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The quantity of those metals in the countries most remote from

the mines, must be more or less affected by this fertility or

barrenness, on account of the easy and cheap transportation of

those metals, of their small bulk and great value. Their quantity

in China and Indostan must have been more or less affected by the

abundance of the mines of America.

So far as their quantity in any particular country depends upon

the former of those two circumstances (the power of purchasing),

their real price, like that of all other luxuries and

superfluities, is likely to rise with the wealth and improvement

of the country, and to fall with its poverty and depression.

Countries which have a great quantity of labour and subsistence

to spare, can afford to purchase any particular quantity of those

metals at the expense of a greater quantity of labour and

subsistence, than countries which have less to spare.