But a Government may be more or less than a conservative power. It may be either an improving, or destructive one.
If it be an improving power, using all the wealth entrusted to it to the best advantage, the nation is enriched in root and branch at once, and the Government is enabled, for every order presented, to return a quantity of wealth greater than the order was written for, according to the fructification obtained in the interim. This ability may be either concealed, in which case the currency does not completely represent the wealth of the country, or it may be manifested by the continual payment of the excess of value on each order, in which case there is (irrespectively, observe, of collateral results afterwards to be examined) a perpetual rise in the worth of the currency, that is to say, a fall in the price of all articles represented by it.
42. But if the Government be destructive, or a consuming power, it becomes unable to return the value received on the presentation of the order.
This inability may either be concealed by meeting demands to the full, until it issue in
