58. III. Question Third. What is the quantity of the store in relation to the Currency?
We have seen that the real worth of the currency, so far as dependent on its relation to the magnitude of the store, may vary, within certain limits, without affecting its worth in exchange. The diminution or increase of the represented wealth may be unperceived, and the currency may be taken either for more or less than it is truly worth. Usually it is taken for much more; and its power in exchange, or credit-power, is thus increased up to a given strain upon its relation to existing wealth. This credit-power is of chief importance in the thoughts, because most sharply present to the experience, of a mercantile community: but the conditions of its stability[1] and all other relations of the currency
- ↑ These are nearly all briefly represented by the image used for the force of money by Dante, of mast and sail:—
Quali dal vento le gonfiate vele
Caggiono avvolte, poi chè l'alber fiacca
Tal cadde a terra la fiera crudele.
The image maj be followed out, like all of Dante's, into
done yet. But I keep my purpose of making one day this balance, or want of balance, visible, in those so seldom used scales of Justice.]
