270 THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF

venue of the society is regularly distributed, among all itsdifferent members, makes itself no part of that revenue. Thegreat wheel of circulation is altogether different from thegoods which are circulated by means of it. The revenue ofthe society consists altogether in those goods, and not in thewheel which circulates them. In computing either the grossor the neat revenue of any society, we must always, from theirwhole annual circulation of money and goods, deduct thewhole value of the money, of which not a single farthing canever make any part of either.

It is the ambiguity of language only which can make thisproposition appear either doubtful or paradoxical. Whenproperly explained and understood, it is almost self-evident.

When we talk of any particular sum of money, we some-times mean nothing but the metal pieces of which it is com-posed ; and sometimes we include in our meaning some ob-scure reference to the goods which can be had in exchangefor it, or to the power of purchasing which the possession ofit conveys. Thus when we say, that the circulating moneyof England has been computed at eighteen millions, we meanonly to express the amount of the metal pieces, which somewriters have computed, or rather have supposed to circulatein that country. But when we say, that a man is worth fiftyor a hundred pounds a year, we mean commonly to expressnot only the amount of the metal pieces which are annuallypaid to him, but the value of the goods which he can annuallypurchase or consume. We mean commonly to ascertainwhat is or ought to be his way of living, or the cjuantity andquality of the necessaries and conveniencies of life in whichhe can with propriety indulge himself.

When, by any particular sum of money, we mean not onlyto express the amount of the metal pieces of which it is com-posed, but to include in its signification some obscure refer-ence to the goods which can be had in exchange for them,the wealth or revenue which it in this case denotes, is equalonly to one of the two values which are thus intimated some-what ambiguously by the same word, and to the latter moreproperly than to the former, to the money’s worth more pro-perly than to the money.

Thus if a guinea be the weekly pension of a particularperson, he can in the course of the week purchase with it acertain quantity of subsistence, conveniencies, and amuse-ments. In proportion as this quantity is great or small, so