514

TU K NATURE AND CAUSES OF

in the price of the commodity. The tax is finally paid by thelast purchaser or consumer. But money is a commodity withregard to which every man is a merchant. Nobody buys itbut in order to sell again; and with regard to it there is inordinary cases no last purchaser or consumer. When the taxupon coinage, therefore, is so moderate as not to encouragefalse coining, though every body advances the tax, nobodyfinally pays it; because every body gets it back in the ad-vanced value of the coin.

A moderate seignorage, therefore, would not in any caseaugment the expense of the bank, or of any other private personswho carry their bullion to the mint in order to be coined, andthe want of a moderate seignorage does not in any case di-minish it. Whether there is or is not a seignorage, if thecurrency contains its full standard weight, the coinage costsnothing to any body, and if it is short of that weight, the coin-age must always cost the difference between the quantity ofbullion which ought to be contained in it, and that which ac-tually is contained in it.

The government, therefore, when it defrays the expense ofcoinage, not only incurs some small expense, but loses somesmall revenue which it might get by a proper duty ; andneither the bank nor any other private persons are in thesmallest degree benefited by this useless piece of public ge-nerosity.

The directors of the bank, however, would probably be un-willing to agree to the imposition of a seignorage upon theauthority of a speculation which promises them no gain, butonly pretends to insure them from any loss. In the presentstate of the gold coin, and as long as it continues to be re-ceived by weight, they certainly would gain nothing by sucha change. But if the custom of weighing the gold coinshould ever go into disuse, as it is very likely to do, and ifthe gold coin should ever fall into the same state of degrada-tion in which it was before the late re-coinage, the gain, ormore properly the savings of the bank, inconsequence of theimposition of a seignorage, would probably be very consider-able. The bank of England is the only company whichsends any considerable quantity ot bullion to the mint, andthe burden of the annual coinage falls entirely, or almost en-tirely, upon it. If this annual coinage had nothing to dobut to repair the unavoidable losses and necessary wear andtear of the coin, it could seldom exceed fifty thousand or at