Pagina 864 van 2651

The increase of paper money, it has been said, by augmenting the

quantity, and consequently diminishing the value, of the whole

currency, necessarily augments the money price of commodities.

But as the quantity of gold and silver, which is taken from the

currency, is always equal to the quantity of paper which is added

to it, paper money does not necessarily increase the quantity of

the whole currency. From the beginning of the last century to the

present time, provisions never were cheaper in Scotland than in

1759, though, from the circulation of ten and five shilling bank

notes, there was then more paper money in the country than at

present. The proportion between the price of provisions in

Scotland and that in England is the same now as before the great

multiplication of banking companies in Scotland. Corn is, upon

most occasions, fully as cheap in England as in France, though

there is a great deal of paper money in England, and scarce any

in France.