Some Considerations of the Lowering of Interest [15]
one Bushel of Wheat, will this Year buy but one Tenth of a Bushel: Half an Ounce of Silver, that the Year before would have bought three Bushels of Oats, will this year still buy one Bushel: And at the same time half an Ounce of Silver, that would the Year before have bought Fifteen pounds of Lead, will still buy the same quantity. So that at the same time Silver, in respect of Wheat, is nine Tenths less worth than it was, in respect of Oats two Thirds less worth, and in respect of Lead, as much worth as before. The fall therefore or rise of Interest, making immediately by its change neither more nor less Land, Money, or any sort of Commodity in England, than there was before, alters not at all the Value of Money, in reference to Commodities. Because the measure of that is only the Quantity and Vent, which are not immediately chang'd by the Change of Interest. So far as the Change of Interest conduces in Trade to the bringing in or carrying out Money or Commodities, and so in time to the varying their Proportions here in England from what it was before, so far the change of Interest as all other things that promote or hinder Trade may alter the Value of Money in reference to Commodities. But that is not in this place to be considered. This is perfectly the Value of Money in respect of Consumable Commodities. But the better to understand it in its full latitude, in respect both of consumable Commodities, and Land too, we must consider, First, That the Value of Land consists in this, That by its constant production of saleable Commodities it brings in a certain yearly Income. Secondly, the Value of Commodities consists in this, That as portable and useful things, they by their Exchange or Consumption, supply the Necessaries or Conveniencies of Life. Thirdly, In Money there is a double Value, answering to both of these, first as it is capable by its Interest to yield us such a yearly Income: and in this it has the Nature of Land, (the Income of one being called Rent, of the other Use) only with this difference, That the Land in its Soil being different, as some fertile, some barren; and the Products of it very various, both in their Sorts, goodness and vent, is not capable of any fixed estimate by its quantity: But Money, being constantly the same, and by its Interest giving the same sort of Product through the whole Country, is capable of having a fixed yearly Rate set upon it by the Magistrate; but Land is not. But though in the Uniformity of its legal Worth, One hundred pound of lawful Money being all through England equal in its current Value to any other One hundred pounds of lawful Money, (because by vertue of the Law it will every where pass for as much Ware or Debt, as any other Hundred pounds) is capable to have its yearly Hire valued better than Land: Yet in respect of the varying need, and necessity of Money, (which changes with the increase or decay of Money or Trade in a Country) it is as little capable to have its yearly Hire fixed by Law, as Land it self. For were all the Land in Rumney-Marsh, Acre for Acre, equally good, that is, did constantly produce the same quantity of equally good Hay or Grass, one as another, the Rent of it, under that Consideration of every Acre being of an equal Worth, would be capable ofbeing regulated by Law; and one might as well Enact, That no Acre of Land in Rumney-Marsh shall be let for above Forty Shillings per An. as that no Hundred pound, shall be let for above Four pounds per An. But no body can think it fit (since by reason of the equal Value of that Land it can) that therefore the Rent of the Land in Rumney-Marsh should be Regulated by Law. For supposing all the Land in Rumney-Marsh, or in England, were all of so equal a W orth, that any one Acre, compared at the same time to any one other, were equally good in respect of its Product, yet the same Acre, compar'd with it self in different times, would not in respect ofRent be of equal Value. And therefore it would have been an unreasonable thing, if in the time of Henry 7. the Rent of Land in Rumney-Marsh had been