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INCREASE OF COIN

CHAP. XXIV.

saries which form the sustenance of the great massof the population of the country.

An advance in the price of so indispensable anarticle as wheat, or even of the prices of the ge-neral mass of commodities in Europe , would beno decisive proof of the increase of the preciousmetals. If the whole material wealth of a countryreceives a great accession, and a correspondentaccession be made to the coin, prices would con-tinue as before if the facility of circulating thatcoin should remain without alteration.

If we were to judge from England alone, therewould be little hesitation in concluding that themass of material wealth had increased in the onehundred and ten years, at a greater rate than theprecious metals. This is obvious from the increaseof the population, and from that population havingbeen better fed, clothed, and lodged, at the con-clusion than at the commencement of the century.The sources of wealth of every kind had yieldedmore copiously. The soil was better cultivated,and therefore yielded more of the annual neces-saries of life; the surplus of exchangeable productshad been augmented so that foreign necessariesor comforts could be more easily and abundantlyprocured. The facilities of distribution had beenimproved by the repairs or construction of roads,canals, rivers, harbours, and docks. The imple-ments of industry, which diminish the use and