shouM be inserted, as to the weight, &c. 
 of the coin from the mint. 
 
 • It should then declare a repeal of all laws restrictive 
 of buying and selling, exporting and importing, and 
 dealing in precious metals, whether in coin or otherwise j 
 retaining and new modelling, if necessary, those laws 
 that contain provisions against adulterating, or defiicing 
 the coin. 
 
 It should then declare, that a tender, in payment of the 
 paper so to be issued by the state, should be indifferently, 
 and, to all intents and purposes, a legal tender with 
 the gold and silver coin ; and that, in all respects, it 
 should be considered as the money of the realm ; — and 
 the forging, uttering, and wantonly, defacing it, would, of 
 course, be competently and particularly provided against. 
 
 Proper provisions should also be introduced for the 
 interests of the Bank, to whose wisdom and liberality, in 
 mercantile transactions, the country appears to be deeply 
 indebted, and which would entitle them to the highest 
 consideration in any new arrangement of the money sys" 
 tern. 
 
 It would seem expedient also to declare, that it was
 
 106 
 
 mc rely to satisfy the scruples of well-meaning, but unin- 
 formed, persons, that such coinage of gold (silver 
 for change being, perhaps, more convenient than paper, 
 and of which, therefore, if it were so found, there should 
 be a proper supply, but with liberty to sell and deal in 
 the same,) was enacted, and not from any sense felt by the 
 country of its necessity on any other account, and that 
 tlie money of the country forms no part of the resources 
 of the country ; that convenience alone is the motive that 
 should govern a country in the choice of any subject for 
 its money ; and that paper, as a medium of circulation, 
 in all civilized parts of the world, appeared, all other cir- 
 cumstances duly considered, to be the most fit subject for 
 that purpose. 
 
 Due care would also be taken, by such a bill, of the 
 just prerogatives of the crown, so that they might be in 
 no danger to be infringed by such a measure. 
 
 This is a sketch of the plan, by which a remedy would 
 in time, I think, be afforded for all the evils complained 
 of, and justly complained of, in your book ; for although 
 I think, perhaps, differently from you, as to the state 
 of the public mind on this subject ; yet I admit that the 
 present state of things, as to the currency, is quite incon- 
 sistent with the dignity and resources of this country, 
 wliich are best beheld, and most powerfully felt, in the 
 certainty and stability of its public transactions. 
 
 It can hardly be expected that I should fatigue myself, 
 and my readers, with an attempt to give a detail of par-»
 
 10/ 
 
 ticular arrangements of this plan ; it is scarcely within 
 my sphere, perhaps not within my power, and certainly 
 not within my inclination, to make such an attempt- 
 1'lie above plan has been proposed, only because it 
 might be expected, that some plan should be proposed ; 
 if I have been successful in establishing the proposition, 
 which is the foundation of this tract, it will be self-evi- 
 dent that some such plan ought to be, and«iHst be, adopt- 
 ed, if a system of regularity in the public transactions be 
 meant to be preserved, consistent with the dignity of the 
 government, and with the qiiiet and safety of the country ; 
 but the bearings, and particular provisions will be better 
 considered, when the necessity of such a plan shall appear 
 to have excited sufhcient attention. 
 
 The same observation may be applied to any conside- 
 ration of the objections that may be urged against the 
 principle of such a proceeding ; and it will not, therefore, 
 be necessary, at this time, to anticipate such objections ; 
 particularly as there is nothing to be met with, in the 
 various writings on this subject, which gives the author 
 any clue to perceive the nature of such objections ; inas- 
 much as the observations that have been, from time to 
 time, delivered on the subject of paper money, issued by 
 the state, arise out of premises which bear no relation or 
 resemblance to the state of things in this country ; and 
 upon him who asserts there is any such relation or 
 resemblance, the omis will lie. 
 
 There is one objecti(.n, I'.owever, which does not appear 
 to come directly within the scope of the observation just
 
 108 
 
 now made ; and that is, the impracticability of the plan, 
 considered first, with regard to the internal trade of 
 the country ; and, secondly, with regard to its foreign 
 commerce. 
 
 The practicability of every plan depends upon two 
 things i first, its actual capability of application to the sub- 
 ject it is intended to regulate ; and, secondly, the opinion 
 of mankind ; for it cannot be overlooked, or forgotten, 
 that some of the most useful discoveries in human life 
 have been, in many cases, delayed, and in many more, 
 finally lost, by the want of influence and name in the pro- 
 jectors, and by the force of prejudice in the great body of 
 mankind- That the plan of a paper money, avowedly 
 meant to supplant the use of golden money, when pro- 
 posed by a person of no name, or influence, however for- 
 tified by the reason of the thing, should make little impres- 
 sion on one of the most ancient and most powerful pre- 
 judices that ever fastened upon the minds of men, is so 
 natural, that I am ready to admit, if, (for whatever 
 reason) the view of the subject taken in this work should 
 not awaken further enquiry and consideration, from those 
 who possess the ear and attention of the country, that, 
 in that sense, the plan may be pronounced at once to be 
 impracticable ; but as that is not the sense which candour 
 and fair enquiry will allow, so I have little hesitation to 
 assert, that, if the principle 1 have attempted to establish 
 were publicly and fairly discussed, that public acquies- 
 cence in its practicability would follow ; and should the 
 public be led to the practice of it, by the joint concurring
 
 109 
 
 influence of conviction, that money is merely a represen- 
 tative of the resources of a country, and of liabit, gra- 
 dually acquired, they would presently feel the total 
 uselessncss of the precious metals in money, (e::ccpt, 
 perhaps, as I have before observed, of silver, for change) 
 and tlie coinage of gold, which Ihave above recommend- 
 ed as contemporaneous with the issue of paper, would 
 soon disappear, and disapjiear, too, without the wish of 
 renewal or return. 
 
 I have before observed, that it appears to be a great mark 
 of political improvidence and weakness in a government, to 
 introduce important changes in a manner so abrupt, as to 
 give a shock to prejudices of long and general standing 
 amongst the people. The present may be considered to 
 be, in some degree, a case of that nature, and though a 
 sagacious government will mark the distinction between 
 partial clamour, however noisy, and general sentiment, 
 yet, in a case like this, it will pave the way, by giving all 
 the encouragement in its power, to grave, profound, and 
 temperate, discussion ; and if, upon that discussion, the 
 measure be found for the public benefit, they will not, 
 (while they endeavour to soothe and allay honest preju- 
 dices) be deterred by interested opposition from giving 
 to it the effect it deserves. 
 
 In this view, the bank restriction bill, as shortly before 
 alluded to, may be considered as a fortunate circumstance : 
 It has, in edect, substituted paper money for gold, and that 
 substitution has now, after fourteen years experience, 
 been found to produce no inconvenience of magnitude
 
 110 
 
 sufficient to deseiTC notice, or to counterbalance, in any 
 material degree, the vast facilities it has afforded to the 
 extension of the trade, the establishment of the power, and 
 the developement of the resources of the country. On 
 this very important point of practicability, therefore, it 
 maybe observed, that the prejudices of mankind have 
 already given way considerably ; and, therefore, with the 
 precautions shortly before adverted to, any rude or im- 
 politic shock need not, I should think, be apprehended. 
 
 Of the mischiefs, too, that are asserted to have arisen, 
 or that it is predicted will arise, from this change in the 
 money system, it ought to be remembered, that they who 
 are the best informed on 'the subject, are not agreed, 
 either as to their existence, or their extent ; and I think it 
 may for the present, at least, be safely assumed, that those 
 mischiefs^ if they had seriously existed, must liave been, 
 as I have heretofore observed, too palpable and too afflic- 
 tive in their operation, to have left any doubt in the coun- 
 try, either of the one or of the other. 
 
 It may be further objected, (and this also seems to be 
 an objection not coming within the observation sliortly 
 above alluded to,; that all issues of coin of the precious 
 metals, under the circumstances in which I have pro* 
 posed them to be made, will be nugatory ; because, if no 
 restriction be placed upon the use of them, as commodity, 
 and if paper money be n)ade the legal tender of the 
 country, the gold, and perhaps, the silver, will presently 
 disappear; and I have before, in substance, admitted this 
 objection j but then, I say, it either has no weight, or,
 
 Ill 
 
 [f It 1ms weight, hgoes necessarily into the scale oH my 
 argument; and this gives room, very naturally, for a short 
 inquiry into the reason why, although much complaint 
 has been made of the inefficacy of the laws to restraiu 
 the exportation of coin, there does not appear to have 
 been any satisfactory remedy proposed for that evil. 
 
 The reason of this omission I take to be no other than 
 a feeling of the unconquerable difficulty that opposes the 
 adoption of any such remedy ; a difficulty wholly arising 
 out of the incongruity I have before adverted to, of select- 
 ing for money a commodity which it is absolutely neces- 
 sary to keep at home for the purposes of money, but which 
 it is the interest of every individual that it should be free ; 
 and, I apprehend, the very fact of the inefficacy of those 
 laws which, for ought that has been shewn to the con- 
 trary, are as well calculated for the purpose they are 
 meant to effect, as any that can be devised, is pregnant 
 with conviction te the most strenuous advocates for a gold 
 currency, not onlythat such a system of laws is wrong, but 
 that it is fundamentally erroneous to attempt to continue a 
 currency in a country which has a perpetual and necessary 
 tendency to wander out of it, and which no laws can 
 restrain. And may it not be added, that this fact is also 
 pregnant with the conviction, that the currency of a 
 country ought to be of a nature, the perpetual and ueces- 
 jiary tendency of wiiich is to rest at home ? 
 
 For I believe it may be laid down as a universal j)rin- 
 ciple of law, that whatever commodity mankind desire 
 should be free, ouifht to be left frcej by freedom, not
 
 Ill 
 
 being supposed to mean a licentious CKemption from 
 those wholesome regulations which are necessary upon 
 almost all the subjects of commerce, under the most 
 enlightened governments. 
 
 Paper money, such as I have proposed, appears to 
 answer, in every material respect, the description I have 
 just attempted to give of wlmt ought to be the currency 
 of a country ; if the use of it supplant the use of 
 the precious metals, that can only be because man- 
 kind, who are tlie best judges of their own interest, find 
 profit in buying and selling gold and silver, whereas they 
 experience loss in keeping those metals in the shape of 
 money. It is in vain, I apprehend, to urge that only a few 
 unprincipled individuals attempt to carry on this unlaw- 
 ful traffick ; that cannot be suljstantiated ; we know not 
 who are the traders in forbidden articles. Enough has 
 surely been said to shew the propriety, and, indeed, the 
 necessity, of seeking for another species of currency : and 
 it is obvious that that which was confined with so much 
 difficulty when there was little trade or enterprize in the 
 world, cannot now, wlien the world is differently circum- 
 stanced, be restrained by any power of which we are 
 aware, from migrating, from having free ingress, egress, 
 and regress, throughout the world ; and, I should think, 
 enough too has been said to shew, that if another species 
 of currency than gold is to be adopted, paper is the species 
 most convenient, and consequently the most practi- 
 cable. 
 
 The argument that gold, containing In a sn:all com-
 
 iia 
 
 jmss tlie value of many things that would occupy a great 
 space, is, therefore, the fittest subject for a circulating 
 medium, w-ill consequently fall to the ground, if I havr 
 been successful in my attempt to shew, that money is 
 merely representative, and contains in itself no Value j for 
 it must then clearly appear, that this power of value, if I 
 may so express myself, resides In the gold as commodity, 
 and not as money ; that it is, like the value of every other 
 commodity, merely arbitrary ; and that It will remain 
 just so long, and to such an extent, as the world finds it 
 admhiister to its convenience or pleasure. 
 
 One word more upon the practicability of a paper cur- 
 rency, and I have dune, A supposition, similar to Hume's, 
 on another occasion, and carried to a greater extent, will, 
 I think, set this matter in a clear point of view. Suppose all 
 the gold and silver in the world, both in coin and bullion, 
 were annihilated, will it be contended that such an event 
 would also annihilate the propensity of mankind to com- 
 merce, and to consult their own advantage ? Taking it fw 
 granted thatsuch a consequence would not follow, the q\ie.s- 
 tion then arises, what course would be pursued ? Would the 
 ^erchantdesert his counting house? would the shopkeeper 
 shut up his shop? would mankind jjerujlt all the remain- 
 ing commodity in the world to run to waste, and be un- 
 employed, or to became common property? I imagine no 
 one would venture t / assert that such would necessarily 
 be the consequence of the annihilation of the precious me- 
 tals. Is it not, oil the contrary, the obvious and unavoidable 
 answer to such asupposition, that the community would inij- 
 mediately consider of some other subject for a circulating 
 medium, in tlic Ueu of that they had so lost ? If so, it might 
 Ji
 
 114 
 
 then be asserted by some, that the baser metals j by others 
 that shells ; by others, again, that precious stones; and by a 
 fourth class, that paper, would be the most convenient sub- 
 stitute ; but let the contention end how it might, the very 
 fact ofthe contention would prove, 1st, thatthe management 
 and convenience of transferring commodity was the reai 
 subject of consideration j 2dly, that, although it should be 
 uniformly agreed, that neither precious stones, nor the 
 base metals, nor shells, nor paper, were so well calculated 
 as the precious metals, for a circulating medium, yet that, 
 inasmuch as a substitute could be found, the superior 
 value ofthe original over the substitute, consisted merely in 
 its superior aptness apd convenience ; and, thirdly, that 
 subject to the objection, upon the score of convenience, 
 any substance is at least as practicable for a circulating 
 medium as gold or silver. 
 
 With respect to the effect of such a substitute 
 for currency, as that of paper for gold, on onr fo- 
 reign relations, it is to be observed : 1st, that, ex con- 
 cessis, the question has not much to do with our foreign 
 commerce, but little of the precious metals passing in 
 fact in that commerce. See your tract, and Mr. Lyne's evi- 
 dence before the committee ; 2dly, that, so far as it will 
 be necessary to possess the precious metals for the pur- 
 poses of those relations of whatever nature, the cur- 
 rency of this country being of paper, will rather enable it, 
 than otherwise, to obtain and keep such quantities of those 
 metals as will be necessary for her occasions (your tract 
 p. 97- 98.) inasmuch as I contend, 1st, that such a cur- 
 rency is necessarily a proof of the strength and credit of 
 the government ; and, 2dly, that it will, as it has hitherto
 
 115 
 
 done, furnish at once the stimulus and the means to the 
 developement and extension of her resources, it being 
 a currency issued not only by the authority, but for the 
 benefit of the state, 
 
 And here I must stop to repeat the passage of your 
 book, in which you have so ably depictured the resources 
 of the country. These resources, you say, p. 153, **are to be 
 *' found in the immense and increasing produce of its ter- 
 ** ritory ; the unwearied extension of its manufacturing in- 
 '' dustry ; the elastic and expansive force of its legitimate 
 " commerce; all mutually aiding and fostering eachotlier, 
 " all fed and put in motion by capital ; the genuine gro\vth 
 '' of progressive accumulation, and not the factitious 
 •• result of any aitificial cofttrivance." 
 
 Correct, yet glowing, picture ! What Englishman can 
 contemplate its grand, and aftecting expression, without 
 exultation ? What foreigner, even in the present debased 
 state of Europe, without admiration, and awe ? Such a 
 country must command, at its will, the riches and the 
 confidence of the world ! Such a country, if it ever fall, 
 must fall by its own hand ! 
 
 The paper of such a country cannot be the paper of a 
 state issued in aid of its exchequer, or in compulsory 
 payment of its expenses : (your tract p. IO7.) though 
 rendered necessary by its vast concerns, as an instru- 
 ment of its commerce, it will, nevertheless, be at once 
 the genuine offspring, and the evidence of the legitimate 
 power ()!' the government, of the inexhaustible resources 
 of the country, and of the commercial wisdom of the 
 people.
 
 116 
 
 The fate that befel the leatlicr and mulberry tretf 
 money of the ancient tyrants, the fate that has befallen, 
 ui modern times, the paper of America, of France, of 
 Vienna, and Petersburg, (your tract p. 107,) can never 
 befal the paper of such a country : Before a mam can bring 
 himself to predict such a fate to the paper of England, 
 he must have prevailed upon himself to disbelieve, or to 
 forget, all history ; he must refuse to make any distinc- 
 tion between established and unestablished governments, . 
 between knowledge and ignorance, between the spirit that, 
 breathing liberty and equal rights, creates every man the 
 sovereign of his own possessions, and the tyranny that, 
 by proscribing and plundering the subject, vainly imagines 
 it can support the state ; he must be prepared to assert, that 
 it is in t^e circulating medium of a country, and not in 
 the productions of its soil, that its credit, resources, and 
 stability, are to be found. 
 
 Lastly, as it seems to be peculiarly the privilege, as well 
 as the duty, of such a country to impart to other countries 
 the benefits which have so largely resulted to herself from 
 established credit, unwearied industry, and vast resources j 
 so does it appear to be required of that country that she 
 should ascertain the most e^ectual means by whicli that 
 credit and industry, and those resources, may be invigo- 
 rated and extended; and if, amongst those means, the 
 introduction of a public paper circulation should be found 
 the best calculated for that important end, she will not 
 want the inclination, as she wants not the power,, to 
 give it effect. 
 
 THK END. 
 
 G. Sidney. Printer, 
 Northumberlaiid-stree:, Stiaud, Loadoiu
 
 lilt. 
 
 3 0112 062406738 
 
 II 
 
 m 
 
 liiiil 
 iiiiiii 
 
 ;i:;:w|{^j. 
 
 m