77. Money has in commerce two different valuations. One
expresses the quantity of money or silver we give to procure
different sorts of commodities; the other expresses the relation
a sum of money has, in the interest it will procure in the course
of trade.
It seems by this explanation of the manner in which money is
either sold or lent for an annual interest, that there are two
ways of valuing money in commerce. In. buying and selling a
certain weight of silver represents a certain quantity of labour,
or of merchandize of every species; for example, one ounce of
silver is equal to a certain quantity of corn, or to the labour
of a man for a certain number of days. In lending, and in the
commerce of money, a capital is the equivalent of an equal rent,
to a determinate portion of that capital; and reciprocally an
annual rent represents a capital equal to the amount of that rent
repeated a certain number of times, according as interest is at a
higher or lower rate.
