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But the proportion between the different masses of iron which may

be in use in two different years, will be very little affected by

any accidental difference in the produce of the iron mines of

those two years; and the proportion between the masses of gold

will be still less affected by any such difference in the produce

of the gold mines. Though the produce of the greater part of

metallic mines, therefore, varies, perhaps, still more from year

to year than that of the greater part of corn fields, those

variations have not the same effect upon the price of the one

species of commodities as upon that of the other.

_Variations in the Proportion between the respective Values of

Gold and Silver._