XI. market of Bengal. In China, the proportion of c HAP. gold to filver still continues as one to ten, or one to twelve. In Japan, it is faid to be as one to eight. The proportion between the quantities of gold and filver annually imported into Europe, according to Mr. Meggens's account, is as one to twenty-two nearly; that is, for one ounce of gold there are imported a little more than twenty-two ounces of filver. The great quantity of filver fent annually to the East Indies, reduces, he fuppofes, the quantities of thofe metals which remain in Europe to the proportion of one to fourteen or fifteen, the proportion of their values. The proportion between their values, he seems to think, muft neceffarily be the fame as that between their quantities, and would therefore be as one to twenty-two, were it not for this greater exportation of filver. But the ordinary proportion between the refpective values of two commodities is not neceffarily the fame as that between the quantities of them which are commonly in the market. The price of an ox, reckoned at ten guineas, is about threefcore times the price of a lamb, reckoned at 38. 6d. It would be abfurd, however, to infer from thence, that there are commonly in the market threefcore lambs for one ox: and it would be juft as abfurd to infer, because an ounce of gold will commonly purchase from fourteen to fifteen ounces of filver, that there are commonly in the market only fourteen or fifteen ounces of filver for one ounce of gold. The BOOK I. The quantity of filver commonly in the mar ket, it is probable, is much greater in proportion to that of gold, than the value of a certain quantity of gold is to that of an equal quantity of filver. The whole quantity of a cheap commodity brought to market, is commonly not only greater, but of greater value, than the whole quantity of a dear one. The whole quantity of bread annually brought to market, is not only greater, but of greater value than the whole quantity of butcher's-meat; the whole quantity of butcher's-meat, than the whole quantity of poultry; and the whole quantity of poultry, than the whole quantity of wild fowl. There are fo many more purchafers for the cheap than for the dear commodity, that, not only a greater quantity of it, but a greater value, can commonly be difpofed of. The whole quantity, therefore, of the cheap commodity muft commonly be greater in proportion to the whole quantity of the dear one, than the value of a certain quantity of the dear one, is to the value of an equal quantity of the cheap one. When we compare the precious metals with one another, filver is a cheap, and gold a dear commodity. We ought naturally to expect, therefore, that there should always be in the market, not only a greater quantity, but a greater value of filver than of gold. Let any man, who has a little of both, compare his own filver with his gold plate, and he will probably find, that, not only the quantity, but the value of the former greatly exceeds that of the latter. Many people, befides, XI. have a good deal of filver who have no gold CHA P. plate, which, even with those who have it, is generally confined to watch-cafes, fnuff-boxes, and fuch like trinkets, of which the whole amount is feldom of great value. In the British coin, indeed, the value of the gold preponderates greatly, but it is not fo in that of all countries. In the coin of fome countries the value of the two metals is nearly equal. In the Scotch coin, before the union with England, the gold preponderated very little, though it did fomewhat*, as it appears by the accounts of the mint. In the coin of many countries the filver preponderates. In France, the largeft fums are commonly paid in that metal, and it is there difficult to get more gold than what is neceffary to carry about in your pocket. The fuperior value, however, of the filver plate above that of the gold, which takes place in all countries, will much more than compenfate the preponderancy of the gold coin above the filver, which takes place only in fome countries. Though, in one fenfe of the word, filver always has been, and probably always will be, much cheaper than gold; yet in another sense, gold may, perhaps, in the prefent state of the Spanish market, be faid to be somewhat cheaper than filver. A commodity may be faid to be dear or cheap, not only according to the abfolute greatness or smallness of its ufual price, but See Ruddiman's Preface to Anderfon's Diplomata, &c. Scotia. according I. BOOK according as that price is more or lefs above the loweft for which it is poffible to bring it to mar. ket for any confiderable time together. This lowest price is that which barely replaces, with a moderate profit, the stock which must be employed in bringing the commodity thither. It is the price which affords nothing to the landlord, of which rent makes not any component part, but which refolves itself altogether into wages and profit. But, in the present state of the Spanish market, gold is certainly somewhat nearer to this lowest price than filver. The tax of the King of Spain upon gold is only onetwentieth part of the standard metal, or five per cent.; whereas his tax upon filver amounts to one-tenth part of it, or to ten per cent. In thefe taxes too, it has already been obferved, confifts the whole rent of the greater part of the gold and filver mines of Spanish America; and that upon gold is ftill worse paid than that upon filver. The profits of the undertakers of gold mines too, as they more rarely make a fortune, muft, in general, be ftill more moderate than thofe of the undertakers of filver mines. The price of Spanish gold, therefore, as it af fords both lefs rent and lefs profit, muft, in the Spanish market, be fomewhat dearer to the lowest price for which it is poffible to bring it thither, than the price of Spanish filver. When all expences are computed, the whole quantity of the one metal, it would feem, cannot, in the Spanish market, be difpofed of fo advantageously as the whole quantity of the other. The tax, indeed, XI. indeed, of the King of Portgual upon the gold CHA P. of the Brazils, is the fame with the ancient tax of the King of Spain upon the filver of Mexico and Peru; or one-fifth part of the standard me tal. It may, therefore, be uncertain whether to the general market of Europe the whole mass of American gold comes at a price nearer to the loweft for which it is poffible to bring it thither, than the whole mafs of American filver. The price of diamonds and other precious ftones may, perhaps, be ftill nearer to the lowest price at which it is poffible to bring them to mar. ket, than even the price of gold. Though it is not very probable, that any part of a tax which is not only impofed upon one of the most proper fubjects of taxation, a mere luxury and fuperfluity, but which affords fo very important a revenue, as the tax upon filver, will ever be given up as long as it is poffible to pay it; yet the fame impoffibility of paying it, which in 1736 made it neceffary to reduce it from onefifth to one-tenth, may in time make it neceffary to reduce it ftill further; in the fame manner as it made it neceffary to reduce the tax upon gold to one-twentieth. That the filver mines of Spanish America, like all other mines, become gradually more expenfive in the working, on account of the greater depths at which it is neceffary to carry on the works, and of the greater expence of drawing out the water and of fupplying them with fresh air at thofe depths, is acknowledged by every body who has enquired into the state of thofe mines. Thefe |