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The price of all metals, though liable to slow and gradual

variations, varies less from year to year than that of almost any

other part of the rude produce of land: and the price of the

precious metals is even less liable to sudden variations than

that of the coarse ones. The durableness of metals is the

foundation of this extraordinary steadiness of price. The corn

which was brought to market last year will be all, or almost all,

consumed, long before the end of this year. But some part of the

iron which was brought from the mine two or three hundred years

ago, may be still in use, and, perhaps, some part of the gold

which was brought from it two or three thousand years ago. The

different masses of corn, which, in different years, must supply

the consumption of the world, will always be nearly in proportion

to the respective produce of those different years.