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This, accordingly, has been the case with most of these things

upon most occasions, and would have been the case with all of

them upon all occasions, if particular accidents had not, upon

some occasions, increased the supply of some of them in a still

greater proportion than the demand.

The value of a free-stone quarry, for example, will necessarily

increase with the increasing improvement and population of the

country round about it, especially if it should be the only one

in the neighbourhood. But the value of a silver mine, even though

there should not be another within a thousand miles of it, will

not necessarily increase with the improvement of the country in

which it is situated. The market for the produce of a free-stone

quarry can seldom extend more than a few miles round about it,

and the demand must generally be in proportion to the improvement

and population of that small district; but the market for the

produce of a silver mine may extend over the whole known world.

Unless the world in general, therefore, be advancing in

improvement and population, the demand for silver might not be at

all increased by the improvement even of a large country in the

neighbourhood of the mine.