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Though the weekly or yearly revenue of all the different

inhabitants of any country, in the same manner, may be, and in

reality frequently is, paid to them in money, their real riches,

however, the real weekly or yearly revenue of all of them taken

together, must always be great or small, in proportion to the

quantity of consumable goods which they can all of them purchase

with this money. The whole revenue of all of them taken together

is evidently not equal to both the money and the consumable

goods, but only to one or other of those two values, and to the

latter more properly than to the former.

Though we frequently, therefore, express a person's revenue by

the metal pieces which are annually paid to him, it is because

the amount of those pieces regulates the extent of his power of

purchasing, or the value of the goods which he can annually

afford to consume. We still consider his revenue as consisting in

this power of purchasing or consuming, and not in the pieces

which convey it.