Elementary arithmetic, with brief notices of its history... by Robert Potts.

MONEY.

Above all things good policy is to be used, that
the treasures and monies in a state be not gathered
into few hands; for otherwise a state may have
a good stock, and yet starve.-BACON.
The money or coin of a State or Kingdom is the standard measure
of the value of all things subject to valuation, and it is at the same time
the equivalent in which all contracts are made payable. Money is
therefore both a measure and an equivalent, and these two qualities can
never be brought perfectly to agree. Money as a measure differs from
all others; for if made of a material of small value, it would not
answer the purpose of an equivalent. And if it be made, in order to
answer the purpose of an equivalent, of a material of value subject to
frequent variations, according to the price at which such material
is sold in the market, it fails, on that account, in the quality of a
standard or measure, and will not continue to be perfectly uniform and
at all times the same. In civilized countries money has generally
been made of gold, silver, and copper, but sometimes of other metals
or of mixed metals. Certain portions of these metals, called coins, with
an impression struck upon them by the order of the Sovereign power,
as a guarantee of their purity and weight, serve as money. Coins
made of gold or silver, or of any other metal, whether considered as a
measure, or as an equivalent, are however subject to some imperfections. A failure or increase in the supply of one of the precious
metals will tend to augment or diminish the value of the other.
The supplies of gold, of late years, have been more largely augmented
by the discovery of the gold fields in California and Australia, than
at any previous period of the world's history, and gold has in consequence declined in value as compared with silver. It is evident,
therefore, that coins made of gold and silver may vary in value with
respect to each other at the same period in different countries, or in
successive periods in the same country. As in England in the 43rd
year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the relative value of fine gold
and silver at the mint in that year was rated at less than 11 to 1;
but in 1663 the rate had increased to above 14 to 1; and in 1805, it
was rated at about 15 to 1. In the mints of foreign countries, the
value of gold as compared with that of silver was estimated at
a still higher rate.
As each of these metals may vary in its value with respect to
the other, so each may vary in its value even with respect to itself;
and this variation will be caused by the greater or less quantity that
may happen to be in the market or in circulation. And further,
if the supreme government of any country fix the rate or value at
which coins made of different metals shall pass into currency, the
relative value of the metals in the market may be found to differ
from the value fixed in the coins: and if these coins of different
metals are equally a legal tender, there will be two or more measures
of property differing from each other. Besides the fluctuations in
B