Some Considerations of the Lowering of Interest [21]
or slower, as greater or less quantities of any Saleable Commodity are remov'd out of the way, and course of Trade; separated from publick Commerce; and no longer lie within the reach of Exchange. For though any Commodity should shift Hands never so fast, and be Exchanged from one Man to another; yet if they were not thereby exempted from Trade and Sale, and did not cease to be any longer Traffick, this would not at all make, or quicken their Vent. But this seldom or never happening, makes very little or no alteration. 7. Things are removed out of the Market or Hands of Commerce, and so their Vent altered three ways; 1. By Consumption, when the Commodity in its Use is destroy'd, as Meat, Drink, and Cloths, &c. all that is so consumed is quite gone out of the Trade of the World. 2. By Exportation; and all that is so carried away, is gone out of the Trade of England, and concerns Englishmen no more in the price of their Commodities among themselves for their own use, than if it were out of the World. 3. By buying and laying up for a Man's private Use. For what is by any of these ways shut out of the Market, and no longer moveable by the Hand of Commerce, makes no longer any part of Merchantable Ware, and so in respect of Trade, and the quantity of any Commodity, is not more considerable than if it were not in being. All these three terminating at last in Consumption of all Commodities, (excepting only Jewels and Plate, and some few others which wear out but insensibly) may properly enough pass under that Name. Ingrossing too has some influence on the present Vent: But this inclosing some considerable part of any Commodity, (for if the ingrossing be of all the Commodity, and it be of general Use, the price is at the will of the Ingrosser) out of the free common of Trade only for some time, and afterwards returning again to Sale, makes not usually so sensible and general an alteration in the Vent as the others do: But yet influences the price, and the Vent more, according as it extends its self to a larger portion of the Commodity, and Hoards it up longer. 8. Most other portable Commodities (excepting Jewels, Plate, &c.) decaying quickly in their Use, but Money being less consumed or increased, i.e. by slower Degrees removed from, or brought into the free Commerce of any Country, than the greatest part of other Merchandize; and so the proportion between its quantity and Vent, altering slower than in most other Commodities, it is commonly look'd on as a standing measure to judge of the value of all Things, especially being adapted to it by its Weight and Denomination in Coinage. 9. Money, whilst the same quantity of it is passing up and down the Kingdom in Trade, is really a standing measure of the falling and rising value of other Things in Reference to one another: and the alteration of price is truly in them only. But if you increase or lessen the quantity of Money current in Traffick in any place, then the alteration of value is in the Money: And if at the same time Wheat keep its proportion of Vent to quantity, Money to speak truly alters its worth, and Wheat does not, though it Sell for a greater or less price than it did before. For Money being look'd upon as the standing measure of other Commodities, Men consider and speak of it still, as if it were a standing measure, though when it has varied its quantity, 'tis plain it is not. 10. But the value or price of all Commodities, amongst which Money passing in Trade is truly one, consisting in proportion, you alter this, as you do all other proportions, whether you increase one, or lessen the other. 11. In all other Commodities, the Owners when they design them for Traffick, endeavour as much as they can to have them vented and gone, i.e. removed out of the reach of Commerce, by Consumption, Exportation, or laying up: But Money never lying upon Peoples Hands, or wanting Vent, (for any one may part with it in Exchange when he pleases;) the provident publick, and private care, is to keep it from Venting or Consuming, i.e. from Exportation which is its proper