rn would command
more labour, which is not disputed; the other, that corn would sell at
a higher money price, that it would exchange for more silver; this I
contend to be erroneous. It might be true, if corn were at the same time
scarce, if the usual supply had not been furnished. But in this case it
is abundant, it is not pretended that a less quantity than usual is
imported, or that more is required. To purchase corn, the Dutch or
Genoese want money, and to obtain this money, they are obliged to sell
their superfluities. It is the market value and price of these
superfluities which falls, and money appears to rise as compared with
them. But this will not tend to increase the demand for corn, nor to
lower the value of money, the only two causes which can raise the price
of corn. Money, from a want of credit, and from other causes, may be in
great demand, and consequently dear, comparatively with corn; but on no
just principle can it be maintained, that under such circumstances money
would be cheap, and therefore, that the price of corn would rise.

When we speak of the high or low value of gold, silver, or any other
commodity in different countries, we should always mention some medium
in which we are estimating them, or no idea can be attached to the
proposition. Thus, when gold is said to be dearer in England than in
Spain, if no commodity is mentioned, what notion does the assertion
convey? If corn, olives, oil, wine, and wool, be at a cheaper price in
Spain than in England; estimated in those commodities, gold is dearer in
Spain. If again, hardware, sugar, cloth, &c. be at a lower price in
England than in Spain, then, estimated in those commodities, gold is
dearer in England. Thus gold appears dearer or cheaper in Spain, as the
fancy of the observer may fix on the medium by which he estimates its
value. Adam Smith, having stamped corn and labour as an universal
measure of value, would naturally estimate the comparative value of gold
by the quantity of those two objects for which it would exchange: and,
accordingly, when he speaks of the comparative value of gold in two
countries, I understand him to mean its value estimated in corn and
labour.

But we have seen, that, estimated in corn, gold may be of very different
value in two countries. I have endeavoured to shew that it will be low
in rich countries, and high in poor countries; Adam Smith is of a
different opinion: he thinks that the value of gold estimated in