Further Considerations [22]
changing the Standard of the Yard, and so getting the full denomination of Yards, necessary according to the present measure. For this is all will be done by raising our Coin, as is proposed. All it amounts to, is no more but this, viz. That each piece, and consequently our whole Stock of Money, should be measured and denominated by a Penny One fifth less than the Standard. Where there is not Coin'd Silver in proportion to the value of the Commodities that daily change Owners in Trade, there is a necessity of Trust, or Bartering; i.e. changing Commodities for Commodities, without the intervention of Money. For Example, let us suppose in Bermudos but an hundred pounds in ready Money; but that there is every day there a transferring of Commodities from one Owner to another, to the value of double as much. When the Money is all got into hands that have already bought all that they have need of for that day, whoever has need of any thing else that day, must either go on tick, or barter for it; i.e. give the Commodities he can best spare, for the Commodities he wants, v.g. Sugar for Bread, &c. Now 'tis evident here, that changing the Denomination of the Coin they already have in Bermudos, or Coining it over again under new Denominations, will not contribute in the least towards the removing this necessity of Trust or Bartering. For the whole Silver they have in Coin, being but four hundred Ounces; and the exchange of the Commodities made in a distance of time, wherein this Money is paid, not above once, being to the value of Eight hundred Ounces of Silver; 'tis plain that one half of the Commodities that shift hands, must of necessity be taken upon Credit, or exchanged by Barter; those who want them having not Money to pay for them. Nor can any alteration of the Coin, or Denomination of these four hundred Ounces of Silver help this: Because the value of the Silver, in respect of other Commodities, will not thereby be at all increased; And the Commodities changed, being (as in the case) double in value to the four hundred Ounces of Coin'd Silver to be laid out in them; nothing can supply this want but a double quantity, i.e. eight hundred Ounces of Coin'd Silver; how denominated it matters not, so there be a fit proportion of small pieces to supply small payments. Suppose the Commodities passing every day in England, in Markets and Fairs, between strangers, or such as trust not one another, were to the value of a Million of Ounces of Silver; and there was but half a Million of Ounces of Coin'd Silver in the hands of those who wanted those Commodities; 'tis Demonstration they must truck for them, or go without them. If then the Coin'd Silver of England, be not sufficient to answer the value of Commodities moving in Trade amongst us, Credit or Barter must do it. Where the Credit and Money fail, Barter alone must do it: Which being introduced by the want of a greater plenty of Coin'd Silver, nothing but a greater plenty of Coin'd Silver can remove it. The increase of Denomination does, or can do nothing in the case: For 'tis Silver by its quantity, and not Denomination, that is the price of things, and measure of Commerce; and 'tis the weight of Silver in it, and not the name of the piece that Men estimate Commodities by, and exchange them for. If this be not so, when the necessity of our affairs abroad, or ill husbandry at home, has carried away half our Treasure; and a moiety of our Money is gone out of England; 'tis but to issue a Proclamation, that a Penny shall go for Two-pence, Six-pence for a Shilling, half a Crown for a Crown, &c. and immediately without any more ado we are as Rich as before. And when half the remainder is gone, 'tis but doing the same thing again, and raising the Denomination anew, and we are where we were, and so on: Where by supposing the Denomination raised fifteen sixteenths, every Man will be as Rich with an Ounce of Silver in his Purse as he was before when he had sixteen Ounces there; and in as great plenty of Money, able to carry on his Trade, without Bartering; his Silver, by this short