38. All merchandize is a representative pledge of every
object of commerce, but more or less commodities for use, as it
possesses a greater or less facility to be transported, and to be
preserved without alteration.
The variation in the quality of merchandize, and in the
different prices in proportion to that quality, which renders
them more or less proper than others to serve as a common
measure, is also more or less an impediment to their being a
representative pledge of every other merchandize of equal value.
Nevertheless there is also, as to this last property, a very
essential difference between the different species of
merchandize. It is (for example) evident, that a man who
possesses a piece of linen, is more certain of procuring for it,
when he pleases, a certain quantity of corn, than if he had a
barrel of wine of equal value: the wine being subject to a
variety of accidents, which may in a moment deprive him of the
whole property.
