Synopsis
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Book II often be the cafe if it is rare, fo that fmall quantities of great value. It muft be divifible without lofs into fmall parts, fo as to be fuited to the values of all forts of goods; and it muft be durable, not eafily wearing by ufe, or periming in its nature. One or other of thefe prerequifites in the ftandard, fhews the inconvenience of many of our commoneft goods for that purpofe. The man who wants a fmall quantity of my corn will not give me a work-beaft for it, and his beaft does not admit divifion. I want perhaps a pair of fhoes, but my ox is of far greater value, and the other may not need him. I muft travel to diftant lands, my grain cannot be carried along for my fup- port, without unfufferable expence, and my wine would perifh in the carriage. 'Tis plain therefore that when men found any ufe for the rarer metals, filver and gold, in ornaments or utenfils, and thus a demand was raifed for them, they would foon alfo fee that they were the fitteft ftandards for commerce, on all the accounts above-mentioned. They are rare, and therefore a fmall quantity of them eafily portable is equivalent to large quantities of other goods; they admit any divifions without lofs; they are neither pe- rifhable, nor eafily worn away by ufe. They are accordingly made ftandards in all civilized nations. i, Metals have firft been ufed as ftandards by quan- t. t-tv Qr gh without coinage. This we fee in an- tient hiftories, and in the phrafes of old languages. But this way was attended with twoinconveniencies;one the trouble of making exact divifions, the other Chap. n. the uncertainty as to the purity of the metal. To"V" prevent both, coinage has been introduced; in which pieces are made of very different well known fizes in the moft convenient divifions: the quantity of pure metal in ev...