when less is needed it is said to be cheaper; but one might just as well say that it is the money that is cheaper in the first case and dearer in the second. Not only do silver and gold vary in price as compared with all other commodities; but they vary in price among themselves according as they are more or less abundant. It is well known that we now give in Europe from fourteen to fifteen ounces of silver for one ounce of gold, and that in earlier times only from ten to eleven ounces of silver were given for one ounce of gold. Even at present in China they give only about twelve ounces of silver to get one ounce of gold: so that there is a very great advantage in taking silver to China to exchange for gold to bring back to Europe. It is evident that in the long run this Commerce is bound to make gold more common in Europe, and more rare for China, and that the value of these two metals is certain to come at last to the same proportion everywhere.
A thousand different causes concur to fix at each moment the value of commodities when compared either with one another or with money, and to cause them to change incessantly. The same causes determine the value of money, and cause it to vary when compared, either with the value of each particular commodity, or with the totality of the other values which are actually in Commerce. It would not be possible to disentangle these different causes and to unfold their effects without going into very extensive and very difficult detail, and I shall abstain from entering upon that discussion.
