CHAP. XIX.
RISE OF TRICES.
71
CHAPTER XIX.
On the rise of prices simultaneously with the increase ofgold and silver in the first century after the discovery of
Having arrived at a conclusion which will ad-mit of great difference of opinion, and of the pro-bability of w'hich every reader must foi’m his ownjudgment, that the quantity of coin in Europe hadin the first century from the discovery of America been nearly quadrupled; we will now considerthe effect produced by so vast an alteration in thequantity of that standard by which the value ofall other commodities was measured.
If we could suppose that the general mass ofcommodities which are the subjects of exchangesbad increased in the same proportion as the pre-emus metals, and were always exchanged by theintervention of those metals, we should naturallymfer that the prices would remain stationary. Ifthe mass of commodities increased at a greaterrat e than the metals, we should expect that pricesw °uld decline ; but if those metals increased fasterthan the whole of the other commodities, we shouldlook for an advance in the prices of commoditiesgenerally.