and silver being the general medium in which the value of all other things is estimated. Though undoubtedly a variable measure of value, there is probably no commodity subject to fewer variations. This and the other advantages which these metals possess, such as their hardness, their malleability, their divisibility, and many more, have justly secured the preference every where given to them, as a standard for the money of civilized countries.
Having acknowledged the imperfections to which money made of gold and silver is liable as a measure of value, from the greater or less quantity of labour which may, under varying circumstances, be necessary for the production of those metals, we may be permitted to make the supposition that all these imperfections were removed, and that equal quantities of labour could at all times obtain, from that mine which paid no rent, equal quantities of gold. Gold would then be an invariable measure of value. The quantity indeed would enlarge with the demand, but its value would be invariable, and it would be eminently well calculated to measure the varying value of all other things. I have already in a former part of this work considered gold as endowed with this uniformity, and in the following chapter I shall continue the supposition. In speaking therefore of varying price, the variation will be always considered as being in the commodity, and never in the medium in which it is estimated.