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THE NATURE AND CAUSES OE

ness it was to make them. It should as readily occur thatthe quantity ol'gold and silver is in every country limited bythe use which there is for those metals; that their use con-sists in circulating commodities as coin, and in affording aspecies of household furniture as plate; that the quantityof coin in every country is regulated by the value of the com-modities which are to be circulated by it: increase that valueand immediately a part of it will be sent abroad to purchase,wherever it is to be had, the additional quantitity of coin re-quisite for circulating them : that the quantity of plate is re-gulated by the number and wealth of those private familieswho choose to indulge themselves in that sort of magnificence;increase the number and wealth of such families, and a partof this increased wealth will most probably be employed inpurchasing, wherever it istobefound,an additional quantity ofplate: that to attempt to increase the wealth of any country,either by introducing or by detaining in it an unnecessaryquantity of gold and silver, is as absurd as it would be to at-tempt to increase the good cheer of private families by oblig-ing them to keep an unnecessary number of kitchen utenils.As the expense of purchasing those unnecessary utensilswould diminish instead of increasing either the quantity orthe goodness of the family provisions; so the expense ofpurchasing an unnecessary quantity of gold and silver must,in every country, as necessarily diminish the wealth whichfeeds, clothes, and lodges, which maintains and employsthe people. Gold and silver, whether in the shape of coinor of plate, are utensils, it must be remembered, as much asthe furniture of the kitchen. Increase the use for them, in-crease the consumable commodities which are to be circu-lated, managed, and prepared by means of them, and you willinfallibly increase the quantity ; but if you attempt, by ex-traordinary means to increase the quantity, you will -as in-fallibly diminish the use and even the quantity too, whichin those metals can never be greater than what the use re-quires. Were they ever to be accumulated beyond thisquantity, their transportation is so easy, and the loss whichattends their lying idle and unemployed so great, that no lawcould prevent their being immediately sent out of the country.

It is not always necessary to accumulate gold and silver,m order to enable a country to carry on foreign wars, and tomaintain fleets and armies in distant countries. Fleets andarmies are maintained, not with gold and silver, but with con-