THE WEALTH OF NATIONS.

237

silver. Some other causes must be taken into the account,and those which have been above assigned, will, perhaps,without having recourse to the supposed degradation of thevalue of silver, sufficiently explain this rise in those particularsorts of provisions of which the price has actually risen inproportion to that of corn.

As to the price of corn itself, it has, during the sixty-fourfirst years of the present century, and before the late extraor-dinary course of bad seasons, been somewhat lower than itwas during the sixty-four last years of the preceding century.This fact is attested, not only by the accounts of Windsormarket, but by the public fiars of all the different counties ofScotland , and by the accounts of several different markets inFrance , which have been collected with great diligence andfidelity by Mr. Messance and by Mr. Dupr£ de St. Maur.The evidence is more complete than could well have been ex-pected in a matter which is naturally so very difficult to beascertained.

As to the high price of corn during these last ten or twelveyears, it can be sufficiently accounted for from the badness ofthe seasons, without supposing any degradation in the valueof silver.

The opinion, therefore, that silver is continually sinking inits value, seems not to be founded upon any good observa-tions, either upon the prices of corn, or upon those of otherprovisions.

The same quantity of silver, it may, perhaps, be said, willin the present times, even according to the account whichhas been here given, purchase a much smaller quantity of se-veral sorts of provisions than it would have done during somepart of the last century; and to ascertain whether this changebe owing to a rise in the value of those goods, or to a fall inthe value of silver, is only to establish a vain and useless dis-tinction, which can be of no sort of service to the man whohas only a certain quantity of silver to go to market with, ora certain fixed revenue in money. 1 certainly do not pretendthat the knowledge of this distinction will enable him to buycheaper. It may not, however, upon that account be altoge-ther useless.

It maybe of some use to the public by affording an easyproof of the prosperous condition of the country. If the risein the price of some sorts of provisions be owing altogetherto a fall in the value of silver, it is owing to a circumstance