CHAP. IV.
Methods which may be proposed for lessening the several inconveniences to which material Money is liable.
I. In this chapter, I shall point out the methods which may be proposed for lessening the inconveniences to which all coin is liable, in order thereby to make it resemble as much as possible the invariable scale of ideal money of accompt.
Use of theory in political matters.
To propose the throwing out of coin altogether, because it is liable to inconveniences, and the reducing all to an ideal standard, is acting like the tyrant who adjusted every man’s length to that of his own bed, cutting from the length of those who were taller than himself, and racking and stretching the limbs of such as he found to be of a lower stature. The use of theory in political matters is not only to discover the methods of removing all abuses, it must also lend its aid towards palliating inconveniences which are not easily cured.
Five remedies against the effects of the variation between the value of the metals.
The inconveniences from the variation in the relative value of the metals to one another, may in some measure be obviated by the following expedients.
1mo. By considering one only as the standard, and leaving the other to seek its own value, like any other commodity.
2do. By considering one only as the standard, and fixing the value of the other from time to time by authority, according as the market price of the metals shall vary.
3tio. By fixing the standard of the unit according to the mean proportion of the metals, attaching it to neither; regulating the coin accordingly; and upon every considerable variation in the proportion between them, either to make a new coinage, or to raise the denomination of one of the species, and lower it in the other, in order to preserve the unit exactly in the mean proportion between the gold and silver. This idea is dark, but it shall afterwards be sufficiently explained.