THE WEALTH Ol' NATION8.

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consumers. The quantity of money, therefore, which canbe annually employed in any country, must be determined bythe value of the consumable goods annually circulated withinit. These must consist either in the immediate produce ofthe land and labour of the country itself, or in somethingwhich had been purchased with some part of that produce.Their value, therefore, must diminish as the value of that pro-duce diminishes, and along with it the quantity of moneywhich can be employed in circulating them. But the moneywhich by this annual diminution of produce is annually thrownout of domestic circulation, will not be allowed to lie idle.The interest of whoever possesses it, requires that it shouldjbcemployed. But having no employment at home, it will, inspite of all laws and prohibitions, be sent abroad, and em-ployed in purchasing consumable goods which may be ofsome use at home. Its annual exportation will in this mannercontinue for some time to add something to the annual con-sumption of the country beyond the value of its own annualproduce. What, in the days of its prosperity had been savedfrom that annual produce, and employed in purchasing goldand silver, will contribute, for some little time, to support itsconsumption in adversity. The exportation of gold and sil-ver is, in this case, not the cause, but the effect of its declen-sion, and may even, for some little time, alleviate the miseryof that declension.

The quantity of money, on the contrary, must in everycountry naturally increase as the value of the annual produceincreases. The value of the consumable goods annuallycirculated within the society being greater, will require agreater quantity of money to circulate them. A part, of theincreased produce, therefore, will naturally be employed iupurchasing, wherever it is to be had, the additional quantityof gold and silver necessary for circulating the rest. The in-crease of those metals will in this case be the effect, not thecause, of the public prosperity. Gold and silver are pur-chased every where iu the same manner. The food, clothing,and lodging, the revenue and maintenance of all those whoselabour or stock is employed in bringing them from the mineto the market, is the price paid lor them in Peru as well as iuEngland. The country, which has this price to pay, willnever be long without the quantity of those metals which ithas occasion for; and no country will ever long retain aquantity which it has no occasion for.

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