3
 

greater relative quantity, than another, which is incom- chapter
patible with the nature of a level.(^)                                    .^

He adduced the position, that plenty of money, which,
in the spirit of the times, he termed (/?) great riches,
gave obstruction to trade, by the advance of prices; (c)
yet he at the same time contended, that it gave a stimulus
to industry—two effects, which are wholly inconsistent
with each other. In conformity to these contradictory
opinions, he in one place deprecates the increase of
currency, and in another approves it. He condemns
the circulation of paper,(<i) because it causes the increase,
and recommends the debasement (e) of coin, for the
purpose of causing it.

But even had these partial inconsistencies been avoided,
and his argument been more correctly shaped, there
were, at the time in which he wrote, no data, that could
have enabled him to have established the vahdity of his
principles, in refutation of the theory of the balance of
trade by the testimony of facts. He was totally incapable
of accounting for the constant excess of exports above
imports in the custom-house entries, which every sup¬
porter of the balance advanced as indisputable proof
of the influx of money, in direct contradiction of his
inference. He endeavoured indeed to evade what he
could not obviate, by observing, that the custom-house
 

(tf) Vol. I, p. 311—350.   (b) Vol. L p. 311.   (c) VoLL p. 313—316.
(d) Vol. L p. 312.                    (e) Vol. L p. 317.