43. Gold and silver are constituted, by the nature of things,
money, and universal money, independent of all convention, and of
all laws.
Here then is gold and silver constituted money, and universal
money, and that without any arbitrary agreement among men,
without the intervention of any law, but only by the nature of
things. They are not, as many people imagine, signs of value;
they have an intrinsic value in themselves, if they are capable
of being the measure and the token of other values. This property
they have in common with all other commodities which have a value
in commerce. They only differ in being at the same time more
divisible, more unchangeable, and of more easy conveyance than
other merchandize, by which they are more commodiously employed
to measure and represent the value of others.
