THK WEAJ.TIJ OF NATIONS.

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much the annual value of its imports from thence; and thoughwhat is called the balance of trade may be very much in fa-vour of England.

In the way, besides, in which the par of exchange has hi-therto been computed, the ordinary course of exchange canafford no sufficient indication that the ordinary state of debtand credit is in favour of that, country which seems to have,or which is supposed to have, the ordinary course of exchangein its favour: or, in other words, the real exchange may be,and, in fact, often is, so very different from the computed one,that, from the course of the latter, no certain conclusion can,upon many occasions, be drawn concerning that of the former.

When for a sum of money paid in England, containing,according to the standard of the English mint, a certain num-ber of ounces of pure silver, you receive a bill for a’sum ofmoney to he paid in France , containing, according to thestandard of the French mint, an equal number of ounces ofpure silver, exchange is said to be at par between Englandand France . When you pay more, you arc supposed to givea premium, and exchange is said to be against England, andin favour of France . When you pay less, you are supposedto get a premium, and exchange is said to be against France ,and in favour of England.

But, first, We cannot always judge of the value of the cur-rent money of different countries by the standard of their re-spective mints. In some it is more, in others it is less worn,dipt, and otherwise degenerated from that standard. Butthe value of the current coin of every country, compared withthat of any other country, is in proportion not to the quantityof pure silver which it ought to contain, but to that which itactually does contain. Before the reformation of the silvercoin in king William’s time, exchange between England andHolland, computed, in the usual manner, according to thestandard of their respective mints, was five-and-twenty percent, against England. But the value of the current coin ofEngland, as we learn from Mr. Lowndes, was at that timerather more than five-and-twenty per cent, below its standardvalue. The real exchange, therefore, may even at that timehave been in favour of England, notwithstanding the com-puted exchange was so much against it; a smaller numberof ounces of pure silver, actually paid in England, may havepurchased a bill for a greater number of ounces of pure silverto be paid in Holland, and the man who was supposed to-