THE WEALTH OF NATION'S.

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had been originally contained in their coins. The RomanAs, in the latter ages of the Republic , was reduced to thetwenty-fourth part of its original value, and, instead ofweighing a pound, came to weigh only half an ounce. TheEnglish pound and penny contain at present about a thirdonly; the Scots pound and penny about a thirty-sixth ; andthe French pound and penny about a sixty-sixth part of theiroriginal value. By means of those operations the princes andsovereign states which performed them were enabled, in ap-pearance, to pay their debts and fulfil their engagements witha smaller quantity of silver than would otherwise have beenrequisite. It was indeed in appearance only; for their cre-ditors were really defrauded of a part of what was due tothem. All other debtors in the state were allowed the sameprivilege, and might pay with the same nominal sum of thenew and debased coin whatever they had borrowed in theold. Such operations, therefore, have always proved favour-able to the debtor, and ruinous to the creditor, and havesometimes produced a greater and more universal revolutionin the fortunes of private persons than could have been occa-sioned by a very great public calamity.

It is in this manner that money has become in all civilizednations the universal instrumentofcommerce, by the interven-tion of which goods of all kinds are bought and sold, or ex-changed for one another.

What are the rules which men naturally observe in ex-changing them cither for money or for one another, I shallnow proceed to examine. These rules determine what maybe called the relative or exchangeable value of goods.

The wo rd value , it is to be observed, has two differentmeanings, and sometimes expresses the utility of some parti-cular object, and sometimes the power of purchasing othergoods which the possession of that object conveys. The onemay be called “ value in use;” the other, “value in ex-change.” The things which have the greatest value in usehave frequently little or no value in exchange; and on thecontrary, those which have the greatest value in exchangehave frequently little or no value in use. Nothing is moreuseful than water; but it will purchase scarce any tiling ;scarce any thing can be had in exchange for it. A diamond,on the contrary, has scarce any value in use; but a very greatquantity of other goods may frequently be had in exchangefor it.