42. Metals, and particularly gold and silver, are the most
proper for that purpose, and why.
We are now arrived at the introduction of the precious metals
into trade. All metals, as they have been discovered, have been
admitted into exchange, on account of their real utility. Their
splendor has caused them to be sought for, to serve as ornaments;
their ductility and their solidity have rendered them proper for
utensils, more durable and lighter than those of clay. But these
substances cannot be brought into commerce without becoming
almost immediately a universal money. A piece of any metal, of
whatever sort, has exactly the same qualities as another piece of
the same metal provided they are both equally pure. Now the ease
with which we can separate, by different chemical operations, a
metal from other metals with which it is incorporated, enables us
to bring it to a degree of purity, or, as they call it, to what
standard we please; then the value of metal differs only as to
its weight. In expressing, therefore, the value of any
merchandize by the weight of metal which may be had in exchange,
we shall then have the clearest, the most commodious, and most
precise expression of value; and hence it is impossible but it
must be preferred in practice to all other things. Nor are metals
less proper than other merchandize for becoming the universal
token of all value that can be measured: as they are susceptible
of all imaginable divisions, there is not any object of commerce,
great or small, whose value cannot be exactly paid by a certain
quantity of metal. To this advantage of accommodating itself to
every species of division, they join that of being unalterable,
and those which are scarce, as gold and silver, have a great
value, although of a weight and size little considerable.
These two metals are then, of all merchandize, the most easy
to ascertain their quality, to divide their quantity, and to
convey to all places at the easiest expence. Every one,
therefore, who has a superfluity, and who is not at the time in
want of another useful commodity, will hasten to exchange it for
silver, with which he is more certain, than with any thing else,
to procure himself the commodity he shall wish for at the time he
is in want.
