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of great value. In the British coin, indeed, the king of Portugal upon the gold of the the value of the gold preponderates greatly, Brazils, is the same with the ancient tax of but it is not so in that of all countries. In the king of Spain upon the silver of Mexico the coin of some countries, the value of the and Peru; or one-fifth part of the standard two metals is nearly equal. In the Scotch metal. It may therefore be uncertain, whecoin, before the union with England, the ther, to the general market of Europe, the gold preponderated very little, though it did whole mass of American gold comes at a price somewhat, as it appears by the accounts nearer to the lowest for which it is possible to of the mint. In the coin of many countries bring it thither, than the whole mass of Amethe silver preponderates. In France, the lar-rican silver.

gest sums are commonly paid in that metal, The price of diamonds and other precious and it is there difficult to get more gold than stones may, perhaps, be still nearer to the low what is necessary to carry about in your poc- est price at which it is possible to bring them. ket. The superior value, however, of the sil- to market, than even the price of gold. ver plate above that of the gold, which takes place in all countries, will much more than compensate the preponderancy of the gold coin above the silver, which takes place only in some countries.

nish America, like all other mines, become gradually more expensive in the working, on account of the greater depths at which it is necessary to carry on the works, and of the greater expense of drawing out the water, and of supplying them with fresh air at those depths, is acknowledged by every body who has inquired into the state of those mines.

Though it is not very probable that any part of a tax, which is not only imposed upon one of the most proper subjects of taxation, a mere luxury and superfluity, but which affords so very important a revenue as the tax upon Though, in one sense of the word, silver silver, will ever be given up as long as it is always has been, and probably always will be, possible to pay it; yet the same impossibility much cheaper than gold; yet, in another sense, of paying it, which, in 1736, made it neces gold may perhaps, in the present state of the sary to reduce it from one-fifth to one-tenth, Spanish market, be said to be somewhat cheap-may in time make it necessary to reduce it er than silver. A commodity may be said to still further; in the same manner as it made be dear or cheap not only according to the it necessary to reduce the tax upon gold to absolute greatness or smallness of its usual one-twentieth. That the silver mines of Spaprice, but according as that price is more or less above the lowest for which it is possible to bring it to market for any considerable time together. This lowest price is that which barely replaces, with a moderate profit, the stock which must be employed in bringing the commodity thither. It is the price which affords nothing to the landlord, of which rent makes not any component part, but which re- These causes, which are equivalent to a solves itself altogether into wages and profit. growing scarcity of silver (for a commodity But, in the present state of the Spanish mar- may be said to grow scarcer when it becomes ket, gold is certainly somewhat nearer to this more difficult and expensive to collect a cerlowest price than silver. The tax of the king tain quantity of it), must, in time, produce of Spain upon gold is only one-twentieth part one or other of the three following events: of the standard metal, or five per cent.; where- The increase of the expense must either, first, as his tax upon silver amounts to one-tenth be compensated altogether by a proportionable part of it, or to ten per cent. In these taxes, increase in the price of the metal; or, secondtoo, it has already been observed, consists the ly, it must be compensated altogether by a prowhole rent of the greater part of the gold and portionable diminution of the tax upon silver; silver mines of Spanish America; and that or, thirdly, it must be compensated partly by upon gold is still worse paid than that upon the one and partly by the other of those two silver. The profits of the undertakers of gold expedients. This third event is very possible. mines, too, as they more rarely make a for- As gold rose in its price in proportion to sil tune, must, in general, be still more mode. ver, notwithstanding a great diminution of rate than those of the undertakers of silver the tax upon gold, so silver might rise in its mines. The price of Spanish gold, therefore, price in proportion to labour and commodias it affords both less rent and less profit, ties, notwithstanding an equal diminution of must, in the Spanish market, be somewhat the tax upon silver. nearer to the lowest price for which it is possible to bring it thither, than the price of Spanish silver. When all expenses are computed, the whole quantity of the one metal, it would seem, cannot, in the Spanish market, be disposed of so advantageously as the whole quantity of the other. The tax, indeed, of

See Ruddiman's Preface to Anderson's Diplomata,

&c. Scotia.

Such successive reductions of the tax, how ever, though they may not prevent altogether, must certainly retard, more or less, the rise of the value of silver in the European market. In consequence of such reductions, many mines may be wrought which could not be wrought before, because they could not afford to pay the old tax; and the quantity of silver annually brought to market, must always be somewhat greater, and, therefore, the value

of any given quantity somewhat less, than it otherwise would have been. In consequence of the reduction in 1736, the value of silver in the European market, though it may not at this day be lower than before that reduction, is, probably, at least ten per cent. lower than it would have been, had the court of to diminish their value, I have endeavoured Spain continued to exact the old tax.

ket; and the still gradually increasing price of many parts of the rude produce of land may confirm them still farther in this opinion.

That that increase in the quantity of the precious metals, which arises in any country from the increase of wealth, has no tendency

to shew already. Gold and silver naturally resort to a rich country, for the same reason that all sorts of luxuries and curiosities resort to it; not because they are cheaper there than in poorer countries, but because they are dearer, or because a better price is given for them. It is the superiority of price which attracts them; and as soon as that superiority ceases, they necessarily cease to go thither.

That, notwithstanding this reduction, the value of silver has, during the course of the present century, begun to rise somewhat in the European market, the facts and arguments which have been alleged above, dispose me to believe, or more properly to suspect and conjecture; for the best opinion which I can form upon this subject, scarce, perhaps, deserves the name of belief. The rise, indeed, If you except corn, and such other vegetsupposing there has been any, has hitherto ables as are raised altogether by human inbeen so very small, that after all that has been dustry, that all other sorts of rude produce, said, it may, perhaps, appear to many people cattle, poultry, game of all kinds, the useful uncertain, not only whether this event has ac- fossils and minerals of the earth, &c. naturaltually taken place, but whether the contrary ly grow dearer, as the society advances in may not have taken place, or whether the va- wealth and improvement, I have endeavoured Jue of silver may not still continue to fall in to shew already. Though such commodities, the European market. therefore, come to exchange for a greater It must be observed, however, that what- quantity of silver than before, it will not from ever may be the supposed annual importation thence follow that silver has become really of gold and silver, there must be a certain pe- cheaper, or will purchase less labour than beriod at which the annual consumption of those fore; but that such commodities have become metals will be equal to that annual importa- really dearer, or will purchase more labour Their consumption must increase as than before. It is not their nominal price their mass increases, or rather in a much only, but their real price, which rises in the greater proportion. As their mass increases, progress of improvement. The rise of their their value diminishes. They are more used, nominal price is the effect, not of any degraand less cared for, and their consumption con- dation of the value of silver, but of the rise ir sequently increases in a greater proportion their real price. than their mass. After a certain period, therefore, the annual consumption of those metals must, in this manner, become equal to their annual importation, provided that importation is not continually increasing; which, in the present times, is not supposed to be the case.

tion.

Different Effects of the Progress of Improve ment upon three different sorts of rude Pro

duce.

If, when the annual consumption has be- These different sorts of rude produce may come equal to the annual importation, the an- be divided into three classes. The first comnual importation should gradually diminish, prehends those which it is scarce in the power the annual consumption may, for some time, of human industry to multiply at all. The exceed the annual importation. The mass of second, those which it can multiply in proporthose metals may gradually and insensibly di- tion to the demand. The third, those in which minish, and their value gradually and insen- the efficacy of industry is either limited or uncibly rise, till the annual importation becom- certain. In the progress of wealth and iming again stationary, the annual consumption provement, the real price of the first may rise will gradually and insensibly accommodate to any degree of extravagance, and seems not itself to what that annual importation can to be limited by any certain boundary. That maintain.

still continues to decrease

of the second, though it may rise greatly, has, however, a certain boundary, beyond which it

Grounds of the suspicion that the Value of Silver cannot well pass for any considerable time together. That of the third, though its natural tendency is to rise in the progress of improve The increase of the wealth of Europe, and ment, yet in the same degree of improvement the popular notion, that as the quantity of the it may sometimes happen even to fall, someprecious metals naturally increases with the times to continue the same, and sometimes to increase of wealth, so their value diminishes rise more or less, according as different accias their quantity increases, may, perhaps, dis- dents render the efforts of human industry, in pose many people to believe that their value multiplying this sort of rude produce, more still continues to fall in the European mar- or less successful.

present money; and that Asinius Celer† pur-
chased a surmullet at the price of eight thou-
sand sestertii, equal to about sixty-six pounds
thirteen shillings and fourpence of our pre-
sent money; the extravagance of those prices,
how much soever it may surprise us, is apt,
notwithstanding, to appear to us about one
third less than it really was. Their real price,
the quantity of labour and subsistence which
was given away for them, was about one-third
more than their nominal price is apt to express
to us in the present times. Seius gave for the
nightingale the command of a quantity of la-
bour and subsistence, equal to what L.66: 13:
4d. would purchase in the present times; and
Asinius Celer gave for a surmullet the com
mand of a quantity equal to what L.88: 17:
9d. would purchase. What occasioned the
extravagance of those high prices was, not so
much the abundance of silver, as the abun-
dance of labour and subsistence, of which
those Romans had the disposal, beyond what
was necessary for their own use.
The quan
tity of silver, of which they had the disposal,
was a good deal less than what the command
of the same quantity of labour and subsist-
ence would have procured to them in the pre-
sent times.

First Sori.-The first sort of rude produce, which four ounces will do at present. When of which the price rises in the progress of im- we read in Pliny, therefore, that Seius* bought provement, is that which it is scarce in the pow- a white nightingale, as a present for the emer of human industry to inultiply at all. It con- press Agrippina, at the price of six thousand sists in those things which nature produces sestertii, equal to about fifty pounds of our only in certain quantities, and which being of a very perishable nature, it is impossible to accumulate together the produce of many different seasons. Such are the greater part of rare and singular birds and fishes, many different sorts of game, almost all wild-fowl, all birds of passage in particular, as well as many other things. When wealth, and the luxury which accompanies it, increase, the demand for these is likely to increase with them, and ro effort of human industry may be able to increase the supply much beyond what it was before this increase of the demand. The quantity of such commodities, therefore, remaining the same, or nearly the same, while the competition to purchase them is continually increasing, their price may rise to any degree of extravagance, and seems not to be limited by any certain boundary. If woodcocks should become so fashionable as to sell for twenty guineas a-piece, no effort of human industry could increase the number of those brought to market, much beyond what it is at present. The high price paid by the Romans, in the time of their greatest grandeur, for rare birds and fishes, may in this manner easily be accounted for. These prices were not the effects of the low value of silver in those times, but of the high value of such rarities and curiosities as human industry could not multiply Second sort.-The second sort of rude pro. at pleasure. The real value of silver was duce, of which the price rises in the progress higher at Rome, for some time before, and of improvement, is that which human indus after the fall of the republic, than it is through try can multiply in proportion to the demand. the greater part of Europe at present. Three It consists in those useful plants and animals, sestertii equal to about sixpence sterling, was which, in uncultivated countries, nature prothe price which the republic paid for the mo- duces with such profuse abundance, that they dius or peck of the tithe wheat of Sicily. are of little or no value, and which, as cultiThis price, however, was probably below the vation advances, are therefore forced to give average market price, the obligation to deliver place to some more profitable produce. Durtheir wheat at this rate being considered as a ing a long period in the progress of improvetax upon the Sicilian farmers. When the ment, the quantity of these is continually diRomans, therefore, had occasion to order minishing, while, at the same time, the de more corn than the tithe of wheat amounted mand for them is continually increasing. Their to, they were bound by capitulation to pay for real value, therefore, the real quantity of la the surplus at the rate of four sestertii, or bour which they will purchase or comniand, eightpence sterling the peck; and this had gradually rises, till at last it gets so high as probably been reckoned the moderate and rea- to render them as profitable a produce as any sonable, that is, the ordinary or average con- thing else which human industry can raise tract price of those times; it is equal to about upon the most fertile and best cultivated land. one-and-twenty shillings the quarter. Eightand-twenty shillings the quarter was, before the late years of scarcity, the ordinary contract price of English wheat, which in quality is inferior to the Sicilian, and generally sells for a When the price of cattle, for example, rises lower price in the European market. The so high, that it is as profitable to cultivate land value of silver, therefore, in those ancient in order to raise food for them as in order to times, must have been to its value in the pre- raise food for man, it cannot well go higher. sent, as three to four inversely; that is, three If it did, more corn land would soon be turnounces of silver would then have purchased the same quantity of labour and commodities

When it has got so high, it cannot well go higher. If it did, more land and more industry would soon be employed to increase their quantity.

* Lib. x, c. 29.

f Lib. ix, c. 12

ed into pasture. The extension of tillage, by that cattle can be fed in the stable; because, diminishing the quantity of wild pasture, di- to collect the scanty and scattered produce of minishes the quantity of butcher's meat, which waste and unimproved lands, would require the country naturally produces without la- too much labour, and be too expensive. If bour or cultivation; and, by increasing the the price of the cattle, therefore, is not suffinumber of those who have either corn, or, cient to pay for the produce of improved and what comes to the same thing, the price of cultivated land, when they are allowed to pascorn, to give in exchange for it, increases the ture it, that price will be still less sufficient to demand. The price of butcher's meat, there- pay for that produce, when it must be colfore, and, consequently, of cattle, must gra- lected with a good deal of additional labour, dually rise, till it gets so high, that it be- and brought into the stable to them. In these comes as profitable to employ the most fertile circumstances, therefore, no more cattle can and best cultivated lands in raising food for with profit be fed in the stable than what are them as in raising corn. But it must always necessary for tillage. But these can never afbe late in the progress of improvement before ford manure enough for keeping constantly in tillage can be so far extended as to raise the good condition all the lands which they are price of cattle to this height; and, till it has capable of cultivating. What they afford, begot to this height, if the country is advancing ing insufficient for the whole farm, will natuat all, their price must be continually rising. rally be reserved for the lands to which it can There are, perhaps, some parts of Europe in be most advantageously or conveniently apwhich the price of cattle has not yet got to plied; the most fertile, or those, perhaps, in this height. It had not got to this height in the neighbourhood of the farm-yard. These, any part of Scotland before the Union. Had therefore, will be kept constantly in good con. the Scotch cattle been always confined to the dition, and fit for tillage. The rest will, the market of Scotland, in a country in which greater part of them, be allowed to lie waste, the quantity of land, which can be applied to producing scarce any thing but some miserno other purpose but the feeding of cattle, is able pasture, just sufficient to keep alive a so great in proportion to what can be applied few straggling, half-starved cattle; the farm, to other purposes, it is scarce possible, per- though much overstocked in proportion to haps, that their price could ever have risen so what would be necessary for its complete culhigh as to render it profitable to cultivate tivation, being very frequently overstocked in land for the sake of feeding them. In Eng-proportion to its actual produce. A portion land, the price of cattle, it has already been of this waste land, however, after having been observed, seems, in the neighbourhood of pastured in this wretched manner for six or London, to have got to this height about the seven years together, may be ploughed up, beginning of the last century; but it was much later, probably, before it got through the greater part of the remoter counties, in some of which, perhaps, it may scarce yet have got to it. Of all the different substances, however, which compose this second sort of rade produce, cattle is, perhaps, that of which the price, in the progress of improvement, rises first to this height.

when it will yield, perhaps, a poor crop or two of bad oats, or of some other coarse grain; and then, being entirely exhausted, it must be rested and pastured again as before, and another portion ploughed up, to be in the same manner exhausted and rested again in its turn. Such, accordingly, was the general system of management all over the low country of Scotland before the Union. The lands which were Till the price of cattle, indeed, has got to kept constantly well manured and in good conthis height, it seems scarce possible that the dition seldom exceeded a third or fourth part greater part, even of those lands which are of the whole farm, and sometimes did not capable of the highest cultivation, can be com- amount to a fifth or a sixth part of it. The rest pletely cultivated. In all farms too distant were never manured, but a certain portion of from any town to carry manure from it, that them was in its turn, notwithstanding, reguis, in the far greater part of those of every ex-larly cultivated and exhausted. Under this tensive country, the quantity of well culti-system of management, it is evident, even that vated land must be in proportion to the quan- part of the lands of Scotland which is capable tity of manure which the farm itself produces; of good cultivation, could produce but little and this, again, must be in proportion to the in comparison of what it may be capable of stock of cattle which are maintained upon it. producing. But how disadvantageous soever The land is manured, either by pasturing the this system may appear, yet, before the Union, cattle upon it, or by feeding them in the stable, the low price of cattle seems to have rendered and from thence carrying out their dung to it almost unavoidable. If, notwithstanding a it. But unless the price of the cattle be suf- great rise in the price, it still continues to preficient to pay both the rent and profit of cul- vail through a considerable part of the coun tivated land, the farmer cannot afford to pas-try, it is owing in many places, no doubt, to ture them upon it; and he can still less afford ignorance and attachment to old customs, but, to feed them in the stable. It is with the pro-in most places, to the unavoidable obstrucduce of improved and cultivated land only |tions which the natural course of things op

poses to the immediate or speedy establishment | culture. They make scarce any manure for of a better system: first, to the poverty of the their corn fields, he says; but when one piece tenants, to their not having yet had time to of ground has been exhausted by continual acquire a stock of cattle sufficient to cultivate cropping, they clear and cultivate another their lands more completely, the same rise of piece of fresh land; and when that is exprice, which would render it advantageous for hausted, proceed to a third. Their cattle are them to maintain a greater stock, rendering it allowed to wander through the woods and more difficult for them to acquire it; and, other uncultivated grounds, where they are secondly, to their not having yet had time to half-starved; having long ago extirpated alput their lands in condition to maintain this most all the annual grasses, by cropping them greater stock properly, supposing they were too early in the spring, before they had time capable of acquiring it. The increase of stock to form their flowers, or to shed their seeds." and the improvement of land are two events The annual grasses were, it seems, the best which must go hand in hand, and of which natural grasses in that part of North Amerithe one can nowhere much outrun the other. ca; and when the Europeans first settled Without some increase of stock, there can be there, they used to grow very thick, and to scarce any improvement of land, but there rise three or four feet high. A piece of ground can be no considerable increase of stock, but which, when he wrote, could not maintain one in consequence of a considerable improvement cow, would in former times, he was assured, of land; because otherwise the land could not have maintained four, each of which would maintain it. These natural obstructions to have given four times the quantity of milk the establishment of a better system, cannot which that one was capable of giving. The be removed but by a long course of frugality poorness of the pasture had, in his opinion, and industry; and half a century or a century occasioned the degradation of their cattle, more, perhaps, must pass away before the old which degenerated sensibly from one generasystem, which is wearing out gradually, can tion to another. They were probably not unbe completely abolished through all the dif- like that stunted breed which was common all ferent parts of the country. Of all the com- over Scotland thirty or forty years ago, and mercial advantages, however, which Scotland which is now so much mended through the has derived from the Union with England, this greater part of the low country, not so much rise in the price of cattle is, perhaps, the by a change of the breed, though that expegreatest. It has not only raised the value of all highland estates, but it has, perhaps, been the principal cause of the improvement of the low country.

dient has been employed in some places, as by a more plentiful method of feeding them.

Though it is late, therefore, in the progress of improvement, before cattle can bring such In all new colonies, the great quantity of a price as to render it profitable to cultivate waste land, which can for many years be ap- land for the sake of feeding them; yet of all plied to no other purpose but the feeding of the different parts which compose this second cattle, soon renders them extremely abun- sort of rude produce, they are perhaps the first dant; and in every thing great cheapness is the which bring this price; because, till they bring necessary consequence of great abundance. it, it seems impossible that improvement can Though all the cattle of the European colo- be brought near even to that degree of perfecnies in America were originally carried from tion to which it has arrived in many parts of Europe, they soon multiplied so much there, Europe. and became of so little value, that even horses As cattle are among the first, so perhaps vewere allowed to run wild in the woods, with- nison is among the last parts of this sort of out any owner thinking it worth while to rude produce which bring this price. The claim them. It must be a long time after the price of venison in Great Britain, how extrafirst establishment of such colonies, before it vagant sover it may appear, is not near suffican become profitable to feed cattle upon the cient to compensate the expense of a deer produce of cultivated land. The same causes, park, as is well known to all those who have therefore, the want of manure, and the dis- had any experience in the feeding of deer. If proportion between the stock employed in cul- it was otherwise, the feeding of deer would tivation and the land which it is destined to soon become an article of common farming, in cultivate, are likely to introduce there a sys- the same manner as the feeding of those small tem of husbandry, not unlike that which still birds, called turdi, was among the ancient continues to take place in so many parts of Romans. Varro and Columella assure us, Scotland. Mr Kalm, the Swedish traveller, that it was a most profitable article. when he gives an account of the husbandry of tening of ortolans, birds of passage which arsome of the English colonies in North Ame- rive lean in the country, is said to be so in rica, as he found it in 1749, observes, accord- some parts of France. If venison continues ingly, that he can with difficulty discover there in fashion, and the wealth and luxury of the character of the English nation, so well skilled in all the different branches of agri-|

Kalm's Travels, vol. i, p. 345, 344.

The fat

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