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CHAPTER   HI.

On the  Course of Exchange.

CHAPTER riAViNG in the preceding chapter attempted to prove,
v.-*-.^' that the permanent continuance of a partial disparity in
the value of money was inconsistent both with theory
and with fact, I shall now endeavour to shew, that the
course of exchange constitutes the practical means by
which the equivalency is maintained.

A bill of exchange is an order for the receipt of a given
sum of money in a foreign country, and must therefore
be estimated according to the value of money in the
country, upon which the order is given, and the value of
money in the country where it is presented for sale. If
it were pracdcable, that all countries could at all times
accurately employ the same relative amount of currency
for the establishment of the same uniform correspondence
in price, and the same consequent correspondence in the
value of money, the exchange between them would inva¬
riably be at par; but the increase of specie, from the
fertility of mines, and the general publication of state and
bank paper throughout the different countries of the
world, the extent of which has hitherto been regulated
by no fixed and determinate principle, occasion such a
constant variadon in the amount of their currencies from